I knew them from a previous project.
I pay them 2900 a month plus free rent plus I pay their incidentals - i.e. phone, insurance, and the odd bonus.
They save me anywhere from 5-7K per month on an 87 unit townhouse project and all the units are filled.
It takes maybe 2 hours a week of my time as well as the occasional trip to the property - so it is quite manageable from a time point of view.
I am not advocating you self-manage anything; thats the first step to disaster and mental breakdown.
Rather I just refuse to hand over my property to a company that has no vested interest in the welfare of me or my tenants. They are not the kind of people I would entrust my money to.
Posted by David Krulac on May 16, 2000 at 20:29:04:
Con:
i think they chartge too much
i think they provide too little service
i think i pick better tenants
i think that i control costs better
i think that i can do a better job than any manager
PRO
they save time for me
they save agrivation for me
they take care of a distant property for me
they reduce my workload
Well, I am one of those who is adamantly OPPOSED to management companies.
I have had experience dealing with two of the largest in the country and they were both totally unprofessional and almost negligent in the way they did business.
Let me say that in one case, I fired the management company after I showed up at the property one Friday at 6:30 pm and saw a sign on the caretakers door “No rents after 6PM”. This was after I had lots of late rents and lots of empty units. Instead of fixing a small problem they would call in a serviceman at $50 a call just to show up. It was awful. They made no effort at all to rent out empty units and were not the least bit motivated to perform.
I fired them. I hired my own caretakers who are paid on performance - when they preform they get paid real well. They have full occupancy; collect all rents on time and they save me a lot of money every month by doing a lot of things themselves.And it takes me just a few hours a month to track what they are doing.
I cannot handle wasting money - especially when we work so hard in his business to put deals together and we get paid based solely on our performance. We should expect no less from our property managers.
Well Stephanus, I think it’s important…everyone should do it. Oops, that’s a joke…you meant property management firms.
I’m not a fan. No one will take care of your property like you. Plus the possibilities for waste, excess expenditures on sweetheart deals run rampant. Whether the management company is trying to fill YOUR vacancy versus someone elses is always a question.
I looked at one building last year that was being managed by an outside management company. What a mess the building was. In fact, it had led to a very motivated owner. Unfortunately, his loan was too high to do much with considered the deferred maintenance present.
There is probably a good management company around. But certainly for houses and smaller income properties I wouldn’t consider it personally. Better to be hands-on…and to figure out ways to reduce your time spent doing this. After you learn the ropes, perhaps then you will know better what to expect from a management company, if you can find one that will handle it as you do.