Property Management vs. Self Manage?

How hands are you wanting to be? Some companies offer ala carte services or flat rate pricing. Some owners have found very good housekeepers and have a maintenance man on speed dial. Then there's actual screening of tenants, collecting rent, etc.

Most of the rental companies listed on sowal are full service (i.e. housekeeping, maintenance, office, etc.).

Then there are the ala carte rental companies like Beach Seekers ~ South Walton Rentals and others that just don't have an office.

Times are tough so shop around and don't go for any company that is going to give you a hard sell.

Call Ms. Sandie for some plain talk about our local services.
We've been doing business in the Sowal area for 15 years. We currently have clients in the Watercolor, Grayton Beach, Dune Allen Beach, & Rosemary Beach. I work full-time on Eglin, AFB and part-time with my wife. We started our business as a subcontracting company, but over the years, we've transitioned to working primarily for private owners. We tailor our services to the needs of the client. Our primary business is owner communication & quality cleaning. We coordinate closely with owners and deal with various issues. We generally receive a tentative arrival/departure schedule in advance, via email, and ensure the house is ready for guests. After checkout, we "turn" the property in a timely manner. We communicate with owners and notify of any damages, maintenence issues, etc. We are nearby and can check the property on short notice. Our fee is based upon level of service. We can setup a VRBO type account, pictures, etc. and handle reservations or the owner can handle all reservations and we simply get the unit ready for the guest. We have many excellent local references. We can provide you the degree of service you need, for less money than most full blown rental management companies. We are licensed and insured. If you would like more info, please contact us @ 850-758-6007 or 6008.
thanks, chuck:welcome:

No offense to the above poster, but when it comes to references check them. In fact a good property management company should be able to provide a list of current clients and allow you to chose one at random.

And, don't forget that if you collect the rent yourself, you have to collect and remit lodging taxes to two different agencies, most likely on a monthly basis. You can register for collecting the local bed tax at the link below :wave:, or just go to the site and scroll down for information about what is involved.

If it makes you feel better, many people do rent on their own. It's getting set up to do so that can be a pain.

https://www.touristtax.com/walton

Property Management

Hi-

I am new to this forum. We are looking to buy a house in the area and renting it out. However, we live out of town.

We are debating whether to use a property management company to oversee the daily/weekly maintenance. I can see the reason to use one but they all charge alot!

I was curious if anyone manages their property themselves? Is this possible if you live out of the area? Do you hire a good cleaning service and leave the keys in a lockbox? What about last minute emergency repairs? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you for your time!

I have recently begun managing a home as Santa Rosa Beach for a couple from Atlanta. I have property management experience & construction back ground and would like to talk with you about your home, if you're interested. You can reach me at myhomeoffice@bellsouth.net

As SWGB said, you might look into an a la carte mgt service if you are looking to save money. Many of the mgt companies will charge in the range of 25%-35% for full mgt (and believe me, while that may sound expensive, the headaches they save you could make it seem like a bargain), but if you book the customer, they may knock that down by as much as 50%. eg- in addition to letting the mgt company advertise and book the unit, you could also set up a VRBO.com page (for rent by owner), or create your own website, and any bookings coming from you, the the mgt company will charge less for that booking, while still take care of collecting rent, paying bed tax, arrange for key pick up/drop off, clean the unit, etc.

I know of many people who do just that, and it seems to be another way to add rents while chipping away at overall cost. Note that you will likely have more success advertising your rental on a popular site like VRBO, rather than on your personal website like www.Xmarksthespot.net or www.wordpress.com/xmarksthespot39587_94944

Being a landlord is tough enough, but being a long-distant landlord is an entirely different thing. You need to consider all of the potential headache calls.
eg-
"I am not paying for this rental. We just checked in and the place is filthy."
"I want a refund. The people next door kept us up all night and we couldn't relax on our vacation.
"The A/C isn't working and the hot tub isn't getting hot. We want a credit."
"Your website said the unit is in walking distance to the Gulf. We didn't realize you meant that we had to cross 30A. Surely, you aren't going to charge us the full amount."
"We just arrived at our rental unit, but someone else is in it!"
etc.

One of the other things to do is take a look at what a commission really costs you.

Lets say for simplicity that your rental is $2000.00 per week. At 25% you are paying the management company $500.00 or about $71.43 per day to be responsible for your home/investment/or whatever you want to call it. If that is a full service company then you have a manager, front desk person, executive housekeeper, and possibly maintenance man at your disposal.

That said, would $71.43 be worth your time to not deal with a drunken tenant at 2AM July 4th weekend who doesn't have air conditioning?

Some rental companies even over an Owner Travel Agent program. What this means is that if you have a VRBO or Homeaway ad and your unit is booked you can basically "sell" other homes on the rental program and get a cut of the profit.

Finally, since SHELLY has stopped posting I'll point out that if the commission is considered too much to afford the rental it's probably a bad idea.

what about a company that will manage a nonrental? we used to rent, but no longer do. we sometimes need the house checked when we are gone for a long stretch, and sometimes need housekeeping when we have guests and leave on the same day that they do. are there any good local companies we can contact?

I completely forgot about Swan Tree. It's a concierge service so it's pretty much ala carte.

what about a company that will manage a nonrental? we used to rent, but no longer do. we sometimes need the house checked when we are gone for a long stretch, and sometimes need housekeeping when we have guests and leave on the same day that they do. are there any good local companies we can contact?

Sunburst does house watching as well as rentals.

For our rental house we handle the VRBO requests and our management company does all the others. We get a 5% fee break on the VRBO bookings. Really the only reason we do it this way is so that we still have a feel about what people are looking for and how many interested people we have. Our experience over the last 7 years or so is that VRBO gives us about 25% of our bookings and the rest come in through our management company. We figure the management company is well worth their fee, not to mention that we have a lot fewer hassles to deal with, especially during the summer, when we are often out of town.

Thanks SWGB, i've not posted in ages! there are many advantages to using a solid company (whomever) you use. I do agree to take a look at their respective history with a solid client base. if they cannot provide solid referrals to you then that should raise a flag! Despite what many will tell you, there is a cheaper way to rent homes by yourself and not give up all that you would have gained by using a "traditional rental co." In fact, in our case, we can show you how to gain control of your own home year round and not give up a thing!;-)

Basically it boils down to how much you want to be involved. The less you want to be involved the more you should expect to pay.

I started renting my own home this year threw vrbo. Its a learning process from everything from the contract to answering inquiries. Its very time consuming but its also very easy to rent your home or condo on 30-a using vrbo. i'm shocked by the vol of inquiries .by renting yourself you have control who uses your home.its like any system and once you have your system down its not to bad.

I wouldn't go through an agency. It's not their house... no one is going to care about your property more than you. that includes renting it out, making sure it's clean and caring for it.

If you don't want the headaches of renting your best off hiring a neighbor that has a proven track record for rentals IN your community that enjoys doing it.

Some properties in the same community that rent out twice as often or consistently capture higher rates has nothing to do with luck.

I wouldn't go through an agency. It's not their house... no one is going to care about your property more than you. that includes renting it out, making sure it's clean and caring for it.

If you don't want the headaches of renting your best off hiring a neighbor that has a proven track record for rentals IN your community that enjoys doing it.

Some properties in the same community that rent out twice as often or consistently capture higher rates has nothing to do with luck.

Yes, and if we all just join hands and sing Kumbaya it'll cash flow. Having a neighbor do it sounds like a great idea even with a contract until something goes missing, gets broken, or someone is hurt.

Given how demanding & time consuming renters can be, having a neighbor do it is not a practical solution.

Renting

I can tell you that when there are problems with a renter it can be a real pain for the owner. I rented a place for 30 days in November. A few days after I got there I got sick and the ceiling fan over my bed kept getting dirtier and dirtier so I decided to check the a/c filter - there wasn't one. I had to call the owner and in the mean time went and bought one you cut to fit in it. Turns out someone threw the permanent filter away. You wash it and put it back it does not get replaced. That was not all. Then the heater broker and I had to call about that. It took 5 tries for them to fix it properly. That is 5 different service calls. Then there was a water lead and I had to call her about that. It was not fun espsecially since it took up a lot of my time because she did not have anyone in the area taking care of things, Oh, I forgot to mention how cold it got when the heat quit working and there were no blankets. They dissappeared along with the filter. She had no one local to get these things for her so I had to go out and buy her 2 blankets. She reimbursed me, but not for any of my time spent waiting on the people to fix the heater, the plumber or running around in an area I did not know trying to find a place to buy blankets that would not cost her a fortune. I was there to relax and it was very stressful at times.

I have a pet sitting service in New Orleans and have for 16 years. I've been taking care of peole's animals and their homes while they are gone and after this happened to me I thought about possibly checking on people's rentals before the renters come in. Going through and making sure they have everything they are supposed to have there, i.e. a/c filter in the a/c, enough sheets and pillow cases (something else I was missing), whatever is supposed to be in that home to make them have a comfortable stay and not have to run and get it themselves.

I am moving to the area on 3/27. I am relocating because I did fall in love with SoWal while I was there and have not been happy in New Orleans for a while. As I said I have a professional pet sitting service which I am going to start over in SoWal and do home care also. I would like to start checking on people's homes to make sure they are fully equipped by doing an inventory list of some sort and that way no one has to worry that anything is missing. Everyone will be happy. I can also drop the key off to them and pick it up from them. I can check the house out when it is vacant. I have great references from my pet sitting service here in New Orleans I can provide.

Let me know if you are interested in something like this. It would be a help to both of us. I would like to start a business doing this as well as my pet sitting service. My phone number is (504) 888-0169 or (504) 231-5358 and my name is Brenda Groetsch, my business is Heart Pet Sitting, pet sitting and home and plan care. Let me know if interested.

Hi-

I am new to this forum. We are looking to buy a house in the area and renting it out. However, we live out of town.

We are debating whether to use a property management company to oversee the daily/weekly maintenance. I can see the reason to use one but they all charge alot!

I was curious if anyone manages their property themselves? Is this possible if you live out of the area? Do you hire a good cleaning service and leave the keys in a lockbox? What about last minute emergency repairs? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you for your time!

I talked with a neighbor two days ago who has been with a large local management co for several years now. He pocketed $4k all of last year. He's disgusted. Another neighbor who manages it directly brought in 8 times that amount without a single negative incident. I'm sure that's not always the norm but $28,000 add'l cashflow raises some eyebrows.

Management companys priorities lie in making a profit for themselves. Not the homeowner. If they average 3 booked months out of every year per property I'm guessing they would have a banner year. Do any management companies guarantee a specific number of bookings?

A good friend of mine uses another homeowner who guarantees a minimum 50% booking at full rental rates. She limits herself to just a handful properties all within Rosemary, Seacrest & Seagrove. She's been doing this for the last two years now and all the homeowners I've contacted are thrilled with her results. She handles all issues and sends them a check less her fee. Two of her properties sold and I'm considering taking her up on her services.

I use an agency and, frankly, for now it's a great choice for me because I live too far away to make a quick trip to the area (it's a 17 hour drive) and I'm waaaaaay too busy right now with work (gotta pay for the cottages...) and being with my two kids who are growing up waaaaay too fast and I want to spend as much time as I can with them.

That said, it's definitely a trade-off. I get almost all the bookings myself through VRBO and the agency takes off a little bit of their "cut" but it's still pricy. Again, so far paying the fee has been worth it. I rarely hear anything from the guests because they get what they need quickly from the agency that's only 4 miles away. And I want my guests to have an easy stay.

In a few years I'll have some time on my hands to decide whether it's worth collecting the money, paying the taxes, finding a reliable cleaning and maintenance crew, follow-up up with guests (I usually call them during their stay how to see how things are going which lets me know that everything - cleaning, maintenance - is fine), etc.

I do know people who have had very successful experiences managing their cottages on their own and they definitely pocket a lot more money than I do from their rentals! But I just don't have the time right now.