landlords... and anyone else

[thiswillbe]

We're anticipating renting out our current house after we move (so we can wait till the market rebounds to sell it). I haven't ever been an off-site landlord before (I've rented rooms in this house, but that's it). Do you think we should get a year-round property manager? Someone to just work the front end, helping us list it and check applicants? Or do you think we can do it all ourselves just fine?

[twotrue]

I chose to a year-round property management company because of all the legal stuff. Well, that and I moved out of state. If I had still be in the area it might have been different. But really, a PM company knows all of the laws, what tax shit needs to be done, and will take the tenant to small claims if needed. I haven't been thrilled with my PM company but it has been nice to have someone else handly the monthly stuff. Know that with a PM company you can make your contract as specific as you like. For example my company usually only calls the owner to get approval on fixes/work over $200 but I had my contract state that they have to call me for every possible charge. I did this because I could very well have a family member in the area that could do the work for me for much less than one of their vendors. So yeah, I'd price out a PM company and see. FWIW, mine is $70 a month and that is taken directly from the rent check.

[kershnic]

I am unfortunately not remotely close to being a property owner let alone a landlord....but, my own landlord is a regular old person who bought some blank leases at Staples. We found the place on CL, which she obviously listed for free. There have been several people living downstairs, and I think she found them either on CL or through a university ad. When something breaks I'm pretty sure she finds an undocumented contractor and brings him in. She makes the whole landlord thing look pretty easy, but maybe that's just because we're good tenants.

[ElsaVonM]

I would, just b/c I wouldn't want to deal with calls about every little thing. We try not to call our landlords very often - I try to fix it, then my dad tries to fix it - but things crop up and sometimes you just have to call. I've also heard horror stories from landlord friends that were pretty convincing.

[eratmama]

We do it ourselves. Although, we have a duplex, so we can legally be a bit more picky about who rents here. We have always taken the first people to give us the rental app and $200, but there was once a situation where we wondered if we would. If you or a family member can fix some basic things and save yourself some money, sounds great. If you would rather have the time, $70 a month doesn't sound too bad!