Property Management
Seven Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Property Manager
June 24, 2026 · 4 min read · Aplis Management
Reporting cadence, vendor markups, and escalation paths tell you more about a management firm than any pitch deck.
Most management agreements look alike. The difference shows up in the operating detail, so ask about it before you sign.
Start with reporting: what arrives, how often, and can you see the underlying transactions? Then vendor economics — are trades marked up, and is the markup disclosed? Then escalation: who answers at 2 a.m., and how quickly does an owner hear about a material event?
Ask for the portfolio's average work-order close time and turnover cost per unit. Ask which of your buildings' systems the manager has serviced before. Ask what happens in the first ninety days of a transition, and who owns your data if the relationship ends.
A firm that answers these plainly, with numbers, is telling you how it operates. A firm that answers with adjectives is telling you something too.
