Leasing home through a property management company

[RiverRat1]

I'll be wanting to rent out my home in Leander soon. We don't want any issues, work, etc. so thinking about using a management company.

If anyone has used one, what are the pros/cons? What should we look out for? Are they good to use or do they cost too much?

[TKRanch]

I can tell you that we are landlords and it can be a PIA if you don't get a good renter for sure! That said, for career issues, we have had to rent in a different part of the state and the home is handled thru a management company. Well, make sure you get a good mgmnt company because the one we have SUCKS!! Our contact lies, doesn't communicate, and is basically worthless!! So aggrevating.........We love the home and the property. (it is on a 400 acre ranch!) but having to deal with her could cut our stay here short......... Good luck.

[JHT]

Your tenants will make the difference no matter which way you choose to go.

[HOOKNBULLET2]

I use one. Wouldn’t do it without them.

Rule of thumb for cost used to be 10% of the rent. Not sure if that is still valid in todays market especially where you are in Austin.

I would recommend finding a company that changes a/c filters monthly to keep better tabs on what’s going on in the house. Also good idea to get a home warranty. The management company can handle claims directly with them and not need to get you involved.

[60 Deluxe]

I'll sell my rental properties before I use a management company. The reason is that when you take out ten percent of the gross cash flow, there isn't much cash flow left for me. I'll gladly manage someone's property for ten percent off the top. That is a gravy train deal.

[Rick]

I would not use one, as said before too much money off the top. It is a PIA when renting it out, showing it, screening potential renters ,etc. And you have to live close enough to it to be able to do those things. You will get calls about this or that being wrong at inopportune times, but if you screen properly, you will also go months with no call and just collecting rent. For me, the months with no calls outweigh the other.

[ken]

I've never used a property management company but until the end of 2019 I owned a residential property management company. We closed down our third party property management company but I still manage our own rental properties.

The decision of whether to hire a management company depends on your personality, free time, lifestyle, day job, cash flow goals and physical distance from the rental property.

The pros of hiring a management company are: You won't be interrupted by tenant issues or repair requests. You won't have to deal with unreasonable tenants. A professional management will likely be better at screening and selecting tenants. If you travel for work or fun or live a long distance from the property the management company will be your local boots on the ground.

The cons of hiring a property management company are: your cash flow will be lower. You will not have much control over how your property is managed.

If you decide to hire a management company I would look for a smaller property management company. My company never managed more than a 80 properties and usually managed around 50. When we closed down our management company we referred our clients to a small firm with a similar management philosophy to ours. Some of our clients decided to save money by hiring one of the large firms you hear advertising on the radio. The clients that went this route we generally unhappy and later called us for a referral to a smalled company. Along with some of their tenants looking for a new place to rent because they were unhappy with the new management company.

As far as value, I never thought I was overpaid for managing properties.

[Johnny Dangerr]

Tim sell it. Perfect time and location. Walk away clean.......................

[Chad C]

Tim sell it. Perfect time and location. Walk away clean.......................

I agree with this. It's a sellers market!

[TKRanch]

Tim sell it. Perfect time and location. Walk away clean.......................

I would add that had we not known that we want to move back to our place and retire and that if we sold we would likely not be able to afford to buy back into the area due to vastly increasing values, we would have sold and moved on. It is the perfect time to sell for sure right now!

Good luck

[kingranch]

rat

Pm me details of what you are wanting to do... im thinking of selling my house in lakeway and renting for a while...I have managed rentals of my own in the past

[UncleBubba]

Call a local Realtor, a lot of them do property management or can suggest someone.