Burnout after three years of self-managing

Category: Miscellaneous

3 replies

Original post

I'm honestly starting to dread my phone ringing because it's usually a tenant issue. Portfolio is only five properties, so it feels early to be this exhausted. Has anyone hit this wall and found a way back from it without selling everything?

Reply by Alex Sanders

I hit basically the same wall around property number 4, so no, you're not being dramatic or soft about it, 5 is genuinely enough to burn out on if you're doing everything yourself. What actually helped me wasn't selling anything, it was picking the 1-2 most annoying properties and handing just maintenance calls off to a local handyman as a first point of contact instead of me, tenants call him first, he handles what he can and only loops me in for the bigger stuff or money decisions. This cut my call volume by more than half almost immediately.

I didn't need a full property manager, just needed to not be the first line of defense for every little thing. It might be worth a try on your worst property before deciding this means selling or hiring a PM for everything.

Reply by Sharlene Mulchandani

@[1d06aba3-ff19-4f36-aa6f-d0df14298cca](Camille Voss)

Five properties and already feeling burnt out is honestly really common, so please don't feel like you're doing something wrong. Most of the time it's not about how many properties you have, it's that every little thing comes straight to you, usually by phone, all day long.

One thing that really helps is picking one way for tenants to reach you for non-emergencies, whether that's text or a portal and setting some hours around it. It sounds almost too simple, but just letting people know when you'll get back to them takes a lot of that always on pressure off.

From there, if you can automate your rent reminders and the way maintenance requests come in, that takes two of the biggest headaches off your plate. There are a lot of good options out there for that, some of them free.

Hang in there, this part does get easier once you get a few systems in place!