Are you trying to decide whether to self-manage your California rental property or partner with a professional property manager?
It’s a decision that plenty of landlords face, and the right answer depends on how much time and knowledge you have to effectively lease, manage, and maintain your rental property.
Typically, we believe plenty of well-equipped owners can successfully self-manage. But, this is California, where the tenant protections are strict and the laws are always changing. We strongly recommend proceeding with caution if you’re considering self-management. Legal mistakes are increasingly easy to make, and a lot of owners don’t realize they’ve violated a law until it’s too late.
Here’s our list of pros and cons that come with self-managing your California rental property.
Quick Summary:
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The Pros: Good Reasons to Self-Manage Your California Rental Property
The decision to self-manage rental properties, for most owners, comes down to one thing: control.
When you’re the one overseeing your investment, you have the ability to shape how it’s run, how tenants are treated, and how expenses are managed. While some investors prefer to delegate management to a professional, there are significant advantages to doing it yourself, especially if you have the right mindset, skills, and commitment.
If you’re considering taking a hands-on approach, here are the key benefits of self-managing:
- Full Control Over Your Investment
When you self-manage, every decision rests in your hands. From setting the rental rate to choosing tenants, you have complete oversight of your property’s operations. This allows you to align management decisions with your investment goals
- You’re Not Paying Property Management Fees
Perhaps the most obvious benefit of self-management is financial. By managing your rental yourself, you avoid paying management fees, which can often be 8–12% of monthly rent, plus leasing and, in some cases, maintenance markups.
- You’re Learning Valuable Lessons
By being involved in the day-to-day management, you’ll have a clear understanding of your property’s condition, systems, and potential improvement areas. If you don’t already know how to develop relationships with vendors, this is your opportunity to learn how to put together a list of preferred service professionals. It’s an opportunity to explore new technologies and adopt your own best practices.
Self-management is more than just collecting rent. It’s a crash course in real estate, business, and problem-solving. As a landlord-manager, you’ll develop skills in marketing and leasing, conflict resolution and negotiation, and budgeting and financial management.
These are valuable abilities that not only make you a better landlord but also strengthen your overall investment knowledge. Many landlords find that the experience gained from self-management gives them confidence to expand their portfolio strategically.
- Enjoy a Sense of Pride and Accomplishment
We know how gratifying it can be to do something new and do it well. Self-management comes with a sense of pride. When you successfully market your property, place tenants, and oversee operations, you’re not only protecting your investment, you’re actively growing it. Every successful lease renewal, every satisfied tenant, and every improvement you oversee is a reflection of your own effort. That sense of accomplishment is something many landlords deeply value and wouldn’t trade for anything.
Self-managing a rental property isn’t for everyone, but if you’re motivated, organized, and eager to take ownership of your investment, there are certainly benefits to enjoy.
The Cons: Why Self-Management Isn’t a Great Idea
On paper, managing your own rental property might seem easy enough and full of benefits. All you really have to do is advertise the home, sign a lease, collect rent, and handle the occasional repair.
But in reality, self-management often comes with far more challenges than most landlords anticipate. What begins as a cost-saving measure can quickly turn into a stressful, time-consuming, and sometimes financially damaging endeavor.
If you’re considering managing your own rental property, it’s important to understand the dangers and risks that come with it, and how working with professionals can help protect your investment, boost your earnings, and keep liability under control.
- Legal Pitfalls and Compliance Risks
Landlord-tenant law is complex and constantly evolving, especially in California. Federal, state, and local regulations govern everything from how you advertise vacancies to how you handle security deposits and evictions. A single mistake, even unintentional, can result in fines, lawsuits, or tenant claims.
Self-managing landlords often underestimate:
- Fair housing regulations and discrimination risks.
- Rent control or eviction moratorium rules.
- Strict requirements for security deposit handling.
- Notice periods for lease termination or entry.
Professional property managers stay current with these laws and ensure compliance. Without that expertise, landlords run the risk of costly legal disputes that can wipe out years of profit.
- Problem Tenants and Inadequate Screening
Tenant placement is one of the most important aspects of successful rental ownership. Inexperienced landlords often rely on gut instinct or incomplete screening methods. Unfortunately, skipping steps in the process can lead to placing tenants who pay late, cause damage, or require eviction.
Professional managers use rigorous screening tools, including background checks, credit evaluations, income verification, and rental history reports. Without that level of due diligence, landlords may face extended vacancies, unpaid rent, and expensive turnover costs. There are also some strict laws in place that dictate how application fees are collected and applications processed.
- Hidden Costs and Lower Profits
Many landlords choose to self-manage to save on management fees. But what’s often overlooked are the hidden costs of inexperience. Overpricing can keep a home vacant for months, while underpricing leaves money on the table every month. Similarly, hiring the wrong contractor for repairs can mean inflated costs, delays, liability if something goes wrong, and repeat work.
Professional managers know the market, price rentals accurately, and have established vendor relationships that secure better rates. While self-managing landlords try to save a few hundred dollars a month in fees, they may unknowingly be losing thousands in unrealized income and unnecessary expenses.
- Time Demands and Constant Availability
Tenants expect responsiveness, and emergencies don’t wait for convenient hours. A broken water heater, a plumbing leak, or a lockout can happen on a holiday, weekend, or at 2:00 a.m. Self-managing landlords are responsible for taking those calls and arranging immediate solutions.
The time demands of property management can be overwhelming, especially for landlords with full-time jobs, families, or multiple properties. Professional managers have systems, technology, staff, and 24/7 emergency lines to ensure tenants get the help they need without draining the owner’s time or energy.
- Maintenance and Liability Exposure
Every rental property needs maintenance, but not every landlord has the knowledge or network to handle it correctly. Deferred repairs can lead to larger, costlier issues, while inadequate or unsafe fixes can expose landlords to liability if a tenant is injured.
Consider the risks:
- A broken stair rail left unrepaired could result in a lawsuit.
- Faulty wiring or heating systems can cause safety hazards.
- Using unlicensed contractors may violate insurance requirements.
Property management companies work with vetted, insured vendors who complete repairs correctly and protect the landlord from liability exposure.
- Stress of Rent Collection and Eviction
Collecting rent is not as easy as it sounds. Tenants may pay late, make partial payments, or avoid communication altogether. In extreme cases, landlords must navigate the stressful and often lengthy eviction process, which varies by jurisdiction.
Self-managing landlords often struggle with enforcing strict rent collection policies without damaging the landlord-tenant relationship. Professional managers remove this emotional burden, enforce consistent policies, and handle evictions efficiently and legally when necessary, saving landlords time, money, and stress.
- Market Blind Spots and Poor Marketing
Getting your property rented quickly and to the right tenants requires effective marketing. Professional managers use industry tools, syndicate listings across multiple sites, and know how to showcase a property with professional photos and descriptions.
Self-managing landlords often rely on a single listing site or DIY advertising, which reduces exposure and lengthens vacancy periods. Longer vacancies equal lost income, and many landlords underestimate how costly a single month without rent can be.
- Financial Recordkeeping and Taxes
Managing a rental property also requires meticulous recordkeeping for income, expenses, and tax reporting. Self-managing landlords sometimes fail to maintain accurate books, which can lead to missed deductions, disorganized tax filings, or compliance problems during an audit.
Professional managers provide monthly statements, annual tax-ready reports, and streamlined accounting systems. The absence of these resources can make financial management unnecessarily complicated for landlords handling it on their own.
- Burnout and Reduced Investment Potential
Ultimately, many landlords discover that self-management can quickly become as time consuming as a second job. The resulting stress can lead to burnout, which not only affects the landlord personally but also limits their ability to grow their portfolio.
Professional management teams free owners from these burdens, allowing them to focus on strategy, acquisitions, and wealth-building instead of day-to-day headaches.
We know this is a big decision, and we’d be happy to get to know more about you and your property in order to help you make the right decision. Please contact us at Key Realty Center.
Broker-Owner Rod Luman has three decades of experience in the real estate industry. A lot has changed over the past three decades, but nothing has changed property management as much as computer technology. Today Key Realty Center uses cutting-edge tools to research market conditions and set rental prices, to thoroughly screen tenants, schedule and track maintenance, and provide extensive reporting for owners and tenants.