How to choose a property management company
Every management company will tell you they screen carefully, respond quickly and report clearly. Here is how to work out which ones actually do.
We are a property management company, so read this with that in mind. What follows is the evaluation we would want an owner to run — on us as much as on anyone else. If a manager cannot survive these questions, that is worth knowing before you sign, not after.
First: check the licence
In Florida, managing rentals on behalf of someone else is a licensed activity. Fla. Stat. section 475.01 defines a broker to include a person who, for compensation, rents or offers to rent real property for others. Section 475.011 exempts an owner leasing their own property — which is why you need no licence to manage your own house, and why the company you hire generally does.
How to check, in two minutes. Florida licences are public. Search the company or the individual on the Department of Business and Professional Regulation licence lookup, and confirm the licence is active and in the right name.
DBPR licensee search — myfloridalicense.comIf a company cannot immediately tell you which licence they hold and in whose name, stop there. Everything below assumes you have cleared this step.
The fee questions
The management percentage is the number every company advertises, and it is the least useful figure in the conversation. Two companies quoting the same rate can cost thousands apart across a year, because of what sits around it.
Ask these, and ask for the answers in writing:
- What is the management fee, and is it a percentage of rent collected or rent due? Collected is better for you: if the tenant does not pay, the manager does not earn.
- What is the leasing or tenant-placement fee? Usually the largest single variable. Often quoted as a share of one month's rent.
- Is there a renewal fee? This one recurs every year the tenant stays, and is easy to miss.
- Is there a vacancy fee? Some companies bill you while the property earns nothing.
- Is there a setup or onboarding fee?
- What is the maintenance markup? Ask whether the company adds a percentage on top of vendor invoices, and whether they own the vendor.
- What is the fee if I sell or leave mid-contract?
- Which fees are not on this list? Ask it in exactly those words. It is the most useful question of the set.
Our guide to what property management costs in South Florida goes through each of these line items and what a normal answer looks like.
The screening questions
Tenant selection is the single decision that determines how the next two years go. Ask:
- What exactly do you check? You want background, credit and rental history at minimum, on every adult applicant.
- Are the criteria written down, and applied to everyone identically? This matters legally as well as practically. Inconsistent criteria are how fair-housing complaints start.
- Do I approve the tenant, or do you? There is no wrong answer, but you should know which it is before a name is in front of you.
- What happens if the tenant you placed stops paying in the first few months? Listen for whether they have a policy at all.
The operations questions
- Who answers the phone at 2am, and are they an employee or an answering service?
- What is the maintenance threshold I approve above? You should be able to set it.
- How many properties does the person managing mine actually handle? A vague answer usually means a large number.
- How often do I get a statement, and can I see the property's ledger whenever I want?
- Do you inspect between tenancies, and do I get photographs?
- Who holds the security deposit, and how is the 30-day claim deadline tracked? Under Fla. Stat. section 83.49 the right to claim against a deposit is lost if written notice is not sent within 30 days of the tenancy ending. Ask who is watching that clock. Our guide to Florida security deposit law explains why it matters.
Answers that should worry you
| What you hear | Why it is a problem |
|---|---|
| "It depends on the property" — about the management fee | Pricing that varies by negotiation means the rate depends on how the call goes, not on the work |
| A quote only after a sales call | Same issue. Ask for the fee schedule in writing before the call if you can |
| "We treat every owner individually" | Fine as service. Not fine as an answer to a pricing question |
| Vagueness about who owns the maintenance vendors | An in-house vendor with a markup is a second revenue stream from your repairs |
| No written screening criteria | A fair-housing exposure that becomes yours as the owner |
| Reluctance to name the licence holder | See the first section |
| A long contract with no exit clause | The exit terms tell you how confident they are that you will want to stay |
Reviews: read them properly
Star ratings on their own are close to useless in this category, because tenants and owners both leave them and they want opposite things. A manager who enforces the lease firmly will collect angry tenant reviews and happy owner ones.
Read the text, and sort by recent. Look for whether the reviewer is an owner or a tenant, whether complaints are about communication or about money, and whether the company replies. A pattern of owners saying they could not get hold of anyone matters far more than the average score.
Where we stand on our own questions
It would be strange to publish this list and dodge it, so:
Fee: a flat 8% of collected rent. The same rate for every owner, whether you hold one property or twenty. It covers tenant sourcing and screening, leasing, rent collection, maintenance coordination with 24/7 emergency response, and monthly owner reporting.
Screening: background, credit and rental-history checks on every applicant.
Reporting: income, expenses and statements in your owner portal, available whenever you want them.
Rental analysis: free, with no obligation attached.
Full detail on the services and pricing pageWe publish the number because owners comparing managers deserve to compare like with like. Most companies in this market do not, and that is precisely what makes the questions above necessary.
One last thing
Ask each company for the name and number of an owner they currently work with, in your city, with a property like yours. Then call them.
It is the oldest check there is and it still works better than everything else on this page.
This is general information, not legal advice. Florida landlord–tenant law is detailed and fact-specific, and statutes change. Verify anything you intend to act on against the current Florida Statutes Chapter 83, Part II, and consult a Florida attorney before serving notices or filing an eviction.
Questions owners ask about this.
Does a property manager in Florida need a licence?
Generally yes. Section 475.01 of the Florida Statutes defines a broker to include renting or offering to rent real property for others for compensation, which brings property management for third parties within the licensing regime. Section 475.011 exempts an owner leasing their own property, so you need no licence to manage your own rental. Florida licences are public and can be checked on the Department of Business and Professional Regulation licensee search.
What is a normal property management fee in South Florida?
Companies advertise a percentage of collected rent, but the headline percentage is not the whole cost. Leasing fees, renewal fees, vacancy fees, setup fees and maintenance markups all sit around it, and they vary far more between companies than the headline rate does. CIMCO charges a flat 8% with a free rental analysis. The important question is not the percentage on its own but the full fee schedule in writing.
What is the most important question to ask a property manager?
Which fees are not on this list. Asked in those words, it moves the conversation from the advertised rate to the full cost, and how a company handles the question tells you a great deal about how it will handle everything else.
Should I choose the cheapest property management company?
Not on the headline rate alone. A lower percentage attached to a leasing fee, a renewal fee and a maintenance markup can cost more across a year than a higher flat rate with nothing behind it. Work out the annual total, not the monthly percentage, and compare that.
How do I check a property management company's reviews properly?
Read the text rather than the score, and sort by most recent. Establish whether each reviewer is an owner or a tenant, because they want opposite things from a manager. Repeated owner complaints about not being able to reach anyone are more predictive than the average rating.
More owner guides.
Self-managing vs hiring a property manager in Florida
A straight comparison, including the cases where self-managing is genuinely the better answer.
Read the guide → Florida lawThe Florida eviction process, step by step
The 3-day and 7-day notices, the statutory wording you cannot paraphrase, and the errors that send landlords back to square one.
Read the guide → Florida lawFlorida security deposit law: the 30-day rule
Miss one deadline in § 83.49 and you forfeit the right to claim against the deposit entirely. The timeline, and where owners lose it.
Read the guide →Rather hand this to someone else?
CIMCO manages 500+ homes across South Florida for a flat 8% fee — the same rate for every owner. We handle the notices, the paperwork and the deadlines; you get the monthly statement.
- A recommended market rent, backed by real local comps
- Statutory notices and deadlines tracked for you
- No cost, no obligation, and no pressure to sign