The 4 Questions to Ask an Indianapolis Property Manager Before You Ask About Fees

If you have ever paid to paint the same rental twice in one year, you already know the management fee was never the expensive part.

Still, the first thing most investors ask me is “What do you charge?” I understand why. When you live in California, Texas, or overseas and you are comparing three Indianapolis property managers by phone, the fee is the only number that lines up neatly in a spreadsheet. It is also the number that tells you the least about what you will net at the end of the year.

I have managed rentals in Indianapolis since 2007, mostly single-family homes and doubles in lower-income urban core neighborhoods like 46201, 46218, and 46222. In that kind of property, four questions predict your returns far better than the fee does. Ask them first.

What Two Points of Management Fee Is Actually Worth

Start with the math, because it changes how you hear every answer after it.

Our working number for a typical urban core single-family rental is $1,100 a month, based on the Indianapolis MLS data we publish in our Indiana rental market reports. At that rent, a 10% manager costs $110 a month and an 8% manager costs $88. The difference is $22 a month, or $264 a year.

Now compare that to a tenant turn. In lower-income urban core rentals, our turns average $6,000 to $8,000. That is an average, not a quote for your property. Some turns come in well under it and some run over. Interior paint alone runs $2,000 to $3,000 in Indianapolis in 2026, and flooring adds up fast after that.

At $1,100 rent, one avoidable turn at that average wipes out roughly 22 to 30 years of the savings from the cheaper fee. That is why the questions below matter more than the percentage.

Question 1: How Long Does Your Average Resident Stay?

Every turn you avoid saves you $6,000 to $8,000 on average. Average length of stay is the closest thing to a single number that measures whether a manager places the right people and keeps them.

Follow-up questions to ask:

• Where does that number come from? It should come from lease records in their management software, not from memory.
• Is it different for single-family homes and multifamily units? It should be, and they should know both.
• What happens to the rent at renewal? A manager can keep residents for years by never raising rent, which costs you in a different way.

What a weak answer sounds like: “Our tenants tend to stay a long time.”

Our answer: 4.2 years for single-family homes and 3.93 years for small multifamily, pulled from the lease records in our management software. Every lease we write includes a minimum 4% annual rent increase, so those residents are staying while the rent goes up each year.

Question 2: What Is Your Eviction Rate, and How Do You Count It?

The second half of that question is the important part. An eviction rate with no definition behind it is easy to make look good.

Follow-up questions to ask:

• Over what period? Ask for the last 12 months.
• Does it count tenants you placed, tenants you inherited from another manager, or both? Those are two very different groups.
• What kind of properties and which ZIP codes? A low eviction rate in Carmel 46032 tells you very little about how that manager will perform on a double in 46201.
• What do you do when a resident stops paying? A manager who never files can report a low eviction rate while your rent goes uncollected.

This question matters most on doubles and other small multifamily. Owners who come to us from other managers regularly tell me they had two or three evictions in a single year on one side of a double. That is the same unit painted, re-floored, and re-leased two or three times in twelve months, with legal fees and lost rent each time. We cover why that happens in our article on Indianapolis multifamily property management.

Our answer: Under 2% over the last 12 months on residents we placed. Residents we inherit when we take over a property are evicted at a higher rate, because someone else screened them. That gap is the clearest evidence I have that screening drives the number. We run manual court record searches and verify paystubs against bank statements before we approve anyone. We also back it with a 10-month placement guarantee. If a resident we place is evicted in the first 10 months, we place the next one at no additional placement fee.

Question 3: Where Do You Make Money on Maintenance, and Can I See a Real Invoice?

This is where the fee question actually belongs. A manager with a low monthly percentage has to make a living somewhere, and maintenance is the usual place.

The common model works like this. A contractor sends one all-in invoice covering labor and materials. Contractors typically build a 50% to 100% markup into both the labor and the materials on that invoice. The manager may then add a markup of their own on top. You see one number and no receipts.

Also ask who is actually doing the work. Some property managers send their repairs and rehabs to a family member’s company. On paper, the manager charges no markup. The markup is still there. It has moved to the family member’s invoice, where you are less likely to question it.

Follow-up questions to ask:

• Do I see the contractor’s labor charge and the material receipts separately?
• What is your markup or coordination fee, and what is it applied to?
• Who does your repairs and rehabs? Are any of those contractors owned by you, a relative, or an affiliated company?
• Can you send me a real owner statement, with names removed, that shows a repair from start to finish?
• What flooring do you install on a turn, and why?

Our answer: We pay most of our contractors straight labor. Materials are charged directly to our accounts at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and other suppliers, and owners see every receipt. We bill labor plus materials at actual cost, plus a 20% coordination fee. A repair that costs $800 in labor and materials costs you $960. Most of our contractors have worked with us for 10 years or more.

On flooring, we do not install carpet. We use glue-down luxury vinyl plank, not click-lock. When a plank is damaged, we pull that plank and replace it. With click-lock, the floor has to come up from the wall to the damaged spot, which is often half the room.

Here is a recent example. We went back into a house we rehabbed more than five years ago and found about 10 damaged planks. We pulled matching planks from storage and replaced those 10 instead of the entire floor. I cannot promise that on every property, because it depends on having matching planks on hand, but it is what we try for every time. Replacing 10 planks instead of a whole floor is the kind of decision that lowers a turn bill, and it never shows up in a fee comparison.

Question 4: What Will I See When I Cannot Drive By?

If you live out of state, you are trusting someone else’s description of a house you may not have walked through in years. Ask what you will actually receive, and ask to see samples before you sign.

Follow-up questions to ask:

• Do I get video or photos at move-out, during the turn, and at inspections?
• How often will I hear from you while the property is vacant and listed?
• Will I know when a contractor is sent to my property, or only when the bill arrives?

Our answer: HD video walkthroughs during turns and inspections, weekly status reports whenever a property is listed, and owners copied on every contractor dispatch. More on what remote owners should expect is in our guide for the out-of-state landlord in Indianapolis.

Now Ask What They Charge

Once you have real answers to those four questions, the fee finally means something, because you know what it buys.

Ours is 10% of gross collected rent, first month’s rent for tenant placement, a $100 onboarding fee, a $100 annual renewal fee, and the 20% coordination fee on maintenance described above. We do not charge a management fee while a property is vacant. The full breakdown, including how we compare to the 8% to 10% range most Indianapolis managers quote, is in how much property managers charge in Indiana.

The Short Version

Before you compare fees, ask every Indianapolis property manager on your list:

1. How long does your average resident stay, and where does that number come from?
2. What is your eviction rate, and how do you count it?
3. Where do you make money on maintenance, and can I see a real invoice with receipts?
4. What will I see when I cannot drive by?

A manager who answers all four with specific numbers and sample documents is worth comparing on price. A manager who cannot has already told you what you need to know.

If the manager you have, or the one you are considering, cannot answer these four questions with real numbers, call 317-537-7249 and I will walk you through ours on your property. Prefer email? Reach me directly at Lee@SpousesRentingHouses.com.