Property
Management Fees
Palm Beach County
What a property manager actually costs in Palm Beach County — the monthly management percentage, the leasing fee, the renewal fee, maintenance markups, and the extra charges that quietly add up. Written by a licensed Florida Community Association Manager (CAM34850) who manages rentals here.
The Short Answer
For a single-family home or condo in Palm Beach County, most full-service property managers charge a monthly management fee of roughly 8% to 12% of the rent they collect, plus a one-time leasing (tenant-placement) fee when they put a new tenant in place. Add a few smaller charges — lease renewals, maintenance coordination, inspections — and most owners find their all-in cost lands somewhere around 18% to 20% of a year's gross rent in the first year, then drops in later years once the placement fee is behind them.
Those are general industry ranges, not a quote — the real number depends on the property, the rent, the services you need, and how a company structures its fees. What matters just as much as the headline percentage is how the fees are structured: a low management percentage can hide markups on maintenance, vacancy charges, and "junk" fees that cost you more than a slightly higher, all-inclusive rate. At BeacCorp we pass vendor invoices through at cost with no markup and quote fees up front. Call (561) 779-3213 for a straight answer on your property.
The Two Fees That Matter Most
Almost every rental management agreement is built on two core charges. Understand these and you understand 90% of the cost.
The Ongoing Fee
Monthly Management Fee
Typically 8%–12% of collected rent in Florida. It pays for rent collection, tenant communication, maintenance coordination, accounting, and monthly owner reporting. Watch whether it's charged on rent due or rent collected — "collected" protects you when a unit sits vacant or a tenant falls behind.
The One-Time Fee
Leasing / Tenant-Placement Fee
Charged once when a new tenant is placed — commonly 50%–100% of one month's rent (Florida often trends lower thanks to strong renter demand). It covers marketing, showings, screening, and lease preparation. Because it recurs only at turnover, keeping good tenants longer is one of the biggest ways to lower your true annual cost.
The Fee Menu — Line by Line
Beyond the two big ones, here are the charges you'll see on Palm Beach County management agreements. Not every company charges all of them — and that's exactly why comparing a single headline percentage is misleading.
Lease-Renewal Fee
Charged when an existing tenant renews rather than moving out — often 25%–50% of one month's rent, or a flat fee. Far cheaper than a new placement, which is why a good manager works to renew reliable tenants.
Maintenance Coordination
Some companies add a markup — commonly 10%–15% — on top of the contractor's invoice for arranging repairs. Over a year of routine fixes this adds up quietly. BeacCorp charges no maintenance markup — you pay the vendor's actual cost.
Setup / Onboarding Fee
A one-time account-setup charge (often a flat $100–$300) to bring your property into their system, do the initial inspection, and take over any existing lease. Sometimes waived — worth asking.
Inspection Fees
Periodic condition inspections typically run $100–$300 each when billed separately. Some managers fold routine inspections into the monthly fee — clarify how often they inspect and whether it's extra.
Vacancy Fee
A small charge (sometimes a flat amount) kept while a unit is empty. It aligns some contracts, but it also means you're paying while earning nothing — read this clause carefully.
Eviction / Legal Handling
A per-case fee for coordinating an eviction (separate from attorney and court costs). Rare with well-screened tenants, but you want to know the number before you need it.
Marketing / Advertising
Premium listing syndication, professional photos, or signage. Often included in the leasing fee — but confirm it isn't billed twice.
Late-Fee & Other Splits
Some managers keep all or part of tenant late fees, application fees, or "admin" charges. Ask who keeps what — it changes the true economics of the deal.
⚠️The lowest percentage is not always the cheapest manager. A 6% fee with a maintenance markup, a vacancy charge, and retained late fees can easily cost more than an 8%–10% fee with none of those. Always compare the total annual cost, and ask for the fee schedule in writing before you sign.
HOA & Condo Association Management Fees
Everything above covers rental management — a landlord with tenants and a rent roll. A homeowners' or condo association is a different animal, and it's billed differently for a simple reason: there's no rent roll to take a percentage of. A board isn't collecting rent from one tenant; it's collecting assessments from every unit owner in the community and needs someone to run the books, the vendors, and the physical plant. That work is priced as a flat monthly fee per unit ("per door") rather than a cut of rent.
Per-Unit Monthly Fee
For a standard residential HOA in Palm Beach County, the range commonly seen industry-wide is roughly $10–$25 per unit per month, billed against the whole community rather than any one owner. A full-service high-rise condo with elevators, amenities, and larger reserve obligations typically runs higher than a single-family HOA of the same unit count — there's simply more building to manage. This is general Palm Beach County market context, not a BeacCorp quote.
Reserve Study Coordination
A reserve study is a periodic engineering-based assessment of an association's major common-element components — roofs, pavement, painting, elevators, pools — estimating how much money the association should set aside now so it can replace them later without a shock special assessment. Florida condo and HOA law increasingly expects communities to budget on a fully-funded or structural-integrity basis rather than waive reserves informally. Coordinating a reserve study — bringing in the engineer and translating the findings into the budget — is a line item that simply doesn't exist on a rental management agreement.
Association Accounting & Budgeting
Every association needs an annual budget, monthly or quarterly financial statements, assessment billing and collection, and delinquency follow-up — bookkeeping at the community level rather than the unit level. This is a standing scope item on an association management agreement in a way it isn't on a single rental, where the "accounting" is one owner's rent ledger.
Special Assessment Coordination
When a community needs one-time work its reserves don't cover — a roof replacement, a repaved lot, storm repairs — the board levies a special assessment. Coordinating that: communicating the number and timeline to owners, tracking collection, and managing the vendor doing the work, is billed as its own scope beyond the base monthly fee.
Randolph Scott Bell holds both the individual Community Association Manager license (CAM34850) and the Community Association Management Firm license (CAB3255) — a separate, specific Florida licensure track from general property/rental management, and BeacCorp holds both. Because a per-unit fee genuinely depends on unit count, amenity scope, and reserve/accounting complexity, we don't quote a single number that fits every association. If you're on a board weighing management options, call (561) 779-3213 for a proposal built around your community.
A Simple First-Year Example
To make the math concrete, imagine a Palm Beach County rental at $2,500/month ($30,000/year) with one new tenant placed during the year:
- 📅 Monthly management @ 10%: about $250/month, or roughly $3,000 for the year.
- 🔑 Leasing fee @ 75% of one month: about $1,875, charged once when the tenant is placed.
- 🧾 A few smaller items (setup, an inspection): a few hundred dollars.
- ➕ First-year total: roughly $5,100–$5,400, or about 18%–20% of gross rent — then closer to 10%–12% in a year with no new placement.
This is an illustration to show how the pieces fit together, not a quote for your property. Your rent, your services, and your tenant turnover all move the number. The takeaway: a stable, well-screened long-term tenant is the single biggest cost-saver, because it keeps the leasing fee from repeating.
Is a Property Manager Worth the Fee?
Fewer Costly Vacancies
A vacant month in Palm Beach County often costs more than a full year of management fees. Faster marketing and re-leasing pays for itself.
Better Tenants, Fewer Problems
Proper background, credit, and income screening lowers the odds of late rent, damage, and eviction — the expenses that really hurt a small landlord.
Florida Law, Handled
Security-deposit timelines, notice requirements, fair-housing rules, and the eviction process are handled correctly, reducing your legal exposure. See our
Florida landlord-tenant law guide for the deadlines that decide these cases.
Your Time Back
No 2 a.m. maintenance calls, no chasing rent, no coordinating vendors. For out-of-town or busy owners, that alone justifies the fee.
🏡The BeacCorp difference: one licensed local contact (CAM34850), no-markup maintenance passed through at cost, on-time owner payouts, and transparent monthly reporting. A licensed General Contractor in-house also means repairs are handled right.
See the full BeacCorp Property Management page ↗
Self-Performed Repairs — Why an In-House GC Changes the Math
The maintenance markup discussed above assumes the usual structure: the property manager calls a third-party contractor, the contractor invoices the manager, and that invoice either passes through or gets a percentage added on top. BeacCorp's structure differs for one specific reason — Randolph Scott Bell holds a Certified General Contractor license (CGC1528750) and runs self-performing crews with owned equipment, so a meaningful share of the repair and renovation work on a managed property can be done in-house rather than farmed out to a vendor. That doesn't change the two headline fees described above, but it changes what happens every time something actually breaks.
One Fewer Vendor in the Chain
When a repair falls within general-contracting or roofing scope, there's no need to source, vet, and wait on a third-party contractor's quote and calendar. The same license already managing the property is often the one doing the work — one fewer handoff, and one fewer place a markup can be added.
Permitting Handled In-House
Larger repairs — a re-roof, an electrical panel, a structural fix — require a permit pulled under a licensed contractor's name. Because CGC1528750 is the same license managing the property, that permit doesn't require finding and coordinating an outside GC first.
Faster Turnover Renovations
Between tenants, a self-performing crew's schedule isn't at the mercy of an outside contractor's backlog. Bell Property Group's fix-and-flip experience — renovations self-performed rather than outsourced — carries the same logic into everyday turnover work on a managed rental.
Not Every Repair Qualifies
Specialty trades outside general-contracting and roofing scope still go to licensed subcontractors, billed through at cost with no markup as described above. The point isn't that everything is self-performed — it's that the option exists for the repairs and renovations that fall inside CGC1528750's scope, which removes a markup layer many owners never see coming.
Curious whether your property's repair history would have looked different with a GC in-house? See how BeacCorp handles remodeling and repairs, or call (561) 779-3213 to talk through a specific property.
Switching Property Managers & Contract Terms
Every fee above assumes the relationship continues smoothly. Just as important — and far less often explained — is what your management agreement says about ending it: how much notice you owe, whether a cancellation fee applies, what happens to your tenant's lease if you switch companies, whether the fee itself is tax-deductible, and whether managing more than one property changes the math. None of this is BeacCorp-specific pricing — it's what to look for in any Palm Beach County management agreement before you sign, or before you decide to leave one.
Contract Length & Notice
Property management agreements are typically either a fixed initial term — commonly one year — that converts to month-to-month afterward, or month-to-month from the very start. Either way, the agreement spells out a notice period required to end it, commonly 30 to 60 days. Read that clause when you sign, not when you're already frustrated and want out.
Early-Termination Fees
Some agreements charge an early-termination fee if the owner cancels before a fixed term ends — commonly a flat dollar amount or the equivalent of one or two months' management fee. Ask for this number in writing up front, exactly as you'd ask about the leasing fee or a maintenance markup before signing anything.
Your Tenant's Lease Survives the Switch
A change of property manager doesn't touch the tenant's lease — the rent and the tenant's rights stay exactly the same. What changes is who holds the security deposit, who the tenant calls and pays, and how vendor relationships transfer. A clean handoff moves the deposit (per Florida's deposit-holding rules), current financials, and any open maintenance items to the new manager, documented in writing.
Are the Fees Tax-Deductible?
Property management fees on a rental property are generally deductible as an ordinary and necessary rental business expense on IRS Schedule E, alongside the maintenance and leasing fees covered above. This is general federal tax information, not tax advice — confirm specifics with your own CPA or tax preparer.
Multi-Property Portfolio Pricing
Owners with more than one rental often ask whether a manager adjusts pricing for volume. Whether and how much a company discounts for multiple properties varies firm to firm — ask directly rather than assuming a standard rate. BeacCorp welcomes that conversation; we don't publish a fixed multi-property discount because it depends on the portfolio.
Thinking about a switch? Call (561) 779-3213 — we'll walk through your current agreement, the notice you owe, and what a clean handoff to BeacCorp looks like before you commit to anything.
Vacation Home Watch — A Different Fee Model
Everything above assumes either a tenant paying rent or an association billing a community. A third arrangement is common in Palm Beach County and doesn't fit either mold: vacation home watch for a seasonal or absentee owner. This is the snowbird who's back north from May through October, the Airbnb host whose unit sits empty in the off-season, or the owner of a second home who's only in Florida a few months a year. There's no tenant, so there's no rent to take a percentage of. There's no community and no per-door billing, because it's one owner's single property, not a homeowners' association. What there is instead is an empty house that still needs eyes on it — checking for AC leaks, storm damage, pests, mail and package pileup, signs of a break-in, and general upkeep — while nobody is living there to notice a problem before it becomes an expensive one.
Visit-Based Pricing
Home watch is typically priced as a
recurring flat fee tied to visit frequency — weekly, biweekly, or monthly checks — rather than a percentage of anything. More frequent visits during peak snowbird absence (roughly May through October) or ahead of a named storm cost more than a light monthly check on a home the owner visits periodically. Call
(561) 779-3213 for a quote based on your property and how often you want it checked.
No Rent Roll, No Leasing Fee
Because there's no tenant, none of the rental-side fees above apply — no leasing fee, no lease-renewal fee, no rent-collected-versus-rent-due question, no eviction handling. The scope is narrower and so is the pricing logic: you're paying for a set of eyes on the property on a schedule, not for managing a tenancy.
Seasonal Flexibility
A snowbird owner or an Airbnb host between bookings doesn't need year-round rental management — they need coverage while the property sits vacant. Home watch scopes and prices to that reality, rather than forcing a seasonal, no-tenant situation into a rental fee structure that assumes rent is coming in every month.
See our Vacation Home Watch Guide for the full scope of what a visit covers and how BeacCorp structures a home-watch schedule. If you're not sure whether your property needs full rental management, HOA-style oversight, or home watch, call (561) 779-3213 and we'll help you match the service to the situation.
Property Management Fees — FAQ
How much do property managers charge in Palm Beach County?
Most full-service managers charge a monthly management fee of roughly 8% to 12% of collected rent, plus a one-time leasing fee when a new tenant is placed. Adding smaller charges like renewals and inspections, first-year all-in cost often lands around 18% to 20% of gross annual rent, then drops in years without a new placement. These are general industry ranges — call (561) 779-3213 for a quote on your property.
What is a leasing or tenant-placement fee?
It's a one-time fee charged when the manager finds and places a new tenant — covering marketing, showings, screening, and lease preparation. In Florida it commonly runs 50% to 100% of one month's rent, and often trends lower thanks to strong renter demand. Because it only recurs at turnover, keeping good tenants longer is one of the best ways to reduce your annual cost.
Is the management fee based on rent due or rent collected?
It depends on the company, and it matters. A fee based on rent collected means you only pay when money actually comes in, protecting you during a vacancy or if a tenant falls behind. A fee based on rent due can charge you even when nothing was received. Always confirm which model a contract uses before signing.
Do property managers mark up maintenance and repairs?
Some do — commonly 10% to 15% on top of the contractor's invoice for coordinating repairs, which adds up over a year of routine fixes. BeacCorp passes vendor invoices through at cost with no markup, so you pay exactly what the vendor charges. When comparing companies, always ask whether maintenance is marked up.
Why is the cheapest management fee not always the best deal?
A low headline percentage can hide markups on maintenance, vacancy charges, setup fees, and retained tenant late fees that cost more than a slightly higher, all-inclusive rate. The only fair comparison is total annual cost across every fee. Ask each company for its full fee schedule in writing before you decide.
What is a lease-renewal fee?
It's a fee charged when an existing tenant renews their lease instead of moving out — often 25% to 50% of one month's rent, or a flat amount. It's much cheaper than a full new-tenant placement, which is why a good manager actively works to renew reliable tenants and keep your unit occupied.
Are there setup or onboarding fees?
Some companies charge a one-time account-setup fee, often a flat $100 to $300, to bring your property into their system, complete an initial inspection, and assume any existing lease. It's sometimes waived, so it's always worth asking whether it applies and what it covers.
Is hiring a property manager worth the cost for one rental?
For many owners, yes. A single avoided vacancy month can exceed a full year of management fees, and proper tenant screening reduces the far larger costs of late rent, damage, and eviction. A manager also keeps you compliant with Florida landlord-tenant law and gives you your time back. It comes down to your rent, your distance from the property, and how hands-on you want to be.
Does BeacCorp charge different fees for HOAs versus rentals?
Yes. HOA and condo association management is billed as a flat monthly fee per unit, since there's no rent roll to take a percentage of — unlike rental management, which is priced as a percentage of collected rent plus a leasing fee. Association fees also cover different scope: reserve study coordination, association accounting and budgeting, and special assessment coordination, rather than tenant placement and rent collection. We quote each community individually. Call (561) 779-3213 or use the form on our property page for a free, no-obligation quote.
How are HOA and condo association management fees structured?
They're typically billed as a flat monthly fee per unit ("per door") rather than a percentage of rent, because an association collects assessments from every owner rather than rent from a single tenant. The range commonly seen for a standard residential HOA in Palm Beach County is roughly $10 to $25 per unit per month, with full-service high-rise condos running higher due to amenities and larger reserve obligations. These are general market ranges, not a BeacCorp quote — call for a proposal specific to your community.
What is a reserve study, and does an association need one in Florida?
A reserve study is a periodic engineering-based assessment of an association's major common-element components — roofs, pavement, painting, elevators, pools — that estimates how much money should be set aside now to replace them later without a surprise special assessment. Florida condo and HOA law increasingly expects communities to budget on a fully-funded or structural-integrity basis rather than waive reserves informally. BeacCorp coordinates reserve studies as part of association accounting.
What does association accounting and budgeting include?
It covers preparing the annual budget, producing monthly or quarterly financial statements, billing and collecting assessments, and following up on delinquent accounts — bookkeeping at the community level rather than the unit level. It's a standing scope item for HOA/condo management that doesn't apply to managing a single rental.
Is a per-unit HOA fee cheaper than percentage-based rental management?
They aren't directly comparable because they're priced against different bases — a per-unit HOA fee is billed against the whole community regardless of any individual owner's payment, while a rental management fee is a percentage of one property's collected rent. A per-unit fee's total cost to the association scales with the number of units, so a larger or full-service community pays more in total even at a lower quoted price per door. Call for a proposal specific to your community's unit count and scope.
What's the difference between a CAM license and a property management business generally?
A CAM (Community Association Manager) license — CAM34850 — is a specific Florida DBPR credential for individuals who manage the financial and administrative affairs of homeowners' and condo associations, distinct from a general real-estate or property-management background. Randolph Scott Bell holds both the individual CAM license and the Community Association Management Firm license, CAB3255, meaning BeacCorp is licensed at both the individual and firm level to manage associations, not just individual rental properties.
Can I cancel a property management contract early, and is there a fee?
Many agreements do allow early cancellation, but some charge an early-termination fee if you cancel before a fixed term ends — commonly a flat dollar amount or the equivalent of one or two months' management fee. Ask for this number in writing before you sign, the same way you'd ask about the leasing fee or a maintenance markup.
How much notice do I need to give to switch property managers?
It depends on the agreement. Property management contracts are typically either a fixed initial term — commonly one year — that converts to month-to-month afterward, or month-to-month from the start; either way, they specify a notice period to end them, commonly 30 to 60 days. Read that clause when you sign, not when you want to leave.
What happens to my tenant's lease if I switch property managers?
Nothing changes for the tenant — the lease, the rent, and the tenant's rights stay exactly the same when you switch managers. What changes is who holds the security deposit, who the tenant calls and pays, and how vendor relationships transfer. A clean handoff moves the deposit, current financials, and any open maintenance items to the new manager in writing.
Are property management fees tax-deductible?
Generally, yes. Property management fees paid on a rental property are typically deductible as an ordinary and necessary rental business expense on IRS Schedule E, along with maintenance and leasing fees. This is general federal tax information, not tax advice — confirm specifics with your own CPA or tax preparer.
Do property managers offer discounts for multiple properties?
It varies by company — there's no standard industry rate for multi-property discounts, so ask directly rather than assuming one. BeacCorp welcomes the conversation with owners who have more than one rental in Palm Beach County; call (561) 779-3213 for a proposal built around your portfolio.
Is vacation home watch billed like rental management or like an HOA?
Neither. Rental management is a percentage of collected rent, and HOA management is a flat fee per unit billed against a whole community. Home watch has no tenant and no association, so it's typically priced as a recurring flat fee tied to how often the property is checked — weekly, biweekly, or monthly — rather than a percentage or a per-door rate.
Does home watch pricing change during hurricane season or for storm prep and post-storm checks?
Yes, typically. Storm prep (securing shutters or window protection, moving outdoor items, checking drainage) and post-storm checks (roof, windows, water intrusion, power/AC status) are additional visits beyond a normal recurring schedule, and are priced separately since they fall outside the routine check cadence. Call (561) 779-3213 ahead of a named storm to arrange coverage.
Is home watch cheaper than full rental management?
They aren't really comparable, because they cover different scope — full rental management includes marketing, tenant screening, rent collection, and lease enforcement for an occupied property, while home watch is periodic visits and monitoring for a vacant one. A home with no tenant has no rent to manage, so home watch is generally the lighter, narrower service, but the right comparison is what each property actually needs, not price alone.
Can I switch a property between full rental management and home watch seasonally?
Yes — this is common with Airbnb hosts and snowbird owners whose properties are occupied part of the year and vacant the rest. A property can move from rental management while it's tenanted or booked to home-watch visits while it sits empty, and back again. Call (561) 779-3213 to set up a schedule that matches your occupancy pattern.
What triggers an extra charge on a home-watch visit?
A routine check that turns up a problem — an AC leak, a downed tree limb, a break-in attempt, a pest issue — can require follow-up beyond the standard visit: coordinating a vendor, taking photos and documentation for insurance, or an extra trip to confirm a repair. Because every issue is different, extras like this are typically quoted case by case rather than built into the base recurring fee.
Does BeacCorp's home-watch service overlap with The Bell Farm's Airbnb stays?
No. The Bell Farm's own Airbnb-style stays (Tiny Oasis, Farm Cottage) are lodging BeacCorp's affiliated farm operates and hosts directly for guests. Vacation home watch is a separate property-management service BeacCorp provides to a third-party owner's own home while that owner is away — we're watching your property, not hosting guests in it.
Does BeacCorp use its own crews for repairs, or does it always hire outside contractors?
Both, depending on the work. Randolph Scott Bell holds a Certified General Contractor license (CGC1528750) and runs self-performing crews with owned equipment, so repairs and renovations within general-contracting or roofing scope are often done in-house. Specialty trades outside that scope still go to licensed subcontractors, billed through at cost with no markup.
Does having an in-house general contractor speed up repair turnaround?
It typically helps, because scheduling for in-scope work doesn't depend on sourcing and waiting on an outside contractor's calendar. The same license already managing the property is often the one available to do the repair, which removes a coordination step that costs time on a vendor-based model.
Can BeacCorp handle a full renovation between tenants, not just small repairs?
Yes. Bell Property Group's fix-and-flip work is built on self-performed renovation rather than outsourcing, and that same in-house capacity carries into turnover renovations on a managed rental — from smaller updates up through larger remodeling scopes.
Does self-performing repairs mean BeacCorp charges more for maintenance?
No — the pricing structure doesn't change. Whether the work is done by an in-house crew or a licensed subcontractor, BeacCorp passes cost through with no markup either way. Self-performing simply removes an outside vendor's markup for the portion of work that falls within CGC1528750's scope.
Are permits still pulled when BeacCorp's own crew does the repair work?
Yes. Work that requires a permit — a re-roof, an electrical panel, a structural repair — still gets one, pulled under the licensed contractor of record, CGC1528750. Self-performing the work doesn't skip the permitting step; it just means the same license managing the property is also the one pulling it.