Answers to commonly asked questions from the experts on Thumbtack.
What does it cost to hire a property manager?
The average monthly cost to hire a property manager ranges from $69 to $225 a month. However, your fees will ultimately depend on the property management company you choose. To find out how much fees will be for your property, contact the best property managers near you.
You can find the best property manager in your area by starting with an online search. Compare profiles and ratings, and read customer reviews — these tend to give a snapshot of the manager’s quality of work and customer service. Additionally, customers may post photos of their properties that give an idea of the pro’s attention to detail.
Licensing is required in some states, so check to see your state’s policies on licenses and certification.
Finally, compare quotes and prices from at least three property managers.
Is it worth having a property manager?
While property managers do cost money, they can provide a lot of value to the client. They have marketing know-how and can advertise and perform showings of your property to the rental market. They can collect rent for you and screen potential tenants. They’ll also deal with tenant complaints and repairs, evictions and late rent. Finally, they can manage bill payments to simplify your paperwork and maximize your mental bandwidth.
A property management company can be a landlord’s greatest asset. As a neutral third party, the property manager handles the day-to-day operations of a real estate investment, from a single vacation home to a large apartment building or several rental properties. A property management company can be especially helpful to landlords who own several units and can’t manage each of them individually, or those who live too far from their investment properties to meet with renters and oversee maintenance. Property management is particularly important if your rentals are part of an affordable housing program. To receive financial assistance from the government, the landlord must comply with a complicated set of rules; property management companies should have both experience and expertise in complying with the rules specific to each housing program.
Do property managers need to be licensed?
The licensing requirements for property managers vary from state to state, but many states require property managers to have a real estate broker’s license and in some cases be a legal resident of a state.
Property management may not be specified in a state real estate statute, but according to the Institute of Real Estate Management their activities may include advertising the availability of a rental property, discussing a property management agreement with an owner, negotiating leases, showing a rental property and collecting rents.
What does a property management company do?
Property management companies manage the rental of residential homes, apartments, condos, commercial spaces and retail spaces. Property managers can oversee just a single unit or many properties, whether those sites are inhabited full-time or are vacation rentals. A property management company helps a property owner or landlord find tenants; collects rent; takes care of accounting, property maintenance and repairs; handles on-site management; and manages vacation rental check-in and checkout tasks. Although many property owners or landlords successfully manage their own rental real estate, a property management company can help you handle tenant issues and maintenance problems, especially if you are not located in the same city or state. Most property management companies deal with tenants directly, and their tasks include:
Marketing the rental property
Collecting rent
Handling repair problems
Responding to tenant complaints
Evicting tenants
A property management company may be a good choice for property owners who have several investment properties, live far away from the rental property, or don’t have time for hands-on management.
Reviews for Chicago property managers
Irumbo M.
A pleasure to work with, exceeded my expectations and managed to get me more money for my rental property than I expected. Very professional -- highly recommended A+++
Three Pentacles, PLLC
Thumbtack Customer
I first came across HomeLife in my search for a propertymanagement company who could help me get 2 or my properties up to code and registered with the city. I was cautious in who I could trust to get the job completed from past experiences. I spoke with the owner Mike, who was very nice and open to answer the many questions I had for him. Mike and his team are very organized and detailed when it comes to the work they quote, do, and follow up with after completion. They provided me with before and after pictures of the work completed and finished before the deadlines they stated. I am so greatful for having a team like HomeLife help me with my property needs. Thank you Mike and team.
HOMELIFE Property Management
Cai C.
Investors, landlords, foreigners beware! This management company is a TOTAL SCAM. The CEO pitched 9% premium management service on 2 multis when other 5 star companies were offering 6-7% for a bulk rate and was a black hole of constant frauding of the Client Account to date. Nearly 120k has been generated on these buildings thus far with 28k in Owner Contributions of which ZERO income was remitted in nearly 1y of "management" (the management contract terminates on May 29, 2023 and will keep everyone posted if any funds are remitted). No, as of June 7, 2k reserves not
Payton Delassandro, the designated manager, and Rory Coulter, the lead contractor of Two Blue Management, the trigger happy triple ledger invoicer attached leech to PRG Management, tag teamed to siphon ALL FUNDS of 120k from the Client Account in 1y to date.
Find an A -Team that does not practice GROSS WILLFUL MISMANAGEMENT with *MALICE* and UTTER NEGLIGENCE.
Examples.
30k was contributed to rehab both multi buildings including a good chunk set aside for a tuckpointing project. Rory Coulter, greedily suggested finishing the most costly tuckpointing project first that he said would easily pass permits though instead, funds were tied up for over 6mo while unit occupancy losses were mounting. Rory also hid the important fact that he could have easily applied for an extension for the tuckpointing project so that funds could be used to complete the less lucrative 4 unit turns instead. Any good manager would tell you this is the route that would generate max cash flow needed to handle all building repairs into the future (certainly enough for the tuckpointing project with generous amounts left over!). Instead, Rory chooses to line his pockets with the costliest projects that benefit his Two Blue Management under PRG first treating tenants and owners like pawns for his personal contractor buffet. The loss? 26,100 income from 4 units stalled by greedy mismanagement due to mounting occupancy lost costs.
Oh, but it gets worse. Rory and Payton think of a way to DRAIN all Client Account funds through a *PLANNED MANAGEMENT MISHAP* for a pet roof replacement project. That is, after it was agreed to repave portions of the roof and to fix the molding of a skylight on the same for one of the buildings that is at first just a modest repair, they *WAIT 1 MONTH AFTER A BIG STORM* from when funds were *ALREADY APPROVED* that causes gaps in the skylight to waterfall into the 3rd floor below leaving terrible collateral damage to the ceiling and walls & soured tenant relations instead!!! Payton & Rory then happily use this opportunity to bully 10k extra funds to fix their mistake. The cost is now 28k+ plus damaged tenant relations.
Arrears astronomically grow. Payton & Rory also allowed arrears to balloon 100% under their mismanagement. In Chicago, an uncontested eviction is completed in 3 months and based on arrears over 10k at a tidy 310 payment on average according to online 2022 estimates. It took Payton 000's in quadruple charged attorney fees and over 10 months to effect an UNCONTESTED EVICTION. This arrear case was inherited with a 25k arrear amount, an uncontested eviction by 2.5x the Chicago standard and what should be a breeze with an easily vacant unit at this rate. In the second case, the arrear amount inherited was 5k and now it is @ 16k+ while all calls, texts and emails for months were ignored on what to do about this growing problem. The last arrear is a new one generated by PRG's placement that is now nearly 5k in arrears which they offered no solid solutions on how to manage when requested multiple times as well. A conservative estimate of the amount loss to arrears when better tenants could have been placed is conservatively estimated at 22,300. Further, PRG could also have pocketed arrear amounts collected from Court from the eviction hiding any wrongdoing on the General Ledger and suppressing Court records on their management accounts to not return them to the Client Account that would be due and owed to any Client as they've provided NO RESPONSE to arrear amount recovery when requested for the Cleint Account multiple times now.
And why anyone looking for QUALITY PROPERTYMANAGEMENT should look elsewhere? Payton & Rory after *DOZENS* of requests to provide *INVOICES & RECEIPTS* for work complete *REFUSED* to do so with Payton angrily responding in an email that it "is not needed as the CPA usually can file taxes" based solely "from the General Ledger". In Accounting 101, they will teach you that ledger entries can easily be falsified with double, triple entries with utility bills and fake contractor bills for instance. So after nearly 120k in total credits received from rental income and 28k+ in contributions, PRG/ Two Blue Management should be able to provide receipts and invoices to show the work actually performed on the properties! In fact, Rory keeps them in tidy folders per property and if he wasn't doing anything wrong, would gladly share them. The management agreement provides consent is required for any invoice 250 and over and they flagrantly abused Client trust when agreeing to let them manage and stabilize the properties with a hands off approach for 9 months until January 2023. Now, there is just a mammoth pile of excuses for why there is no remittance after 120k of income & contributions to these investments.
Moreover, PRG/Two Blue Management *REMOVED* multiple requests for invoices, receipts and pictures on the CLIENT PORTAL and manupultates the information that appears there allowing only information that shows them in a positive light while repeatedly marginalizing, dismissing and gaslighting any of my CLIENT REQUEST FOR SUBSTANTIATION OF WORK PERFORMED as "irrational" and "unnecessary". I'm sure any investor, owner, landlord, etc. would demand to see all RECEIPTS WITH PICTURES for work done if 120k of their INCOME along with 28k as their personal contributions just disappeared into the management ledger with NONE of that income ever remitted in one year. The constant resistance from management to provide this information is disturbing enough.
Payton also maliciously refused to provide all the leases to transfer to the new management a few days ago when I found them buried in email threads from the first day of the management contract sent to him knowing it would be difficult to legally manage without them.
Do not trust the Payton-Rory drive-by tag team fake multiple entry invoicers whose Two Blue Management contractor padded accounts has been called out on Yelp with increasing one star ratings with falling reviews from frustrated Clients like me with the EXACT SAME ISSUES related to transparency, competency and financial fairness and equity demanded on the Client Accounts. I hope none of you suffer these terrible issues and betrayals of fiduciary trust, though if ever in a similar pinch, you can demand the company be audited through overisght agencies as well.
My first management company stabilized these same buildings in 4 months for 26k in *MUCH WORSE CONDITION* remitting 52k of income that same year with pictures sent to show the outstanding work done.
PRG/Two Blue Management absorbed nearly 120k of Client Funds in 1y of MALICIOUS MISMANAGEMENT with record losses from greedy management decisons benefitting their contractor contracts first & cooking the books to constantly show negative amounts on the Client Account to bully Client funds constantly, MANIPULATED OVERSTATED & FALSIFIED LEDGERS TO TRIPLE & QUADRUPLE CHARGE BILLS TO THE CLIENT ACCOUNT, & CAUSED OUTRAGEOUSLY LARGE, GROWING & UNATTENDED ARREARS TO FESTER FOR NEARLY 1Y TO DATE.
PRG/Two Blue Management does not even deserve 1 star... if there was a way to give them negative ratings to the depths of h*ll, that would still be an overestimation for the constant incompetence and bungling of managment projects and constant string of poor management decisions in their abysmal failure to manage and I wish I trusted the many* 5 star rated management companies that reached out to me then instead (there are many, and as an investor with experience on both ends of management, will be happy to point any good person in the right direction!). I honestly don't know how anyone could award PRG/Two Blue Management with high ratings unless they were family that pitied them or were paid exoribitant amounts!
As the Client, I've requested reimbursement for all the gross, willful, and egregious malicious negligence due to management mishaps and snowball of losses they created to pad PRG/Two Blue Management's contractor accounts that am sure ANY CLIENT would be able to SUE them to compensate for any damages caused. And surely, you could also demand compensation for emotional distress that would run into the millions!
Why would PRG/Two Blue Management's management contract even require a 1ml insurance policy be added as an additional insured party by the Client? That is an *EXORBITANT AMOUNT* beyond normal industry standards which sometimes does not even require you to insure them bc management is confident in the quality of service they offer without feeling the need to legally trap and prevent the Client from any recourse for wrongdoing as PRG's management contract seems to do. Surely, PRG/Two Blue Management did NOT commit any wrongdoing in the past that caused disgruntled Clients from wanting to sue?!
I will be updating how PRG/Two Blue Management resolves these issues on multiple forums including the real estate boards so if you are committed to understanding more about this industry and ways to protect your rights as an owner, investor or foreign investor abroad from egregious propertymanagement abuses, please follow my comments there. I will check for posts on thumbtack and scope other forums to warn investors and share my story interacting with them there as well ... feel free to join the conversation!
PRG Management
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