Self-managing vs hiring a PM at what portfolio size
Category: General Advice
2 replies
Original post
I'm about to close on my third property and I'm already feeling stretched thin handling maintenance calls myself. Where do most investors draw the line and bring in professional management?
Reply by Jennifer Richardson
For me it was less about hitting a specific number of units and more about whether I could still answer a maintenance call within a day without dreading it. Once that stopped being true, that was my sign. A lot of people say "3 units is the tipping point" but I think it really depends on how hands-on the rest of your life is, some people manage 5-6 fine solo and others burn out at 2.Reply by Marc St.James
Congrats on number three! Honestly the maintenance calls were the first thing that broke me too. It's not even the work, it's that they come in at the worst times and you can't plan around them. For me the line wasn't a certain number of doors, it was the day I realized I was turning down overtime at my actual job to go plunge somebody's toilet. That math stopped making sense real quick.
Before you hand the whole thing off though, one middle step that worked for me. I built a little list of go-to contractors, a plumber, a handyman, an HVAC guy and told my tenants to reach out through one place instead of calling me direct. That alone took most of the sting out without paying a manager 10 percent of everything. If you're still stretched after that, then yeah, it's probably time to bring somebody in.