Originally Posted by
Trip7
Very true on the amount of work. Although it seems the majority of the work is at the beginning, setting up your team, systems and processes. After that gets rolling a lot of the workload is on autopilot. One sponsor told me managing a 400 unit apartment building is easier than managing a duplex he had when he first started because the apartment building is has so much scale it pays for the on site maintenance and leasing team. A duplex that responsibility is all you because the scale is so small property management would zap most if not all your cashflow.
I'd be very concerned about investing with a syndicator who says managing a 400 unit apartment is less work than a duplex. Don't get me wrong, there is definitely advantages to scale in larger properties, but a team of employees is more work than two tenants in a duplex. He may be in the business of raising money more than managing an investment. Ignoring the property is not responsible stewardship of his investors resources. Even with contracted third party management, there is more work involved managing the manager than running a duplex. Hopefully he was just bragging about growing his business out of the self management phase.