a property manager just manages the property. You had mentioned in your post that you were tired of the headaches associated with landlording. The day to day stuff would be handled by the property mgr, which will allow you to use your more valuable time to do other things. The property mgr doesn’t have an equal stake in your property, however, a good management company relies on satisfied customers. It’s your mortgage, so you worry about it, that’s right. But when a plumber comes over, he only cares about the plumbing, not the carpentry, or the roof or the structure of the house, yet he/she still can provide a valuable service to you.
You don’t say how long you’ve had these properties, but I’ll assume they just got rented. When we rehab and rent a property it takes about 6 weeks to work out the kinks with the new tenants and the new property.
Your lease can play a big role in whether the bs goes on indefinitely or not. And the condition of the houses. We over-improve our units, but the idea is that it’s better to get everything taken care of NOW and when the tenants move in, it’s their problem if the new plumbing backs up- since it’s new clearly it’s their fault. We always get a certificate of occupancy so the tenant knows we have brought the property up to local code, which gives them the idea that we’re making an effort to be good landlords.
The other thing is that no matter how many items have been fixed, until someone lives in a house there are things you won’t know need fixing. Again a strong lease and good will from the tenant can go a long way toward making these little irritations go away.
Posted by rebeccax on August 10, 2004 at 11:51:56:
Carlton Sheets touts “hiring property managers” as one of his secrets of success. Saw this on an early morning infomercial just this morning. I think (not because of Carlton) that this option is worth looking into.
Problem that I see with using a property mgr for SFH’s and duplexes is that it’s just a JOB for them… they don’t have much of a stake in the process if they’re just getting a small portion of the gross.
If there’s a vacancy for a month, they lose one fee, on one property. They don’t carry the mortgage, they don’t have to be concerned as to whether the insurance is in jeopardy, etc.