Priced a mixed-use management contract like an apartment building and lost money for a year

The 40 hours on the dark bay is the part I'd underline. On the renovation side I see the same shape, where the fee is tied to the thing that's working and all the labor is on the thing that isn't. A percentage of collected rent is a terrible fee structure for any task that exists specifically because there's no rent.

Also, one bad reconciliation that had to be redone probably cost you more in credibility with that owner than in hours.

The structural problem is that you took a fee tied to collected residential rent and applied it to work that scales with lease complexity. Those don't move together.

On the reconciliation specifically. Whether a landlord can recover a given cost from a commercial tenant depends on the lease language, and the annual statement usually has to identify the expense pool, the tenant's share, and the method. If the lease defines pro rata share against total building area, the apartments are in the denominator, and every dollar of residential-only expense sitting in the pool gives the tenant's bookkeeper a reason to dispute the whole statement. Carve out residential turnover, residential utilities, and anything tied to the apartment side before you calculate, and keep the workpapers. Many commercial leases also give the tenant an audit right with a deadline, so a late or unsupported statement can put recovery at risk. How far a tenant's challenge gets depends on the lease and on state law, so an owner in that spot should have their attorney read the actual document.

On pricing. A structure that separates the two is common: a percentage of residential collections, a flat monthly fee per commercial bay that doesn't drop to zero when the bay is vacant, a separate fee for the annual reconciliation, and a leasing commission on new commercial leases paid at signing or at rent commencement. That last distinction matters more than people expect. Commission at signing on a lease with a long build-out means you get paid for work you did while the owner waits.

The question to answer before you quote the next one is which lease type drives the hours. On a 12-over-2 it was the two, and your fee was set by the twelve.

I don't own any properties yet, so this is all secondhand for me. The thing I hadn't understood is that the two halves of a mixed-use building need genuinely different skills, and an owner who wants one bill is asking for something that costs more, not less.