property management questions

[garyiryna]

When you get a property manger to help you when renting out your house, finding clients, taking money etc, what percentage of your rental money do they take? And if you long term rent, say you get $2,000 per month, what will you have to pay out of that? Won't the renter have to pay his/her own bills?

[Andrea J.]

every property manager could be different on the percentage they charge.
re: the bills that the tenant has to pay................it is all up to the agreement between landlord and tenant.
ex: electricity is very high. most landlords would require the tenant to pick up that cost, water too .
setar and internet would probably be the responsibility of the tenant.

maybe someone with longterm rental (landlords or tenants) will post their experiences.

Originally Posted by garyiryna

When you get a property manger to help you when renting out your house, finding clients, taking money etc, what percentage of your rental money do they take? And if you long term rent, say you get $2,000 per month, what will you have to pay out of that? Won't the renter have to pay his/her own bills?

[aquaman]

I own and rent and have done long term and vacation. I had interviewed several property/rental management companies. They all seemed to average around 20% of the rent. That figure covers basic looking after the property but does not cover repair costs. It also includes the advertising of the property on their websites,(excluding VRBO and other major vacation websites), greeting and settling in guests, providing advice on local things such as restaurants, arranging car rentals, places to see etc. The fee also includes obtaining trades people for repairs, contacting contractors for larger jobs and arranging quotes etc. The property manager also looks after collection of payment and the payment and remittance of local tax.

On the issue of water and electricity, these are the responsibility of the tenant. For long term rentals we were strongly cautioned to put the services in the name of the renter. In our rent we include cable TV, Internet, Garbage collection, Propane gas. Unfortunately, no matter how much we or our property managers advise renters to be careful in the use of water and electricity this is an area where people often over use. We allocate a normal usage amount and include this in the rent. I feel that many just do not realise just how expensive Water and Electricity are in Aruba. We recently had renters who ran our 4 split airconditioners night and day windows open. Our property manager advised them against this on a visit to our villa when checking all was ok. At the end of 10 days their combined water and electricity bill was $800!!!! Needless to say they were shocked and not happy!!!!

If anyone wants more details on property managers or in selecting 1, feel free to PM me

Aquaman

[cubella59]

Aquaman and I both use the same property managers/rental agents. They are excellent. I believe Retagger who also posts on the board also uses them. They double as PMs and Rental Agents. They take 20% off rental and the PM fee is based on frequency of visits.

[Tim nel]

In the past I have paid anywhere from 15% to 20% I have since created a web site, so I rent it out myself.