Comments on: Property Mangement Companies – What to look for

By: Jennifer Williams

Jennifer Williams — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:24:22 +0000

One thing that we know for sure is that many property management companies out there are NOT doing their job at conducting good tenant screening reports. We are constantly hearing from our clients who request reports at our site at http://www.tenantscreeningbackgroundcheck.com that they had to fire their property management company because our reports show many previous judgments, unlawful detainers and even criminal history that was not previously found.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:43:45 +0000

Glad to hear you went this route – much better than paying mortgage expenses out of pocket! As for the $105 or so you are paying out of pocket each month, I wouldn’t stress about it. You can just look at it as spending $100 per month for the added equity you are receiving. That’s a huge discount! :)

By: Weekly Round Up- Guest Post Week | Good Financial Cents

Weekly Round Up- Guest Post Week | Good Financial Cents — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:25:11 +0000

[...] in hiring a Property Management Company?Â Gather Little by Little shares what you need to [...]

By: Personal Finance Ology

Personal Finance Ology — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:19:20 +0000

10% seems a little pricey for what they are doing. It may very well be worth it for the peace of mind. Also could be worth it if you are not skilled enough to find good tenants. I think it can be hard to pick someone (but I wouldn’t really know).

I would be interested to know if the rent you are charging covers the mortgage and then some? Keep us posted, I plan on RE investing in the future and this stuff interests me. Sounds like you picked a real good company!

By: What I enjoyed This Week | Financial Independence in Your 20s | Studenomics

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:06:11 +0000

[...] Gather Little by Little tells us what to look out for when dealing with Property Management Companies [...]

By: Wayward

Wayward — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:49:09 +0000

Thanks, GLBL; this was an incredibly informative post. We’ve been wondering ourselves whether we will need to rent out our current home in order to move since selling is so difficult right now.

By: MyJourney

MyJourney — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:44:25 +0000

GLBL,

I am just throwing it out there for ya, but if houses grow at 3% historically, and it is a 300K home (I have no idea if it is or isn’t but the exercise still works) then your yearly capital appreciation over time would be $9,000. Divide that by 12 months and you are looking at $750/mo in capital appreciation so you aren’t completely in the red.

Further, and I am just throwing this out there also, you are now a landlord and certain items become tax deductible for tax year 2009! You should look into (and write a subsequent post lol) about what items you’ll be able to deduct to further offset the $100/mo loss.

By: glblguy

glblguy — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:41:06 +0000

Well, I’m in the whole actually, but only for the management fee. Numbers are per month:

Mortgage: $1066
Taxes: $150
Insurance: $55
HOA: $30
Total: $1301

Property Management Fee: $104

Out of Pocket: $1405
Leasing at: $1300.00

I only did this as I had an immediate tenant and it was cheaper than paying another house payment. The asking rent price was $1400, but the soon to be tenants negotiated me down. It was worth it to get someone we trusted and that could move it right away.

By: My Journey

My Journey — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:08:11 +0000

I am shocked that you get freedom for the price of 10%…I have always wondered what these services cost. I’d love a follow up comment giving the actually numbers you are dealing with, i.e. monthly rent
- 10% fee
- mortgage
- Taxes
- etc.

Hook it up!

By: Kacie

Kacie — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:24:26 +0000

I’m also curious about Pamela’s question.

As a renter myself (in an apartment building), I do appreciate dealing with a professional mgmt company. Much easier!