What are the pros and cons of hiring a property management company to lease and manage your property?

What are the pros and cons to hiring a property management company if I live out of state and need to lease out my place? Is the monthly fee worth it? Is this something I can tackle on my own?What are the pros and cons of hiring a property management company to lease and manage your property?
If you are experienced in being a landlord you might not need an outside company. If you don't know how to evict someone, have basis knowledge of landlord/tenant laws in your state or a way to market your property for rent, you will benefit from a company.



Your monthly check will be smaller, but if you choose the right company you'll have an occupied property with a good tenant who pays on time. The companies basic knowledge of landlord tenant laws may save you $$$ in consulting an attorney on your own if things with your tenant go south as well.What are the pros and cons of hiring a property management company to lease and manage your property?
It depends on how much effort you're willing to put in for your rental property.

A property management company will do all the legwork for you, which obviously makes your life a lot easier, and they'll also know how to comply with your state's landlord - tenant laws, which is extremely important.

The obvious downside is that you'll have to pay them a commission (typically 7-10% of gross monthly rent), but the other downside is that landlords usually end up paying more for repairs, since contractors will pad their bills when billing a property management company (since the property manager isn't actually the one that pays, so they won't negotiate it).

There are a lot of online resources nowadays for novice landlords to help them through the process. The service I've used is EZ Landlord Forms, but I'm told there are others out there as well.What are the pros and cons of hiring a property management company to lease and manage your property?
It's all pretty obvious, to be honest. If you have a management company, you don't worry about anything, you just sit back and collect a check (so long as it is rented).



The downside is, of course, that the check is smaller than it would be if you managed it yourself.