# I managed 200 rentals at once. Here's what your property manager's fee really buys > A former property manager who ran about 200 rentals at a time on what management fees really buy, where agents earn them and what you rarely need. - Published: 24 September 2026 - Section: Opinion - Author: Landlord Weekly Editorial Team - URL: https://www.landlordweekly.com/articles/what-your-property-manager-fee-really-buys *This column is written by a member of our editorial team who spent about 10 years working in real estate agencies as a property manager, looking after around 200 properties at a time, before moving to self-managing. It is an opinion piece.* Most of what a landlord pays a property manager for is insurance against things that usually do not happen. I spent about a decade as a property manager in real estate agencies, managing around 200 properties at a time, and my view is that when your tenant pays on time and does not complain, which is the norm, most of your management fee buys service you do not really need. That is not an attack on property managers. I was one. It is a description of how the job is structured, and why I now manage directly instead. ## What the fee costs Management fees are not set by law. Research by BIS Oxford Economics, published by [Defence Housing Australia](https://www.dha.gov.au/investing/investor-resources/investor-news/comparing-dhas-service-fee-property-management-fees) in May 2023, put management fees at about 6.1% to 10.3% of gross rent across the cities it looked at, using 2022 data. Letting fees were generally one to two weeks' rent plus GST. DHA sells its own leasing product, so treat those numbers as a rough guide rather than a price list. In dollars, a property renting for $600 a week, or $31,200 a year, would pay roughly $1,900 to $3,200 a year in ongoing management fees at 6.1% to 10.3%. A new tenancy adds another one to two weeks' rent on top, before advertising, inspection and admin charges. Those fees are tax deductible, according to the [ATO](https://www.ato.gov.au/forms-and-instructions/rental-properties-2025/rental-expenses), which softens the blow. It does not change the question of what you are getting for them. ## What a smooth tenancy needs When a tenancy runs smoothly, the work is predictable. Rent comes in. A statement goes out. Once or twice a year someone inspects the property and writes a report. Now and then a tap drips or an appliance fails and a tradesperson gets called. At renewal, someone reviews the rent. In my experience, agencies lean heavily on software for almost all of that. Rent reminders, receipts, owner statements, entry notices and inspection report templates are largely generated by the system. That is not a criticism: software is how an agency makes the numbers work. But it means that for a well-behaved tenancy, much of what feels like service is an automated process with a person checking it. The usual pattern is that most tenants pay on time and rarely call. For those tenancies, the fee pays for a system that sits in the background, and for someone to be on call in case something goes wrong. ## The 200-property reality If a property manager looks after 200 properties and gave every one an equal share of a 40-hour week, each property would get about 12 minutes. Most owners never do that arithmetic. In practice it does not work out evenly. The time goes where the problems are: the tenancy in arrears, the urgent repair, the difficult vacate, the tribunal file. The well-run tenancy on a quiet street gets very little attention, because it does not need much, and a busy manager has no spare hours to give it anyway. With a full portfolio, attention follows problems, not fees. The owner of a trouble-free property is, in effect, helping pay for the time spent on the troubled ones. ## Where agents earn their fee To be fair, there are situations where a good property manager is worth every dollar, and I would not pretend otherwise. - **Arrears.** Following up unpaid rent promptly, issuing the right notices at the right time and keeping a clean record is where experience matters most. A mistake in the notice process can mean starting again. - **Tribunal work.** If a dispute goes to your state's tenancy tribunal, a manager who has prepared many cases knows what evidence is needed and how to present it. - **Distance.** If you live interstate or overseas, having someone local to attend inspections, meet tradespeople and deal with emergencies is a real service. - **Time.** Some owners simply do not have the hours or the interest, and paying someone else to hold the phone is a reasonable choice. If one of those describes you, a good agent is money well spent. Our guide on [how to choose a property manager](https://www.landlordweekly.com/articles/how-to-choose-a-property-manager) covers how to find one, and our guide on how to [keep your property manager accountable](https://www.landlordweekly.com/articles/keep-your-property-manager-accountable) covers how to make sure you get what you pay for. ## The miscommunication chain The other thing I learned from the inside is that tenants are not bad people. Much of what goes wrong in this industry comes down to miscommunication, and that miscommunication is what turns into disputes between owners and tenants. The structure makes it easy. An owner tells the agent what they want. The agent, juggling a full portfolio, passes a shorter version to the tenant. The tenant replies to the agent, who passes a shorter version back to the owner. Every step loses a little detail and a little tone. The usual pattern: a tenant reports a repair and hears nothing for a while, because the request is waiting on an owner approval or a quote. The owner hears about it late, or only in summary. By the time the two sides are talking, through a third party, each assumes the other is being unreasonable. Neither has actually spoken to the other. None of that needs a bad tenant, a bad owner or a bad agent. It only needs a busy middleman and a message passed along too many times. ## Why I moved to managing directly I moved to self-managing for three reasons: better relationships with tenants, better outcomes, and saving money. The money is the easiest part to explain. The relationship matters more. When the tenant can talk to the person who actually makes the decision, most small problems get sorted in one conversation. A repair gets approved on the spot. A question about the lease gets a straight answer. There is no chain for the message to get lost in. Self-managing is not for everyone. You take on the legal obligations directly, you need to know your state's rules, and you have to answer the phone when something breaks. But for a tenancy where the rent arrives on time and the tenant looks after the place, which is most of them, I think owners should at least do the sums before assuming an agent is the only option. Our [guide to self-managing a rental property](https://www.landlordweekly.com/articles/self-managing-rental-property-guide) is a practical place to start. ## What I would tell an owner If you use an agent, know what the fee pays for. For a quiet tenancy it mostly pays for a system and for cover when something goes wrong. That may be worth it to you, and that is a fair decision. Consumer Affairs Victoria, for example, [says](https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing/renting/starting-and-changing-rental-agreements/using-a-property-manager-or-agent) you can negotiate all fees and expenses except those fixed by law, and other state regulators take a similar line. Ask how many properties the person managing yours looks after. Ask how quickly repair requests reach you. And whichever way you go, talk to your tenant more than you think you need to. In my experience, that is where most disputes are prevented. ## Sources - [Defence Housing Australia: Comparing DHA's service fee to property management fees (25 May 2023, BIS Oxford Economics 2022 data)](https://www.dha.gov.au/investing/investor-resources/investor-news/comparing-dhas-service-fee-property-management-fees) - [Consumer Affairs Victoria: Using a property manager or real estate agent](https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing/renting/starting-and-changing-rental-agreements/using-a-property-manager-or-agent) - [ATO: Rental properties 2025, rental expenses](https://www.ato.gov.au/forms-and-instructions/rental-properties-2025/rental-expenses) --- *General information only, not financial, legal or tax advice. Source: Landlord Weekly, https://www.landlordweekly.com/articles/what-your-property-manager-fee-really-buys*