One PM says 8% of collected, the other says 10% of gross scheduled. Same range on paper?

Gross scheduled rent is what the property would collect if every unit were rented at the asking rate for all twelve months. Collected rent is what actually came in. So on a unit that sits empty for six weeks, the first manager bills you nothing and the second one keeps billing.

Which is the part that flips it. A manager on collected rent loses money when your unit is vacant, so they have a reason to fill it. A manager on scheduled rent gets paid the same either way.

Is the setup fee per door or per owner? $250 across a portfolio is nothing, $250 times eight doors is $2,000 before anyone has done anything.

We bill on collected, and I'd push back hard on the second proposal. Half a month for a renewal is the line I'd argue about most. A renewal is a rent survey, a lease amendment and a signature, and $150 to $300 flat is what I see most places charge for it. On a $1,600 unit half a month is $800 for maybe ninety minutes of work.

The percentage isn't where the difference lives, by the way. Add up the placement fee, the renewal fee and the markup on maintenance invoices and that's usually a bigger spread between two managers than the two points on the management fee.

Ran it on one $1,600 door with one turn in the year and six weeks vacant. First proposal: about $1,300 management plus $1,600 placement, call it $2,900. Second: roughly $1,920 management (they bill the vacancy), $250 setup, $1,200 placement, $2,370 and change before a renewal happens. Different enough that "both are in the 8 to 12 band" tells you almost nothing.

What's a maintenance markup? Neither proposal mentioned one and now I'm wondering if that's on purpose.

@rigging it's a percentage the manager adds to a contractor's invoice, often 8 to 15 percent, sometimes disclosed as a coordination fee and sometimes not disclosed at all. Ask for it in writing.

While you're asking, get the approval threshold in the agreement too. Standard is that the manager can spend up to some amount per incident without calling you, often $300 or $500. On a rehab-adjacent property that number turns into real money fast, because a $480 repair nobody has to call about happens a lot more often than a $520 one.