I have decided to invest in a 28 unit apartment building about an hour away from my house…problem is, for my first property I will have to keep my full time job and this is a property that will need more management than I will be able to give it for the first 6 months to a year. I have decided to go with a management company…how should I go about looking for a one and what questions should I ask. I know that they should charge 5 -10% of the gross…are there any other charges that I should know about. Is there any way to hold them accountable for vacancies??? What else should I know?
I like smaller hands on management companies. Actually you may even just find an on site manager with a retired handy husband or vise versa to manage the property. Just ask for references and talk to others that they have worked for or are currently managing.
If a company you may want to know if they belong to an association. The very first thing I want to know too if the fees involved and the % they charge for finding a new tenant. Some companies too will let you do repairs if you wish where some may not. You may want to find the meanest SOB that will collect the rent and take no crap from the tenants or a nice little old lady that will build a repore with the tenants and have knitting socials every night. The area of town and tenant mix dictate the kind of manager you will need.