What Full-Service Property Management Usually Leaves Out

Full service means the manager runs the rental: pricing, marketing, screening, leasing, rent collection, maintenance, inspections, renewals and the move-out. It does not mean the manager owns the problems of ownership. Insurance, property taxes, the mortgage, HOA dues, major capital decisions and legal representation stay with you under almost every agreement, and owners who assume otherwise find out at the worst time.

This guide lists what is normally excluded, explains why, and shows how to find the exact line in any agreement before you sign it. The goal is not to talk you out of full service. It is to make sure you know which calls are still yours.

The honest list of what stays with the owner

Across the industry, the scope of full-service management is remarkably consistent, and so are the exclusions. Under a typical agreement the owner keeps:

• Buying and paying for landlord insurance, and filing claims.
• Paying property taxes, protesting the appraisal, and filing income tax returns.
• Paying the mortgage and keeping the lender informed if the loan requires it.
• Paying HOA dues and assessments, and resolving disputes with the association as the member.
• Deciding whether and when to replace a roof, HVAC system, water heater, fence or flooring, and funding it.
• Legal representation in court beyond routine filings the manager handles as your agent.
• Large renovations and remodels outside ordinary maintenance.
• Selling the property, unless the management company is also a brokerage you choose to list with.

None of these are surprises to a manager. They are surprises to owners who read "full service" as "I never think about this house again." What a property manager does covers the included side; the rest of this guide covers the other side of the line.

Insurance: you buy it, the manager documents

The manager does not insure your house and cannot. The policy is in your name, you pay the premium, and the claim is yours to file. What a good manager does is make sure the policy is the right kind, which usually means a landlord policy rather than the homeowner policy you had when you lived there, and that the management company is listed as an additional insured where the carrier allows it.

When something happens, the manager's role is documentation and access: photos, the tenant's account, vendor estimates, and letting the adjuster in. The decision to file, the deductible, and the conversation with the carrier belong to you. Some owners ask the manager to handle the claim end to end; a few companies offer that for a fee, most do not, and the agreement should say which. The two guides on landlord insurance versus homeowner insurance and how a manager works with insurance claims go deeper.

Property taxes and income taxes

The tax appraisal notice goes to the owner of record, the property tax bill goes to the owner or the mortgage escrow, and neither is paid by the manager. If you want to protest the appraised value, that is your filing or your tax agent's. The manager can supply rent history and repair records that support a protest, but will not file it unless the agreement specifically includes that service, and most do not.

Income tax is the same. The manager issues a year-end statement and the required tax form for rent paid to you, and the owner portal holds the invoices behind every expense. Your CPA uses those to prepare the return. The manager does not track depreciation, does not know your other income, and does not advise on how to treat a repair versus an improvement. The year-end package the manager should provide is a statement of the year, the tax form, and invoices you can open for every expense.

This is general information, not tax advice; confirm the treatment of any expense with a CPA.

HOA dues, assessments and the mortgage

The HOA sees one member: the owner. Dues, special assessments, fines and the annual meeting notice are addressed to you. A manager will typically handle the tenant side of HOA life: forwarding violation notices to the tenant, making sure the trash cans go back in, getting the yard mowed, and registering the tenant with the association if the rules require it. The manager does not pay the dues from rent unless you set that up in writing, and does not represent you in a dispute with the board.

The mortgage is entirely yours. Rent is disbursed to you; you pay the lender. A few owners ask the manager to pay the mortgage from rent, and most companies decline, because a shortfall month would put the manager in the middle of a default. If your loan has an occupancy clause or requires notice when the home becomes a rental, that notice is yours to give. If the association has leasing restrictions or a tenant registration rule, the manager should know them before the listing goes live.

Capital decisions: the manager advises, the owner decides and funds

The line between a repair and a capital project is where owners most often expect more than the agreement gives. A manager has authority to spend up to an agreed limit on a repair without asking you. Replacing the roof, the HVAC system, the water heater, the flooring throughout or the fence is a different category: it is your money, your decision and usually your financing.

What you should expect from the manager on a capital item:

• A clear recommendation with the reasoning: the age of the system, the repair history and the risk of waiting.
• Bids from vendors they have used, with the vendor's own pricing visible.
• Coordination of the work once you approve it, including tenant notice and access.
• Documentation afterward, so the invoice and any warranty are in your file.

What you should not expect is for the manager to fund it from the reserve or to make the call without you. If the house needs a roof and you are not ready to pay for one, the manager's job is to tell you plainly what that means for the tenant and the insurance, and then to follow your decision.

Legal representation: your manager is not your lawyer

In Texas, a property manager acting as the owner's agent can typically handle the routine steps of a non-payment eviction: the notice to vacate, the filing in justice court and the hearing. That is where the manager's legal role ends. An appeal to county court, a tenant countersuit, a fair housing complaint, a dispute with a contractor or a lawsuit over an injury at the property all require an attorney, and the attorney represents you, not the manager.

The manager's contribution to any of those is the file: the lease, the ledger, the inspection photos, the notices with proof of delivery, and the communication log. A well-run company keeps that file so complete that the attorney's job is short. A poorly run one makes the attorney's job expensive. Ask how records are kept and for how long. Ask any manager where their routine steps end and the attorney referral begins. This is general information, not legal advice.

Renovations, remodels and selling the house

Ordinary maintenance and a make-ready between tenants are inside full service. A kitchen remodel, an addition, converting a garage or a full-house renovation are not, even if the manager coordinates the vendors. Companies that take on project management of that size usually charge for it separately, and the agreement should say so. If it does not, ask before you assume the manager will run your remodel for the monthly fee.

Selling is the same. Managing a rental and listing it for sale are different services under different agreements. If your manager is also a licensed brokerage, as Perpetual is, you can choose to list with them, and there are advantages to having the person who knows the house and the tenant also handle the sale. But it is a choice, not an automatic part of management, and the listing agreement is a separate document with its own terms. How a sale works with a tenant in place is covered on the selling an investment property page.

How to find the line in any agreement

Every management agreement has a scope of services section and, somewhere near it, a list of exclusions or a clause that says anything not listed is not included. Read both. Then check the agreement against the list at the top of this guide and mark each item as included, excluded, or available for a separate fee.

Where the agreement is silent, ask in writing and keep the answer. The questions that matter most:

• Will you pay HOA dues or the mortgage from rent if I ask, and what does it cost?
• What is the repair approval limit, and what happens above it?
• Do you handle insurance claims, and if so, how is that billed?
• Do you manage renovations, and at what fee?
• Which eviction steps do you handle, and when do you refer me to an attorney?

The answers tell you what you are buying. The full-service overview and the pricing and fees page lay out Perpetual's scope and every fee in writing, which is the standard any company should meet before you sign.

How Perpetual handles this

At Perpetual the line is drawn in the agreement, in plain language, and every fee on either side of it is listed in writing before you sign. Pricing, marketing, screening with the same written criteria for every applicant, a Texas-compliant lease, rent collection, maintenance through vetted vendors, documented inspections, renewals and move-outs are inside full service. Insurance, taxes, the mortgage, HOA dues and capital funding stay with you, and I will tell you that at the first meeting rather than let you discover it later.

What you get on the owner side of the line is the material to make those decisions well: monthly statements and a year-end package in the owner portal, photographed inspections, vendor invoices as they were billed, and a direct recommendation from me, as the broker, when a capital item is coming. If you want to sell, Perpetual Realty Group can list it, under a separate agreement you choose.

If you want to see exactly where the line sits before you commit, ask for the agreement and the fee schedule. Both are yours to read first.

The takeaway: Full service runs the rental; ownership still runs through you, so know which decisions the agreement leaves on your desk before you sign it.

Questions owners ask

Property management in Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth. How full-service management works in Tarrant County →