What you receive from a $2,500 rental each month is the rent minus four things: the monthly management fee, any repair invoices that month, the top-up of your owner reserve, and in the first month the leasing fee. There is no single answer because every company's fee structure is different, so this page gives you the arithmetic and a clearly labeled example to run your own quote through.
The example below uses an 8 percent monthly fee and a half-month leasing fee purely as illustration. Those are not Perpetual's fees and not a market average; they are round numbers that make the math easy to follow. Replace them with the figures in any written quote you are holding.
A normal month: rent minus the monthly fee
In a month with no repairs, the statement is short. Using the illustrative 8 percent:
- Rent collected: $2,500
- Management fee at 8 percent: $200
- Disbursed to you: $2,300
That is the figure most owners have in mind when they ask the question, and on a quiet month it is right. Two things change it even in a quiet month. If the fee is a flat amount instead of a percentage, substitute it. And if the fee is charged on rent collected rather than rent due, a month where the tenant pays late can push the fee and the disbursement into the following month, so the annual total is the same but the timing shifts. The components that go into any quote, and what drives them up or down, are explained in how much property management costs in DFW.
A month with a repair
Repairs come out of rent before it reaches you. Suppose a plumber replaced a garbage disposal for $200, paid from the reserve when the invoice arrived:
- Rent collected: $2,500
- Management fee: $200
- Reserve replenished for the disposal: $200
- Disbursed to you: $2,100
If the manager adds a maintenance markup or a coordination fee, that appears here too, and it is the line that varies most between companies. On the same repair, a 10 percent markup would make it $220 and the disbursement $2,080. Over a year of ordinary repairs the difference is modest; over a year with an HVAC replacement it is not. The statement should show the vendor's name and let you open the invoice. How to read each line is in how to read your monthly owner statement.
The first month: the leasing fee and the reserve
The first disbursement is the one that surprises owners. The leasing fee is usually deducted from the first month's rent, and the owner reserve is funded at the same time. With an illustrative half-month leasing fee and a $250 reserve:
- Rent collected: $2,500
- Leasing fee at half a month: $1,250
- Management fee: $200
- Reserve funded: $250
- Disbursed to you: $800
Some managers do not charge the management fee in the lease-up month, which would make it $1,000; some fund the reserve from an owner contribution instead of rent. Either way, plan for a small first payment and a normal one from the second month. If the first month's rent is prorated because the tenant moved in mid-month, the first disbursement can be near zero and the leasing fee balance carries to the next statement.
A full year, with and without a turnover
Monthly figures mislead because the expensive events are annual. Two illustrative years on the same $2,500 house, same 8 percent fee, $1,800 of ordinary repairs at vendor cost:
- Year with the tenant renewing. Rent $30,000. Management fees $2,400. Repairs $1,800. A renewal fee if the company charges one, say $250. You receive about $25,550, or roughly $2,130 a month averaged.
- Year with one turnover and three weeks vacant. Rent about $28,100. Management fees about $2,250 on rent collected. Repairs $1,800 plus a $1,200 make-ready. Leasing fee $1,250. You receive about $21,600, or roughly $1,800 a month averaged.
The turnover year costs about $3,950 more than the renewal year, and most of it is vacancy and make-ready, not fees. That is why the manager's effect on tenant retention and vacancy is worth more than a point on the percentage. The full return calculation with mortgage, taxes and insurance is in how to calculate return on a rental property.
What is not in these numbers
The disbursement is not your profit. Out of it you still pay the mortgage, property tax, landlord insurance, any HOA dues, and you should be setting aside your own fund for a roof or an HVAC system that the manager's reserve was never meant to cover. Management fees are generally a deductible expense of operating the rental, as are repairs; confirm the treatment with your CPA, since this is general information and not tax advice.
The numbers also assume a fee structure with nothing else on it. A technology fee, an inspection fee or a trip charge would each reduce the disbursement by its amount, which is why the written fee schedule, not the percentage, is what to run the arithmetic on. The pricing page lists every charge Perpetual applies so there is nothing to assume.
How Perpetual handles this
I will not give you a percentage over the phone and let you guess the rest. For a specific house in Keller, North Richland Hills or Fort Worth, Perpetual gives you a written quote with every fee in dollars, so you can run exactly the arithmetic on this page with real figures before you sign: a normal month, a repair month, the first month and a full year. There are no fees that are not on that page.
Once you are a client, the monthly statement shows the same arithmetic as separate lines, rent in, each deduction with its invoice, the reserve balance, and the amount sent to your bank, and the owner portal lets you open any month and any invoice. Repairs are billed at vendor cost through vetted vendors, and inspections are documented with photos so small problems do not become the large repairs that distort a year.
If you do not yet know what the house would rent for, start with a free rental analysis; the fee math is only as good as the rent figure it starts from.
The takeaway: Run rent minus the monthly fee, repairs, the reserve top-up and the first-month leasing fee using the dollar figures in your own written quote, and judge the year, not the month.
Questions owners ask
Is the management fee charged on gross rent or net?
On rent collected or rent due, as defined in the agreement, before any expenses are deducted. It is not charged on the amount you receive after repairs. If the agreement charges on rent due, the fee accrues even in a month the tenant does not pay, so check which definition applies.
When will I receive the money each month?
Most managers disburse on a set date after rent clears, often within the first half of the month, with the statement posted at the same time. Ask for the schedule in writing and whether a late-paying tenant delays your payment or whether the manager disburses what has been received by the cutoff.
Do I pay the management fee during vacancy?
On a rent-collected agreement, no, because the fee is a share of rent received and none came in. On a rent-due agreement or one with a minimum charged regardless of occupancy, yes. The clause that decides it is in the compensation section of the agreement.
Are property management fees tax deductible?
Management fees, leasing fees and repairs are generally treated as ordinary expenses of operating a rental, and the year-end statement from the manager is what your CPA uses to claim them. Improvements are treated differently from repairs. This is general information, not tax advice; confirm the treatment with your CPA.
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Property management in Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth. How full-service management works in Tarrant County →
