Property Managers

General Real Estate Investing
1

Hi,

I am new to the real estate investing world. I have been reading several books, following this forum, taken a community college course on the subject, looking at several properties and scouring the county’s property website resource.

I will be posting several questions here in the next several weeks to try to gain insight from those of you that have experience in this field. So, thanks in advance!

I would like to start with a single family home or a duplex (to use as a rental) and I am interested in having a property manager. I understand property managers typically charge 10% of the total rents received, but have a few questions.

  1. What exactly does the 10% get the investor?
  2. Will a property manager work with a small house that only brings in $800/month?
  3. Does the property manager deal with day to day repairs (the proverbial leaky toilet)?
  4. Does the investor have to advertise the rental at all?

Any other information I should know about property managers is greatly appreicated.

Thanks

2

As you can imagine, having a good property manager is key. I’m sure property management companies can be different, but in general, the 10% fee is for them to collect rent, take repair calls, resolve issues, and depending if the owner wants pay the utilities, mortgage, etc and send you a bill or check for what’s left. Yes, they will handle small single family homes.

As far as filling vacancies they charge a percentage of one months rent usually 50-100%. For that fee they will do all advertising, showing and screening of your tenants.