All Forum Posts by: John Orkis

In Louisiana I've found 6% but the catch is the advertising fees and 'new tennant' costs. All in all, it would be interesting to see what you guys expect to pay 'overall' for your PM's percentage-of-rent-wise? In other words, even at 6%, if they charge a months rent for a 1 year deal or new tennant, then you're paying closer to 10-20% over the year of your rental income.

My ideal scenario would be a flat-fee percent on collected rent that's a little higher, but does away with the extras and still offers an incentive to the PM to filling the unit.

I agree that a livein manager is a cheaper solution, but these can leave you open to lawsuits if you aren't properly employing them.

Hi guys
Is there a site that compares property managers? It seems like Yahoo and others have listings for them, but nobody ever gives their 2-cents on these sites which makes it really hard to get feedback.
Right now I'm looking at Louisiana specifically, but if there's a site that does this across the US I'll look into that too.

two points to add to the really good list above that I've found important:

How do they communicate, do they use email? - The reality is every property manager will talk about how responsive they are, but its good to get this understanding up front.

Ask for a sample monthly report

Ask for a reference --this one is by far the easiest thing to do and one of the things nobody ever does!