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Those who are landlords
So I keep going back and forth on if I want to use a managment company or if I just want to rent the condo ourselves. It is getting to be crunch time now as we close on our new home in a couple of weeks and I REALLY need to get things going renting this condo so that come March 1 I'm not freaking out about paying two mortgages at once.
It seems doing it ourselves won't be a huge deal, but I worry about tons of showings and background checks and putting something in the ad that could get us in trouble legally (captain paranoid here). On the flip side a management company seems so easy and I have found a couple I like, but they are do darn expensive! But I'm sure they are often worth the price.
I can't decide what to do...any words of wisdom out there to help sway me one or another?
Re: Those who are landlords
Will you still break-even or make money on renting if you use a mgmt company?
Have you recieved personal recommendations or checked references for mgmt companies other than just talked with them?
If the answers to both of these are "yes" than I think it might be good to use a mgmt company for the first year and see how it goes.
If I remember, your DH is not very handy, so at least they will have handymen and prof. on file that can help you get fixes done quickly.
We are our own landlords, but we are renting to friends right now and so even with being 2-states over, we are able to discount rent or pay our friends for upkeep. So far so good, but I've only been at this for 4ish months.
Are you united with the CCOKCs?
We started renting out our home in the 'burbs in August. We decided to use a property management company because they would do all of the background/credit checks, showing, etc. They also do quarterly checks on the house to make sure our tenants aren't trashing it (they're not
) They take care of finding contractors if anything needs to be fixed. It really has been a great experience so far. Basically, $ just shows up in our checking account once a month.
We pay 10% of the rent to the pm company, so we actually do lose about $100/month, but it was worth it for the peace of mind. The way he put it when we were meeting with the pm guy was this - if something goes wrong at 3 in the morning, do you want to be called, or would you want somebody else taking the call. We have two young boys, so the obvious choice for us was for someone else to be taking that call
I can PM you the company if you want to give them a call - they really have been great so far!
We tried for about 8 months to rent my condo ourselves by placing ads on CL and Rent.com, etc. I dealt with so many flaky people and was so tired of it (and also pg at the time) that I hired a management company. It's been so worth it. We don't get the calls in the middle of the night to have something fixed (like the furnace, etc.), and it's taken care of (up to a certain dollar amount).
Just as a benchmark, we only pay 10% of the monthly rent to the mgmt company, plus fees, etc. to find new renters and the costs for labor and parts for any repairs. For us, that is worth it even if we aren't breaking even with the mortgage and HOA dues, because someone is renting it, they've been screened, and the management company is handling everything.
my read shelf:
I can tell you that if we rent our place, we are going to use a managment company (Highland Realty and Mgt, I think, I have known the Highland family my whole life) to at least find our renters.
Todd is worried about nut job renters, and I don't blame him.
My folks have done both ways for a townhome they own in Broomfield, and the level of renter they have since they have been working with a company is so much better it is like apples and oranges.
Spirit of Power
Eat, Drink, and be Keri
Unless you rent to someone you know or are handy in faxing things, I would go with a management company. 10% of the monthly rent is a pretty standard fee to find the tenant, screen them, do the lease, handle repairs, etc.
We rented out our place in VA when we moved here, but we rented to friends who were handy so they were good about fixing things themselves or calling a repair person since we were far away.