In this video blog, Mendell Gosnell, principal broker and founder of Centurion Real Estate Management, explains how investors should assess the true cost of hiring a professional property management company. He argues that the headline management fee does not capture the full picture because many routine expenses (postage, checks, driving to properties) are already incurred by owners and are absorbed by the manager. He emphasizes the importance of valuing the owner’s time and opportunity cost, noting that outsourcing frees investors to enjoy real‑estate ownership rather than creating a second job. Gosnell also highlights economies of scale that larger management firms can leverage—discounted services, bulk pricing, and more efficient tenant screening and marketing—that improve a property’s bottom line. He points out that DIY landlords often under‑price rent relative to market rates, which can erode profitability, and that professional management can help achieve market‑rate rents, faster re‑letting, and better tenant quality. Throughout, he shares his own 15‑year real‑estate experience across various investment strategies and invites viewers to engage via comments and subscriptions.
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What is the real cost of property management? That's the subject of today's video blog. What does it cost for professional property management? I wanna break down a few things. To help investors or those that are on the fence about hiring a professional property management company. The real cost of management is really not what you are paying exactly, because right up front the management company is doing very similar things that you're already doing and paying for. So there's a cost that is being paid for by you right now if you're managing it for yourself, that is essentially taken on and absorbed by the management company. A lot of those fees, again, are included in many of the management fees contracts. So I guess every company is a little bit different, but with Centurion, we absorb a lot of the postage and mailing and processing and driving out to do checks checks on the property and whatnot. But if you're buying supplies for your property, those are all expenses that you're gonna incur no matter what, right? So that's one facet of beginning to think correctly about comparing the cost of doing it yourself versus outsourcing to a professional property management company. The second is really thinking about what your time is worth. What is the value of your time? There's the opportunity cost, or just outsourcing so that you can really enjoy life, which is generally one of the first or the primary reasons that people get into real estate, right? Is so they can, as we like to say, enjoy life, leave the management to us. So not creating yourself another job. So understanding the value proposition, the opportunity cost of how much, how much is your time worth. That's the second thing. And then lastly, there's the efficiencies or the volume pricing or the ability to get discounts that many property management companies that are larger in scope are able to bring to affect your bottom line. And so not necessarily what you're paying, but what you're getting. And so I can't tell you how many times I talked to do-it-yourself landlords who say, "No, I'm trying to save some money, so I don't want to outsource it to professional management." And then I ask them how much they are renting their rental for, and and 9 times out of 10, if not more, the amount that they are charging for rent is lower or significantly, usually significantly lower than the market rate. And so that coupled with things like properly screening the tenants to weed out bad ones, marketing aggressively and getting that rental unit re-rented quicker. All things that contribute to improved bottom line, which again comes back to overall cost, right? Because it's not necessarily always about the upfront, what do you pay, but the lifetime cost. So those are some, some different ways to think about the overall cost when you're considering how much it costs to have your property managed. So again, my name is Mendell Gosnell. I'm the property manager, principal broker, owner, and founder of Centurion Real Estate Management. I'm also a real estate investor, buy and hold. Been in the real estate game for about 1.5 decades, and I love it. I've been able to do quite a few different deals, everything from um, fix and flip to storage units, to helping others on projects, moving homes, uh, lease options, uh, just your straight vanilla buying off of the MLS and trying to find a good deal, fixing it up and renting it. And really enjoy sharing my knowledge and helping others when it comes to real estate. Hope you enjoy this video. If you did, please like us Subscribe if you're not, and we'd love to hear what you think about this topic. So give us a comment, shout out, or question, or give us your viewpoint. We would love to engage and begin a dialogue. Thanks again. Happy investing. Okay, probably good.
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