Why I Self-Manage My Rental Properties (And Why You Should Consider It)

I own four apartments in Auckland CBD: a three-bedroom, two one-bedrooms with car parks, and a one-bedroom. The path to letting them was not the textbook one. The three-bedroom started as the place my partner and I lived in with our five-month-old toddler. We kept our house but moved into the CBD apartment for convenience - it was a ten-minute walk to both our jobs, the daycare was on the way, the doctor, the supermarket, every amenity was close. We took a boarder in the spare room to help with the mortgage.

Six months later baby number two was on the way and we moved back to the house. The boarder stayed and brought a couple, then a single person, so the three-bedroom turned into a rent-by-the-room arrangement. I rented the carpark separately. With everything added up, the place was earning well above whole-of-unit market rent, and for about a year it worked - the tenants knew each other, got along, made it a social thing.

COVID hit during that year. When Auckland went into mandatory lockdowns and my tenants lost income, I halved the rent on the spot. My bank did not give me a reciprocal reduction on the mortgage interest, so I absorbed the difference out of my own pocket. The tenants remembered that. Years later some of them introduced friends who became good tenants in turn.

Then life pulled the original group apart. Once they started leaving one by one, the cracks showed: hard to find replacement tenants, inter-personal issues between strangers thrown together, rent on different schedules, constant turnover. The building also went into a planned closure window for re-cladding work, which meant nobody wanted to sign a long lease. I declined a lowball offer from a guy who wanted to sublet the unit to students at a fixed rate - the price was below market and students were not going to look after the apartment.

Once the building reopened I made a strategic decision: families only, never students, never by-the-room. The total rent would be lower than the by-room peak, but the cost of constant vacancies and inter-tenant disputes was higher than the upside. The first family signed at $800/week and stayed a year. The second family signed at $800/week and is still there. At renewal I offered $780 in exchange for a one-year signature - rents had softened a little and I valued the stability - they preferred to continue week-to-week at $800. Both of us happy.

That whole arc happened without a property manager. From the very beginning I did the maths and found out using a PM did not make financial sense in my case. Here is why, and what I learned observing fellow landlords dealing with property managers, reading horror stories in the press, and being mistreated in my early years when I was looking to rent a property for myself.

The Numbers That Made Me Go Solo

PM charge around 8% + GST of rent, plus a letting fee (one week's rent + GST) every time a tenant changed, plus inspection fees, plus a markup on every maintenance job. On 3 x 1-bed apartments averaging $450/week each, and a 3-bed for $800 that was roughly $10,300 a year in management fees alone - before any of the extras.

What was I getting for that? Someone to collect rent (which the bank does automatically via direct debit), forward maintenance requests to the same tradies I already knew, and do three inspections a year that I could do myself in two hours.

When I did the maths, I had two choices:

1. Go with a PM and pass the cost to tenants through higher rent
2. Drop the PM and either pocket the saving and/or reduce rent

I chose option 2. I reduced rent slightly - enough to be noticeably more competitive than comparable apartments - this way I could offer better rate to good tenants who would pay and take care of the property. The result: lower vacancy, longer tenancies, and better tenants who appreciated the fair deal. I was financially better off AND my tenants were happier.

COVID Proved the Model

When COVID hit in 2020 and Auckland went into mandatory lockdowns, I was able to make decisions immediately. I halved the rent for tenants who lost income during lockdown. No committee, no head office approval, no "we'll check with the landlord" - I was the landlord, and I made the call on the spot.

My tenants stayed. They remembered that when things went back to normal. Years have passed, but I remember some introduced me to friends who were looking for a place and who in turn were good tenants. A property manager wouldn't have done that. They would have followed their standard process - maybe offered a small deferral, maybe not. Their incentive is the management fee, which is a percentage of rent. Reducing rent means reducing their income. They have no reason to suggest it.

When the government removed interest deductibility in 2021, I was able to absorb the impact because I wasn't paying a PM. That 8% saving was the difference between being cash-flow positive and bleeding money. Landlords who kept their PMs had to either increase rent aggressively or sell. I did neither.

Property Managers Don't Think for You

Here's the uncomfortable truth about PMs: they're not incentivised to do what's best for you. They're incentivised to minimise their own workload while maintaining the fee.

Tenant screening? Most PMs do the bare minimum - a credit check and a reference from the previous landlord (who might be trying to get rid of a bad tenant). They won't spend 30 minutes talking to an applicant to understand if they're actually a good fit for your property. They won't notice the subtle red flags. They process applications like a factory because volume is how they make money.

I screen my own tenants. I meet them. I ask questions. I check references properly - calling the employer, talking to the previous landlord, verifying the story makes sense. It takes time, but getting the right tenant means I don't hear from them for months at a time. That's the goal: a tenancy that manages itself.

Maintenance? A PM will send the first available tradie and mark it done. I'll ask what actually needs fixing, whether it's urgent or can wait, and whether there's a cheaper solution. When you're paying your own money, you make better decisions than someone spending yours.

Inspections? PMs do them because they charge for them. I do them because I want to see my property. There's a difference.

When the Tenancy Manages Itself

Here's what people don't realise about self-managing: if you set it up right, you don't actually do much.

Direct debit or automatic payment handles rent collection. Bank transaction matching tells you instantly if someone hasn't paid. Automated reminders chase arrears before you even know about it. Digital tenancy agreements mean no paperwork.

The actual time I spend on four apartments averages maybe 30 minutes a week. Most weeks it's zero - I just check the dashboard and see green across the board. The weeks with work are tenant changeovers (once every 1-2 years per apartment) and the occasional maintenance call.

Compare that to the $198/week a PM would cost. That's nearly $400/hour for the work I actually do.

What You Need to Self-Manage

You don't need property management experience. You need:

1. A system for tracking rent and expenses - not a spreadsheet, a proper tool that shows you arrears, sends reminders, and generates tax reports.
2. Good tenants - which means spending proper time on screening upfront instead of rubber-stamping applications.
3. Two or three reliable tradies - a plumber, an electrician, and a general handyman. You'll use them maybe 3-4 times a year.
4. Basic knowledge of the Residential Tenancies Act - specifically: how much notice for rent increases (60 days per s.24, not 90 despite what most landlord forums say), how to issue a s.55 notice (14 days for rent arrears), and what the Healthy Homes Standards require.
5. About 30 minutes a week.

When a PM Is Worth It

I'm not saying PMs are worthless. They make sense if:

• You live overseas and can't attend to issues in person
• You have 20+ properties and genuinely can't manage them yourself
• You have high-maintenance properties (old houses that need constant work)
• You truly don't want to deal with people at all

But for 1-5 properties in the same city? You're paying $2,000+ per property per year for someone to do what takes you half an hour a week. And they're doing it worse than you would, because nobody cares about your property as much as you do.

The Real Cost of a PM

When someone says "I use a PM because it saves me time," ask them: how much time exactly? Because the answer is usually "I don't know." They're paying for peace of mind, not actual work. And that peace of mind costs them $8,000-15,000 a year across a few properties.

Meanwhile, the PM:

• Won't reduce rent during a crisis to keep good tenants
• Won't spend extra time finding the right tenant
• Won't negotiate with tradies on your behalf
• Won't notice that the tenant's car has been gone for a month (subletting?)
• Won't treat your property like their own
• Won't get you good long-term tenants because they want the week letting fee and churn is best

I built RentManager because I needed the system part: tracking rent, generating notices, filing for Tribunal when needed, managing documents. The human part: the relationship with tenants, the decisions about rent levels, the judgment calls, that is the part you should keep.

Why a Cheap PM Is Worse Than No PM at All

There is a reason I would rather self-manage than hire a budget property manager, and it comes down to incentive math. At 8% of weekly rent, a PM earns about $44 per week on a $550 property. That is $2,288 per year. At a junior property manager salary of $65,000, with overheads, that translates to maybe 6 to 8 hours of actual staff time per year on your property. Per year.

When your property is vacant, that $44 goes to zero. But you lose $550 every single week. The PM loses a rounding error. You lose your mortgage payment. The cheaper the PM, the worse this asymmetry gets: at 7%, it is $38 per week to them, $550 per week to you. The incentives are not just misaligned, they are inverted. You are far more motivated to fill a vacancy than any property management company charging that rate will ever be.

A cheap PM is not just not good enough. They are structurally disincentivised from doing the one job that matters most: keeping your property occupied. You are better off self-managing and caring about the outcome than handing it to someone for whom your vacancy is a rounding error. See Tenancy Services on property manager obligations for what a PM is actually required to do under NZ law.

The Scare Numbers Property Managers Use, Fact-Checked

When a management company pitches you, the sales copy leans on a few frightening figures. I keep seeing the same ones recycled across Auckland PM websites. Here is what they actually are.

"A failed tenancy costs $3,000 to $8,000 in tribunal proceedings." The Tenancy Tribunal application fee is $28 (it rose to that on 1 July 2025). The scary number is lost rent and damage from a bad tenant, and a property manager does not make that disappear: the loss still lands on you, the owner. If you win, the Tribunal can order the other party to repay your $28. What actually prevents a bad tenancy is careful screening, the one job I never outsource.

"Healthy Homes breaches cost $4,000 each." The maximum is $7,200 in total across all breaches in a case, not per breach, and it is awarded against the landlord whether or not a manager is involved. A PM does not absorb your compliance liability. A simple Healthy Homes checklist protects you far more than an 8% fee does.

"DIY landlords lose two to three weeks of rent to vacancy every year." Vacancy is a function of pricing and listing reach, not who collects the rent. I list on the same Trade Me and realestate.co.nz channels a manager uses, and because I price fairly for good tenants, my vacancies are shorter, not longer.

None of these numbers is an argument for handing over 8% of your rent. They are an argument for screening well, keeping a compliance checklist, and pricing fairly, all of which you can do yourself.

If you self-manage your properties, RentManager NZ handles rent tracking, arrears reminders, Healthy Homes compliance, bond lodgement, and digital signing. From $9 per month. Nick Georgiev, RentManager NZ.