Anaheim Property Management Blog

Property management is a complicated business, and finding the right company to manage your investment property can be equally complicated. Just look at our comparison chart, there a lot of boxes and variables to consider. I have found you can boil your decision down to 6 factors: price, reputation, value proposition, core competency, responsiveness and transparency. In this blog we will look at the first factor: price. If everything else about two property management companies are equal, you should choose the company that is lower in cost. The operative word in that sentence is "equal".  One company may have a lower price, but charge a number of extra fees.  Another company may have a lower monthly management fee, but charge a much higher fee with the units needs to be leased out after it becomes vacant.  Here are the 3 parts of the property management experience you must consider when comparing price: 1) The monthly management fee.  Most companies charge a percent of the rent collected.  At Progressive, if the monthly rental income is $1,800 or higher, we charge 5%. 2) The extraneous fees.  Many companies charge additional fees during the management period including vacancy, inspection, court, and set up fees.  At Progressive, we charge no other fees while we are managing your property. 3) Lease up/Tenant acquisition or Rental fee.  Most property management companies charge an additional fee or percentage of expected rent collected to secure a new tenant for you.  The time and cost to acquire a tenant can be quite high.  You expect the property management company to prepare the unit for the market by coordinating vendors, put the property on the MLS (or other marketing sites) and offer a commission, show prospective tenants the property, screen tenants (obtain income documentation, run a credit report and criminal background check, require a completed application), execute a contract and conduct a move-in inspection.  At Progressive, we have a one-time fee of 35% of the first month's rent as our tenant acquisition fee.  If the tenant stays beyond the first year, you do not pay this again.