Last month, I did something that felt a little awkward but turned out to be one of the most useful things I've done for this newsletter. I called five property management companies in the Traverse City area and asked each of them the exact same six questions.

No curveballs. No trick questions. Just six things that any out-of-state property owner should absolutely know before handing over the keys to their investment.

I expected the answers to be pretty similar. They weren't. Not even close.

Here's what I found — and what it means for you.

I'm not naming the companies here — the goal isn't to embarrass anyone. The goal is to show you what the variance looks like, because the variance is the story.

This one felt simple. It wasn't.

Two of the five managers said they respond to owner inquiries within 24 hours. One said 48 hours was "standard but usually faster." One told me response time "depends on the season" — which I thought was an interesting answer, given that winter is exactly when most problems happen. The fifth said he responds "same day, always," and when I asked how he handles that during peak rental season in July, he laughed and said, "That's what the weekend is for."

What this tells you: "We respond quickly" means something very different from company to company. Ask for specifics. Ask what happens during high season. Ask who responds if your main contact is out of town.

This is where things got really interesting.

Two managers described detailed digital systems — photos uploaded to an owner portal before and after every repair, timestamped notes, and itemized invoices attached to each work order. One of them walked me through her software like she was proud of it, which she should have been. It was thorough.

Two others described a more informal process. One said he "sends a text with a photo if something major comes up." The fifth — and this one surprised me — said documentation is handled "between us and the vendor" and that owners are notified after the fact for anything under a certain dollar threshold.

That last answer is worth sitting with for a moment. If your property manager is authorizing repairs and you're only finding out after the bill is paid, you're not really in the loop. You're just paying the bill.

All five said they handle emergencies 24/7. That's the easy answer. What I pushed on was how.

Three of them have a dedicated on-call line that routes to a live person after hours. One uses a third-party answering service that contacts the manager on duty. The fifth told me that in a real emergency, tenants call him directly on his cell — and that he's "never missed a call yet."

That last answer is either reassuring or a red flag, depending on how you look at it. A business that runs entirely on one person's availability isn't a system. It's a gamble.

Also worth noting: four of the five have pre-approved vendors they call for plumbing, HVAC, and electrical emergencies. One manager told me he "shops around" even in emergencies to keep costs down. I'll let you decide how you feel about that when there's water pouring through your ceiling at 11 p.m. in January.

Here's where it got complicated fast.

Monthly management fees ranged from 8% to 15% of monthly rent — a significant spread on a $2,500/month rental. But the monthly percentage is almost never the whole story. I asked each manager to walk me through every fee an owner might encounter in a year.

The list included: leasing fees (often one month's rent), renewal fees, maintenance coordination fees, inspection fees, early termination fees, and in one case, a "vacancy fee" charged during months when the unit sits empty. That last one stunned me a bit. You're paying a fee for the privilege of not having a tenant.

The most straightforward manager I spoke to — the one charging 12% — had zero additional fees and said flat out, "I don't nickel-and-dime. I'd rather you trust me for ten years than squeeze you for an extra hundred bucks."

That kind of clarity is worth something.

Four of the five said yes, they could provide references, and three actually followed up within a day or two with names and contact info. The fourth said he'd "have to check with a couple of people first," which is fair enough.

The fifth said he prefers to let his online reviews speak for him. That's not nothing, but it's also not the same as being able to call someone in Ohio who owns a condo in Leland and ask them, "Has this company ever let you down?"

If you live outside of Michigan and you're trusting someone to manage an asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, you want a real person on the other end of that reference call.

This is the question that matters most to northern Michigan owners, and the answers were all over the map.

One manager does monthly drive-bys and a full interior inspection every 60 days from November through March. Another does a single winterization check in November and then responds reactively after that. Two others said "monthly" but couldn't tell me exactly what those checks involved when I pressed them. The fifth — the one with the cell phone policy — said he checks on vacant properties "whenever he's in the area."

Northern Michigan winters are not forgiving. Pipes freeze. Roofs collapse under ice. Furnaces quit. A property that goes unchecked from November to April is a property that might surprise you in ways that cost $20,000 to fix.

Here's the honest truth: there is no single "right" property manager. But there are wrong ones for your situation, and the only way to find out which is which is to ask good questions and compare the answers.

If you already have a property manager, print this out. Send them these six questions and see what they say. Their answers — and how they react to being asked — will tell you everything.

And if you're looking for a referral to a TC-area PM who passed this kind of scrutiny? Hit reply. I'm happy to share what I know.

Northern Michigan Property Insider is published independently and is not affiliated with any property management company. Questions, tips, or topic suggestions? Reach out anytime.