We Are the Landlords - Use a Property Management Company or Not?

I have rental properties in PA and FL and I manage them myself. I have realtors in both states when I need to find a tenant and it costs me one months rent. The realtor does the background check (and gives me a copy) and shows the property to them. We have a really great contractor in PA so he does any needed repairs or will be there if someone else has to come in. I handle everything here in FL or will call someone.

Here in FL some of the management companies charge so much it's not worth it. Renting a condo should be easy for you to manage, I assume the HOA handles the outside (mowing, etc.). It gets to be a pain when you need to mow, clean a pool/hot tub, or if it is an older home that needs constant repairs.

If you decide to do it on you own then check out this website:
https://www.ezlandlordforms.com/

I use it for all my leases and tenant letters, it has all the state laws and you can ask or answer questions to other landlords. The leases are so easy to set up and you can print or email them.

Good Luck.

In the last year we bought 2 new construction townhomes, which we are renting out. I did the tenant search and screening. It was a fair amount of work, at first, but we haven't heard a peep from one of our tenants since November, and the other since he moved in in March. Our rent gets directly deposited to our account each month.

We have a reliable handyman who we know we can count on for pretty much anything.

The key to finding a great tenant is tough screening. I posted our listings on Apartments.com, Trulia.com and Rent.com. Both of the tenants we ended up going with found our listing on Trulia, which is a free site. Apartments.com and Rent.com each cost money (I think for both for 1 month it was a total of $150). We did the credit and criminal background checks through AmerUSA.net. It was about $30 for the checks. Each prospective tenant who contacted me was asked to fill out the same screening survey. After the screening I made appointments to show a few of them the unit.

In this economy you will likely have at least a few applicants with spotty credit. We had at least 3 people who had recent bankruptcies on record. We rejected 2 of them, but the 3rd we ended up renting to, as he was able to give us 6 mos of rent up front, and prior to his bankruptcy (which was due to his ex-wife's spending), he had great credit. The 2 other bankruptcies seemed due to the applicant's excessive spending. We didn't take the risk with those.

Make sure you know the local schools so you can answer questions about where the kids would go to school. Maybe provide a list of nearby hot spots.

Things have been going so well that we are hoping to buy another property this fall.

Edited to Add: Yes, we could have hired a realtor or PM to do our tenant search, but this is an investment endeavor for us, so it didn't make much sense to part with $1500 so easily (the cost of 1 month's rent, which is the normal fee taken my RE agents or PMs). One thing that we intend to do after the builder's warranty expires is to purchase a home warranty for future appliance breakdowns. From what I've heard it is well worth the cost.

We rent out our first house and since we live 4 hrs away from it we use a property manager to handle it for us.
Actually he's a friend and a former boss of mine (he changed careers) (who's a relator with a law degree) and he writes fantastic contracts and does all the leg work on checking background of prospective tenants and managing everything for us.
I wouldn't do it any other way.

We manage our condo ourselves, without living in the same state. We rely on a trustworthy contractor (plumbing, electrical etc) if something goes wrong, and manage our tenants with shared, detailed documents over DropBox. We find our tenants through Craigslist. We interview online (over email) and then do a credit check, criminal record check etc, and call three references, including their employment. We have had wonderful tenants, so far (5 over 10 years). We started by interviewing potential tenants in person, but have moved to this online method, as our methods and confidence in the process evolved.

I have heard horror stories either way. We prefer to do the work ourselves, because we can control the thoroughness of the background checks, as well as build a relationship with our tenants.

Good luck!

I used a property manager to 'find' the tenant. we are very close to the property and handle it. The renter happens to be amazing.

The property manager charged a one time fee and did the background check (credit check).

Many of my friends love the hands off with using a property manager. I felt I live too close that we would be called on regardless. One thing to work out with a property manager is what to approve (pay for). A friend in AZ said her tenant wanted keyless entry (I guess it has been so windy that dust was in the key hole and a locksmith was needed more than normal). My friend said no (actually offer to split the cost it if was that important to the tenant), yet thought a property manager might have switch it out for the expensive keyless lock.

If you decide to have a mgmt co handle the property day to day, please have a clear relationship with established responsibilities and then get out of the way so they can manage it. We are tenants, the landlord lives nearby but also hired a mgmt co. The landlord wants to be notified of every little non-issue and then delays and disagrees with the mgmt co on how to handle everything. It makes basic maintenance issues drag into long problems. We live in a nice neighborhood, it's a nice house, and we are model tenants but they will be losing us when the lease runs out because we just can't handle being stuck in the middle of their drama. It's silly things like which company to hire to mow the lawn or clean the pool or check the sprinkler settings...nothing big and expensive.

I work for a company that was not planning on renting out properties, but got stuck with some when the economy went bad years ago. We managed some and had property managers do others. When you have a good tenant, doing it yourself is not bad. But when you don't, it's really tough and you lose money. We have really great property managers - TransCity Management, based in Mesa, but I believe they do the whole valley. They take care of problems quickly and get renters for us almost immediately when one leaves. Of course, it does cost monthly, and the repairs have to be done immediately (either way), but it has really helped us. Good luck!

Why don't you hire a real estate agent? They can put your listing on MLS and handle all the contractural stuff. Did you like the agent who sold you the condo? Go to him or her. Your real estate agent has all the particulars already on your property.

However, you pay a month's rent as commission to the real estate agent for finding you a renter. I think it's worth it because they do everything for you, including vetting the renter.

You can ask your real estate agent if he or she knows the good property managers. Or ask your friends or neighbors. Sometimes a handyman individual is better than a company because he can do some of the work AND knows good subcontractors. Companies hire other companies to do the work and that can be pretty expensive.

I'd use a real estate agent to help you find another tenant instead of a property manager, truly.