Paramount. I have a question for you… Do you still live around where your rental property is? If so, what is the reason that you are getting a PM to do this and for example not yourself? I mean, my relatives use an agent to help them find a prospective tenant, and pay them a flat fee for the leads if they sign up…But for all other repairs stuff, they ended up getting their own handyman/etc…
Have you tried renting out your place yourself versus using a PM? For folks that have 6,8,10+ properties, I can see were PM is helping one free up time, but if you have 1 or 2, what prompted you to use a PM?[/quote]
I live about 600 yards from my rental, and I may just manage the property myself.
I decided to use a management company for a few different reasons:
1. Last Summer I was busy moving into the new house, and already had a long list of things to do in preparing our previous house for rental. On top of all that we had a baby in the Fall.
2. Even though I had rented houses in the past, I though I might let the management company handle things the 1st year, and then I’d step in.
3. Eviction insurance
4. Believe it or not, it can be hard getting people to pay rent. Particularly when so many people feel entitled to a perfect McMansion with a million dollar view.
5. Did I mention eviction insurance.
I think one of the best ways to handle maintenance issues is to get a home warranty.
I intend to do that before my tenant moves on to fry my AC system.
