INTERVIEW WITH ONEPROP INC. LEASING AND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LINDA PLIAGAS
Perhaps a common theme for not hiring professional property management is the mentality of “how hard can it
be to rent a house?” The problem with this is that most owner/landlords do not have a sound understanding of
the Property Codes that govern their states’ tenant/landlord relationships. Nor do they intimately understand
Fair Housing Laws. It is not uncommon for owner/landlords to engage property management when something
goes wrong.
Do you see a lot of long-distance land lording
going on?
Most out of state investors choose to have their
properties managed by a professional management
company. ONEprop manages over 4,500 investment
properties with 80% of the investors located out of
state or country.
In your opinion, is this trend of buying afar
increasing or decreasing?
Over the past 5 years we have seen an increase of
investors from afar looking to diversify their cash by
investing in real estate here in the US.
If you had to pinpoint it, where do you think most of your investors are coming from?
There is no longer a majority coming from one source (i.e. out-of-state individual owners buying homes).
Rather, we are seeing an equal mix of individual investors buying rentals homes and institutional capital such
as hedge funds, private equity groups, and sovereign wealth.
What advice do you have for landlords in choosing a management company?
Property management is a relationship based business. When shopping for a property management company,
investors should be most concerned with the attention both they and their property will receive. The last thing
a client should be concerned about is fees. However, all too often a prospective customer will lead the
conversation with fees and make decisions based on out of pocket costs. Rather, questions should be geared
toward process, procedure, and level of communication they should expect to receive.