You're Managing Your Own Properties. But Have You Ever Counted the Hours?
Six hours a month of your time. Have you ever put a price on it?
We asked a landlord recently how much time he spent managing his three properties each month.
A few hours, he said. Nothing major.
So we suggested he actually track it for the next four weeks. Write down every call, every email, every trip, every hour spent sorting a contractor or chasing a payment or looking something up online.
When he came back to us the number was eleven and a half hours.
Not eleven and a half hours of crisis management. Just the ordinary everyday stuff. A tenant query. A contractor who needed chasing. A renewal to think about. A payment that was three days late and needed a message.
Nothing dramatic. But it added up.
The number nobody puts on a spreadsheet
When landlords compare the cost of self-managing to the cost of professional management, they almost always compare the management fee to zero.
But zero is not the real cost. The real cost is your time. And your time has a value.
Put even £25 an hour on eleven and a half hours and you are looking at over £3,400 a year. Put a more realistic professional rate on it and the number gets bigger still.
Suddenly the management fee that felt like an extra expense looks completely different. It is not a cost. It is an exchange. You are buying back hours at a rate that is almost certainly less than the rate at which you create value in the rest of your life.
The other side of this
There is a practical argument and there is also just a quality of life argument.
The landlord with the eleven and a half hours told us that the thing he had not factored in was not the cost. It was the mental load. The low-level background awareness that something might need attention. The way a Saturday morning call changes the tone of a weekend.
That is harder to put a number on but it is just as real.
He switched to full management. Within a month he said the first thing he noticed was the Saturdays.
Your action point this week
For the next four weeks, keep a simple log of every hour you spend on your properties.
Every call. Every email. Every trip. Every hour of anything property-related.
At the end of the month, add it up. Put your honest hourly rate on it.
Then compare that to the cost of full management and see what the maths actually says.
If any of this sounds familiar, I would love to have a chat. We offer a free, no-obligation portfolio review to landlords across Bolton and Greater Manchester. No sales pitch, no pressure — just an honest conversation about what your portfolio could be doing better. Give us a call on 01204 659670, drop me an email at katie@harrisonsnet.co.uk or visit harrisonsnet.co.uk. We are right here on Newbrook Road and the kettle is always on.
Here's to your property success!
Katie
Harrisons Estate Agents
01204 659670 | katie@harrisonsnet.co.uk | harrisonsnet.co.uk