Can I give up control of my baby?!

April 20, 2010 9:56 AM

Rental agency question/query

I currently have a house that I am renting in carrboro, NC and have been doing so for the past couple of years out of state. The house is brand new so there have been very little issues, and what has come up, I have had family help out (over the past 2 years, there have been less than 6 issues- stuff like a fence door blowing over and needing to be put back up by a professional, so they called someone they know in the business to take care of it).

I hate being a landlord though and have briefly considered handing it over to a rental agency. I just got tenants in there that have signed a 3 year lease, but am wondering if it is worth handing over to a rental agency to manage for me.

Is anyone familiar/have any experience with rental agencies in Chapel hill/Carrboro?

Does anyone have any experience with rental agencies in general?

Rough idea of how much they charge?

How does it work? Are there any other questions/issues pertaining to rental agencies that I am missing?

posted by TheBones to Home & Garden (1 answer total)

It can vary quite a bit by the services the agency offers and you'll need to shop around. We went through this about eight months ago for a house that is only a few blocks from our own. We pay only $50/month and that buys us a buffer zone between the tenants and ourselves and that's about it. He lists and shows the house, places the tenants, collects the rent and if it comes to that evicts them. If there's a problem with the house (and we just went through $10,000 worth of trouble) he's supposed to take the call first. He's got an amazing list of people he likes to use but its up to us to get folks out to do the work. My wife had a property before we were married and she used a more pro-active agency (which may have cost double or more, some agencies we talked to worked on percentage) who would send folks out to do the work, etc.

Ultimately it will be a matter of deciding what areas of control or responsibility you'd rather pay to have dealt with and finding an agent who will do that as inexpensively as possible in a manner that you'd want to do yourself if you were so inclined I'd ask how they handle evictions as that's the nightmare scenario you -want- taken care of for you and probably wouldn't want to deal with yourself.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:24 AM on May 19, 2010