Your advice on renting our house, please.

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife and I moved to Las Vegas last year, but held onto the house in Baltimore, renting a couple of the rooms to some friends of the family, and staying there ourselves when we came back East for several holidays and other trips. In early July we ended the tenants’ lease, packed up all the stuff we had left there, and had it moved out here to Vegas, so we could put the house up for sale.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the market in Baltimore is not great and our immediate neighborhood has a couple of rundown properties that are bringing our house’s value down even lower. It doesn’t look good for getting a reasonable price for the place in the near term. So we are considering renting it for a while in the hopes that we can cover the mortgage payment and make a little extra, and that in a year or so it will command a better price.

The unpleasantness of some relatively minor hassles we had with our previous tenants has convinced me that I don’t want to try to be a long-distance landlord. I want a property management company to find and vet the tenants and deal with any problems that come up. So I’m hoping my fellow Dopers can offer the benefit of their experiences in this area.

I have some general questions and some specific ones.

What should I look for in a property manager? I’ve found several on Angie’s List, the BBB Web site, and other online sources. I haven’t contacted any yet. In a number of cases, the positive reviews they got on Google were from people who hadn’t reviewed anything else, which always throws up red flags for me.

What should I expect to pay for their service? I’ve heard about 10% of the rent. One site said 8% plus 80% of the first month’s rent.

Should I use them for repairs and maintenance to the property/appliances? This seems like a situation with enormous potential for abuse and conflict of interest. We already have a home warranty, but I need to check if it applies to a rental property. I have a handyman I like, who’s good and inexpensive. I’d prefer to keep using him.

Specific question: Anyone know of a property manager in the Baltimore area that they’d recommend (or warn against using)?

Any other thoughts, suggestions, warnings, etc., about renting a house when one doesn’t live in the area?

Thanks.

2

No personal advice having never done it, but I’d advise reading some of the many landlord forums you can google-they’re full of horror stories about PM’s. And I think your insistence (if that’s what it turns out to be) on your handyman may not fly-these guys have their own cadre of people typically and kickbacks are rampant. Good luck.

3

I’m renting out a townhouse in Arizona and using a property management company there. They charge 10% of the rent. Any time they have to re-rent it there’s another $25 charge. My experience with them has been good, but I’m not sure that helps you much in Baltimore.

I’ve always just used their workmen for repairs. The prices, while a LITTLE high, have never seemed abusive. If you’re concerned about abuse, the first couple of times they want to do a repair, get their quote, then see what your handyman would charge for it.

J.