When you're deciding who will manage the hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars you've invested in real estate, interview and vet several property managers. Part of that vetting process should include talking to other owners using this PM. Don't let the PM pick which owners you talk to. Find them yourself by: 1. Going to the PM's website to see their advertised properties. 2. Pick a handful of properties and ask the PM for their owner's contact info. (This is a good start, but don't stop here!) 3. Check public records to see if the owner's info matches. Some PMs (like tenants) will give you their mom, uncle, and brothers' contact info as a referral. 4. Call these owners and ask them about their experience with this PM (some questions to ask later in this post). 5. Get 5+ MORE owners that use this PM and track down their info using public data, skip tracing, etc. In addition to all the standard questions you'd ask these owners, here are some that are very important: 1. What day of the month are you supposed to get your distribution each month? 2. What day do you ACTUALLY get your distribution each month? (Late distributions are usually the first domino to fall.) 3. How often do you have a vacancy? 4. How long does it take to fill your vacancies? 5. How fast are maintenance requests handled? 6. How often do your tenants renew their leases? 7. How long does your PM take to respond to an email/text/call? 8. Do you trust your PM? (You'd be surprised at some of the answers here!) 9. Is there anything else I should know about this PM? Plus, anything else you want to ask? Don't be shy to ask LOTS of questions. (Now please enjoy this unrelated picture.)