When considering the cost of professional property management there are several items that you want to take into consideration.  For instance, the real cost of management is really only about half of what you are seeing – BECAUSE, half of the cost would be the same if YOU or any other person did it.  For example, not even counting how much your time is worth (soft cost or “opportunity cost”) YOU spend money on fuel to get to the property, you fix stuff with materials that cost you money, you use resources such as a phone, internet, background and credit services that all cost you money.  Many times a great professional property management company can offset the cost of their management fee by being more efficient in these areas that you are already paying for.  Such as utilizing an in-house maintenance company to save money instead of calling a high priced contractor or vendor when a repair is needed.  They can also reduce vacancy and time on market, they can increase the amount of rent by staying up on the market as well as avoiding unnecessary expenses and liability.