Free Fee Grader
What does your property manager actually cost?
“8%” and “10%” are separated by less money than one maintenance markup. Enter your fee schedule — or upload the agreement and let us read it — and get one annualized, all-in number with the arithmetic shown line by line.
The fees that don't make the rate card
None of these are secret. They're in the agreement you signed. They just never get annualized, so nobody compares them.
Maintenance markup
A percentage added to every repair invoice. On a property spending one month of rent a year on upkeep, a 10% markup is a fee you never see quoted.
Billed on rent due
The management fee keeps running during vacancies and delinquencies — you pay most when the property earns least.
Vacancy and admin fees
A monthly charge while the unit is empty, plus a flat technology fee. Small monthly, real annually.
The late-fee split
Your tenant pays a late fee and your manager keeps half. That is your money, and it rarely appears in any comparison.
Property management fees — FAQ
- How much should a property manager cost in San Diego?
- Most San Diego managers quote 8–10% of monthly rent, but the headline rate is only part of it. Once you annualize tenant placement, lease renewals, maintenance markups, setup and admin fees, the all-in cost typically lands between 10% and 16% of gross annual rent. That all-in figure is the only number worth comparing between two managers.
- What property management fees are hidden?
- The ones that don't appear on a rate card: a percentage markup added to every maintenance invoice, a monthly technology or admin fee, a vacancy fee charged while the unit sits empty, an annual inspection fee, per-vacancy advertising, and a split of the late fees your tenant pays. Individually they look small. Annualized, they routinely add 3–5 points to an effective rate.
- What does 'charged on rent due' mean?
- Some agreements bill the management fee on rent that was scheduled rather than rent that was actually collected. It means you pay your manager during a vacancy and while a tenant is behind — precisely when the property is earning you nothing. It is one line in an agreement and one of the most expensive differences between two otherwise identical managers.
- Do you keep my management agreement?
- No. If you upload it, we read the fee schedule out of it in a single request, hand the numbers back for you to check, and discard the file. Nothing downstream needs the document, so we don't store it.
- Is the grade biased toward your own pricing?
- Our schedule is priced by the same function, on the same assumptions, and shown next to yours with its own letter grade. The grade scale is published on the results page. If your current manager costs less than we would, the report says so plainly.