What a property manager really costs in Fort Worth, fee by fee

The short answer, with our numbers on the table

At Perpetual Property Management, owners pay a monthly management fee of 7 to 10 percent of the rent, depending on the plan, plus a one-time tenant placement fee of 50 to 75 percent of one month's rent when we lease the home. Renewals, an enrollment inspection and maintenance coordination are priced separately, and every one of those charges is written into the management agreement before you sign. Most managers in Fort Worth and Tarrant County use the same building blocks; the real differences hide in how each block is calculated.

I publish our fee schedule because owners deserve to compare managers without sitting through a sales call first. Below I walk through each charge, show our three plans line by line, explain what pushes a quote up or down, and point out the costs that never appear in the headline percentage. Use it to read our quote or anyone else's.

Four charges that show up in nearly every management quote

Strip away the marketing and almost every residential management quote comes down to four kinds of charges. Knowing what each one pays for makes it much easier to spot a quote that looks cheap only because something has been moved somewhere else.

Watch the extras too. Some companies add inspection fees, technology or statement fees, setup fees, vacancy fees or a charge to leave. None of these is automatically unfair, but each one belongs in writing before you commit, not on your third statement.

• The monthly management fee: a percentage of rent or a flat amount, covering rent collection, accounting, tenant communication and day-to-day oversight.
• The leasing or placement fee: charged when a new tenant moves in, covering pricing, listing, showings, screening, the lease and the move-in inspection.
• The renewal fee: a smaller charge when an existing tenant signs a new term, which should buy a real market check and a negotiation, not just paperwork.
• Maintenance billing: vendor invoices passed through at cost or with a coordination charge on top, which is the line most owners never ask about.

Our three plans, line by line

We offer three plans. All three include an annual property inspection, 24/7 emergency response and the online owner portal. The differences are in the percentage, the one-time charges and whether eviction service is built in. Here is how they compare on our published pricing.

• Investor Special, for portfolios of five or more units: 7 percent of monthly rent, tenant placement at 50 percent of one month's rent, lease renewal $149, enrollment inspection $125, make-ready coordination 3 to 5 percent of cost, optional eviction service $7.95 a month.
• Standard, for single homes and small portfolios: 9 percent of monthly rent, tenant placement at 75 percent of one month's rent, lease renewal $200, enrollment inspection $49, maintenance coordination 4.9 percent of cost, optional eviction service $7.95 a month.
• Full Service: 10 percent of monthly rent, tenant placement at 50 percent of one month's rent, lease renewal $150, onboarding and enrollment inspection included, maintenance coordination 5 percent of cost, eviction service included.

Why two houses on the same street get different quotes

The plan is a starting point. We set the final fee after a free rental analysis, because the work behind two houses can be very different. A newer home that needs no turn work between tenants may cost less to manage. An older home that needs permits and repairs at every turnover may cost more, because more of our time goes into coordinating vendors and documenting work.

The number of doors matters as well, which is why portfolio owners get a lower percentage. So does occupancy. Taking over a house with a tenant already in place is a different job from a full make-ready and lease-up. And because the main fee is a percentage, it scales with the rent itself. Plans are negotiable case by case, and every figure is confirmed in writing before you sign anything.

• Age and condition of the house and its major systems
• How many properties you own and want managed
• Vacant and needing work, vacant and ready, or occupied
• Rent level, since percentage fees rise and fall with it

The costs that never appear in the headline percentage

A one-point difference in the monthly fee is easy to see and usually the least important number in the quote. The money that moves an owner's year sits elsewhere. Maintenance markups, added quietly to every invoice, can outgrow the management fee over a few years. A fee billed during vacancy removes the manager's urgency to fill the house. A company that earns a fresh leasing fee every time a tenant leaves has a reason to prefer turnover over renewals. And a long lock-in with an early-termination fee makes it expensive to walk away from poor service.

Turnover is the biggest of these. Our renewal guidance puts a typical turnover at one to two months of rent, or roughly $2,000 to $5,000 on a typical Tarrant County home, once you add vacancy, make-ready and leasing costs. A manager who keeps a good tenant an extra year, or fills a vacant house two weeks sooner, saves more than the gap between almost any two management fees. That is why I tell owners to compare the whole year, not the percentage.

Running the numbers on one rental house

Take a single-family home renting for $2,000 a month on our Standard plan. Nine percent of the rent is $180 a month, or $2,160 over a year. Tenant placement at 75 percent of one month's rent is $1,500, paid once when the tenant moves in, not every year. If the tenant renews, the renewal fee is $200. Maintenance coordination is 4.9 percent of whatever the vendor invoices, and you see the original invoice in the portal.

The picture changes for a portfolio. Five similar houses at $2,000 each on the Investor Special plan pay 7 percent, or $140 a month per house and $700 a month across the five, against $900 a month at the Standard rate. Placement on that plan is 50 percent of one month's rent, so $1,000 per new lease instead of $1,500. Make-ready coordination is billed as a percentage of the actual cost of the work, which keeps small turns cheap and puts the larger ones on paper.

Now set that against a single empty month, which costs the full $2,000 in rent plus utilities, lawn care and the mortgage you are still paying. One avoided vacant month covers most of a year of management fees on that house. The math does not work for every owner, and some people should self-manage, but it is the comparison that matters. If you are weighing a cheaper leasing-only option, read what tenant placement covers and what it leaves to you before deciding.

Where our written guarantees change the math

A fee is only fair if the work behind it happens. That is why we put five guarantees in writing, and why a missed guarantee costs us our fee rather than costing you. If your home is not live on every major rental platform within five business days of being market-ready, the first month's management fee is waived. If collected rent is not disbursed to you by the 10th of the month, that month's fee is waived. If we miss a one-business-day response or the weekly written vacancy report, tell us and that month's fee is credited.

If a tenant we placed defaults and is removed, or breaks the lease, within the first six months, we find a new tenant with no additional leasing fee. And every fee you pay must be listed in the written agreement; anything not listed is not owed. The guarantees apply to homes under an active management agreement and follow the terms of our Guarantee Addendum, which you should read alongside the agreement. In practice the guarantees matter less as refunds than as a standard: they tell you exactly what we will do and when, so you can hold us to it.

A fair way to put two quotes side by side

Ask every manager you are considering for the same documents, in writing, and line them up. If a company will not put its fees on paper before you sign, that tells you what the statements will look like later. Our list of questions that expose a weak property manager goes further on the non-fee side, but these items cover the money.

• Is the monthly fee charged on collected rent, or billed even when the house is empty?
• Is maintenance passed through at cost or with a charge on top, and will I see the vendor's original invoice?
• What does the leasing fee include, and what happens to it if the tenant fails in the first months?
• What does a renewal cost, and what work does that fee buy?
• What is the notice period to leave, and is there a termination fee?
• Can I see a sample owner statement and a sample inspection report?

Getting an exact number for your house

The fastest way to a real figure is the free rental analysis. Tell us the city, the type of home, the bedrooms, the condition and the current rent if there is one. We send back a rent range built from leased comparables, a list of make-ready items, and a written management quote with every fee itemized. There is no obligation, and some owners use the analysis to self-manage with better numbers.

If the renewal is your next decision rather than a new lease, our guide on whether to raise the rent at renewal shows how we weigh an increase against turnover. And if you are about to move and keep your home as a rental for the first time, start with what it takes to price, lease and manage a house you are leaving.

Questions people ask me