Managing your own property in 2025
Everything about property management
Anyone planning to buy a property to invest in will think about property management in advance. At first glance, many newcomers are unable to clearly distinguish between terms such as condominium management and HOA management. But even if you already own property, it can be useful to think about a few questions:
Does it make sense to get external support for your property management? What are the pros and cons? And what other things should you keep an eye on as an owner?
You can find some important information here. If you want to go into more detail, you can find the full text below. 🙌
Definition of real estate management
Generally speaking, the term property management refers to everything that has to be organized and done around a property. This includes the commercial area (property management) as well as the technical area (facility management).
In the technical area, this includes tasks such as coordinating tradesmen's work or commissioning tradesmen and monitoring the work. The commercial area includes tasks such as operating cost accounting, handling the payment of house charges or rent adjustments with accompanying and legally compliant rent increase letters.
Manage your property easily & affordably with Urbyo
If you don't want to do these tasks yourself, you can simply contact us and we'll help you find the right condominium management from our network for you. This will save you various administrative tasks.
Tasks of real estate management: 1x1 of property management
In general, these tasks are involved in property management:
General tasks of management
Vacancy monitoring, letting and conclusion of new tenancy agreements
Communicating with, monitoring and commissioning tradesmen
Calculating investments and renovations to the property
Deposit management
Maintenance and servicing of technical systems
Bookkeeping, control of rental income and reminders
Preparation of the service charge statement
However, property management is further divided into two areas: On the one hand, a distinction is made between the management of the individual units of an apartment building - separate property management - and on the other hand, the management of the entire property.
As most apartment buildings are divided into individual apartments with different owners, this is referred to as condominium management. By the way, if you ever want to have a new energy performance certificate drawn up for your property, don't hesitate to contact the WEG first. They usually have good contacts for such matters.
If you're wondering what the difference is between WEG and property management: If you own the entire apartment building, it's simply referred to as property management.
Condominium management: how the management of your apartment works
As the name suggests, separate property management only manages the separate property - i.e. your apartment and not the entire apartment building. In most cases, this is owned in part by other owners, who take care of the management of their separate property themselves.
Special property management is also known as rental management. It usually fulfills these tasks:
Tasks of special property management
Monitoring the receipt of rent
Reminder in the event of late payment
Preparation of the service charge statement
Optionally, they can also take over the search for tenants
Apartment handovers including a thorough handover protocol
Communication with tenants (e.g.: tenant welcome letter)
By the way, you don't have to hire a special property manager. That's up to you and depends on how much you can and want to do yourself. If there are only a few units in the portfolio, the effort involved is usually rather low. You can find more information here. 👇
WEG management: property management for the common property
In contrast to the individual property, the common property must be managed. This is stipulated in the Condominium Act. The homeowners' association (WEG) then commissions a management company with the following tasks:
Tasks of the WEG management
Set up house rules
Draw up an economic plan
Financial management & accounting of the WEG
Duty to inform owners, for example in the event of an impending legal dispute
Processing payments and services
Maintenance and repair of the common property
There is also software or apps for managing the WEG. Incidentally, you can entrust the management of a condominium to a professional property management company or use a self-managed condominium. Our podcast episode provides some general information about property management. 👇
Manage your own property yourself or have it managed?
That depends entirely on the amount of work you can and want to do yourself - because buying, renting and managing a property doesn't happen by itself. In addition, property management naturally incurs costs. And this logically affects the return on your real estate investment.
So if you want to achieve a positive cash flow with your property as quickly as possible, you can save yourself the effort. Especially if you only have one or a handful of properties in your portfolio, the effort is usually manageable. You also have full transparency and control thanks to direct contact with tenants.
But of course, it doesn't come without any effort. Newcomers in particular probably don't have an existing network of tradespeople when something needs to be done to the apartment. Of course, a professional and good external management company has this and you benefit from the know-how of the professionals.
For example, professional management companies naturally have rental trends on their radar. And regular rent adjustments are important for your return on investment and the resale value of your property. By the way: If you're thinking about ways to increase your yield, you should look into shared apartment rentals. If you would like to manage your property yourself, but as a beginner you still feel unsure about many topics, then take a look at our Academy:
The price: What does property management cost?
The average cost of professional property management for your property is between 25 and 35 euros per month. A good tip is to simply ask the building's property management company. They know the property anyway and therefore have a little less work to do. This will result in slightly lower costs for you - as a rule, you can manage with 15 to 25 euros per month.
Finding a suitable property manager
Once you have decided to hire a property manager for your property, you need to find a qualified management company for your property. To do this, you can look at the Association of Property Managers or the Federal Association of Property Managers, for example. Both offer an accessible register of members.
Or you can ask people in your area for contacts. It often makes sense to simply ask the owners of the neighboring apartment. However, the easiest way is to simply contact us. We can also help you find a suitable management company.