what does a property manager do for you in terms of renting and selling house?

Answer 1

A property manager doesn't do anything but collect rent. Seriously I would stay away from property managers unless you have some type of relationship with that person. Do you know anything about him/her? Are you related, etc.? If the answer is no, you could be in a lot of trouble if you run into a problem with a tenant.

The problem is due to the structure in which they are paid. They are paid between 5% - 10% of the rent coming in. They do not lose any money if the tenant destroys the property. They do not lose any money if the tenant needs to be taken to court. And if the tenant decides to stop paying rent, they lose a measly 5% to 10% of the rent. You as a landlord, however, have a lot to lose when the tenant destroys the house, or if the tenant needs to be taken to court. You also stand to lose 90% to 95% of the rent (compare to the property manager losing 5% to 10%) if the tenant decides to stop paying rent.

So a lot of times (very frequently) the property manager won't go out of the way to collect the rent, nor will they go out of the way to keep the property maintained (because they do not own it they do not care really).

Make sure you find a property manager you can trust, and can handle your properties.. Trusting people are difficult to find in this industry. Be careful..

Oh I forgot to mention, a property manager has nothing to do with selling a house. They work exclusively with rentals. To get a property sold you must use a licensed real estate agent, preferrably a realtor. It is possible that someone is both into sales and rentals at the same time, but I would recommend using someone different for each scenario. Here's why: If you ask a realtor (who mainly does home sales) to help you rent your property out, he is going to try and talk you out of renting it because he makes a bigger commision SELLING the property. The decision to rent or sell should be up to you, and a lot of realtors (who are into selling) will try to convince you to just sell because they make a higher commision, in a shorter amount of time with selling as opposed to renting..

Answer 2

a property managment co will typically screen tenants and get your property rented out. They will collect the rent each month and be the contact for your tenants if any problem arises. They usually charge 8-10% of rent as a fee.

Answer 3

A property manger maintains and upgrades facilities while acting as liaison between the owner of the property and tenants. In many cases, the property manager has the responsibility for attracting tenants to the property.