Offsite Management

Can medium sized (30-50 units) apartment buildings be successfully managed offsite, or with office hours that aren't every day?

If one should be so lucky as to have 2, you could only afford 1 manager and they obviously can't be in 2 places at once (nor can you, should you try to do it yourself).

Comments(8)

  • cjmazur8th June, 2004

    check out locak laws as well.

    I think that's for the managment company to decide. If they contract w/ you to do both properties, they need to have sufficient staff to run the 2 properties.

  • 4e6zbi1028th June, 2004

    Quote:
    On 2004-06-08 21:18, cjmazur wrote:
    I think that's for the managment company to decide. If they contract w/ you to do both properties, they need to have sufficient staff to run the 2 properties.

    Who said anything about a management company? I might want to hire my own employee. Even if I used one, a 10% management fee on a 50-unit is only about $3000/month, obviously insufficient for full-time on-site staff. Two properties would pay for somebody, but obviously they would have to divide office hours between the two, hence my question about the viability of it.

  • edmeyer8th June, 2004

    A 50 unit building is management intensive. I am assuming that you will have an on-site manager. It is likely that most states require an on-site for 50 units. With an on-site it is very possible to manage with an off-site person that is not full time. My ex did this for her parents on a 52 unit building that they own.

  • 4e6zbi1029th June, 2004

    Quote:
    On 2004-06-08 23:08, edmeyer wrote:
    A 50 unit building is management intensive. I am assuming that you will have an on-site manager. It is likely that most states require an on-site for 50 units. With an on-site it is very possible to manage with an off-site person that is not full time.

    How are the management duties divided between the onsite and offsite person? What's the compensation like for the onsite person.

    I think we may be using onsite differently from one another. I interpret onsite to mean "has regular, dailly office hours at the property", but doesn't necessarily live there. It sounds like you are presuming they live there.

  • cjmazur9th June, 2004

    a couple things.

    Make sure you can have that size property w/o management (onsite), and I was assuming hiring a property manager.

    I sure don't want to be called at 3AM w/ a backed up toilet.

  • 4e6zbi1029th June, 2004

    Quote:
    On 2004-06-09 01:39, cjmazur wrote:

    Make sure you can have that size property w/o management (onsite), and I was assuming hiring a property manager.

    Now I'm really confused.

    1) Does the manager have daily office hours at the property (8-5 M-F, that sort of thing)? Is that necessary for a property of this size?
    2) Does that manager *live* at the property as well?
    3) Is there an offsite manager (perhaps the owner?) that manages them?
    Quote:
    I sure don't want to be called at 3AM w/ a backed up toilet.

    Neither do I. That's why I'd have the tenant call an approved plumber in that case, rather than call me. The plumber can then offer me their professional opinion as to whether occupant error was the cause. If it was, the tenant will be charged for the plumber's bill.[ Edited by 4e6zbi102 on Date 06/09/2004 ]

  • active_re_investor9th June, 2004

    Look at it from a different angle.

    I am a tenant looking for a place to rent. I have seen 3-4 properties and all are about 50 units in size. One seems to be organized differently in that there is no on-site person, they want me to manage the repair process and seem to be hard to get a hold of when I was looking around for a place.

    I think the choice would be to go somewhere else.

    I for one enjoy renting in a larger complex where any issues can be sorted and there is a place for packages to be received. As larger complexes do not change for these extra services I would skip places that seem to be missing the on-site assistance.

    John
    [addsig]

  • edmeyer9th June, 2004

    When I said on-site I meant someone who lives in one of the units. Compensation usually includes free rent for the on-site manager unit but this can be negotiated. As far as allocation of duties, the on-site deals with day-to-day tenant interfaces including rent collection, issuing notices, dealing with complaints, hearing about repair and maintenance, etc. The off-site essentially fills the role of a property management company that does monthly accounting and distribution of revenues to owner, contracts for maintenance and repairs, procures replacement appliances and manages the on-site manager.

    The allocation is not strict but may depend on the size of the complex and the capabilities of the managers.

    I hope this is of some help.

    Regards,
    Ed

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