Guides
Quoting a property management business job: template and real numbers
Property management quote template for owners: the nine sections a proposal needs, the fee lines it must disclose, and placeholders instead of invented prices.
What to take away
- A quote to an owner is the first draft of the management agreement. Every line will be read back to the company later, so write it as carefully as the lease.
- The template below has nine sections. Each exists because a missing one has produced a dispute somewhere: scope, exclusions, fee lines, authority limits, deposits, reporting, term, and what happens at the end.
- The fee table gives public market ranges, labelled as market data. Residential management fees commonly run 8% to 12% of collected rent. Flat fees often run $75 to $150 per unit per month. The worked example fills the same lines for one six-unit building.
The template
- 1. Parties and property. The owner's legal name, the entity holding title if different, the property address, the unit count, and the current occupancy with lease end dates. A quote for 'the building on Elm Street' is a quote for a dispute about which units were included.
Fee Lines: Basis and Trigger
Fee line
- Monthly management fee
- Share of collected rent or flat per unit
- Leasing fee
- Amount or share of first month's rent
- Renewal fee
- Amount
- Maintenance coordination
- Fee per work order, share of vendor invoice, or included
Basis
- Monthly management fee
- Each month, on rent collected
- Leasing fee
- A new lease executed
- Renewal fee
- A renewal executed
- Maintenance coordination
- Each closed work order
Triggered by
- Monthly management fee
- Leasing fee
- Renewal fee
- Maintenance coordination
Nine Sections of a Quote
- Parties and property
- Scope of services
- Exclusions
- Fee schedule
- Authority limits
- Trust account and deposits
- Reporting and statements
- Term and termination
- 2. Scope of services.Listed, not described. Rent collection and posting. Owner statements and disbursements. Tenant communications. Maintenance intake, triage, and coordination. Periodic inspections, with the frequency stated. Lease enforcement and notices. Move-in and move-out inspections with photographs. Renewal negotiation. Anything not listed is not included.
- 3. Exclusions.Stated in words the owner will remember: capital projects above a size, legal representation, tax filings, insurance placement, and anything the company will refer out. The exclusion list is where the owner learns what he still has to do himself.
- 4. Fee schedule.One line per fee, each with the trigger and the basis. The table below is market data: public U.S. residential benchmark ranges as of 2026, gathered for this page, not any company's quote. A quote uses the company's own figures from the fair-margin derivation.
| Fee line | Basis and typical public range | Triggered by |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly management fee | 8% to 12% of collected rent for residential; $75 to $150 per unit per month flat in many markets; 4% to 8% for large multifamily | Each month, on rent collected |
| Leasing fee | 50% to 100% of one month's rent for a new tenant; 20% to 50% in some markets | A new lease executed |
| Renewal fee | $100 to $300, or 25% to 50% of one month's rent | A renewal executed |
| Maintenance coordination | 10% to 20% markup on vendor invoice, or $50 to $100 per work order, or included | Each closed work order |
| Onboarding | $150 to $500 per unit, or $250 to $1,000 per property | Signing, once |
| Vacancy handling | $50 to $100 per month, or included | Each month a unit is vacant |
| Default and eviction coordination | $250 to $500 flat, or $75 to $150 per hour | Notice served |
| Inspections | $50 to $150 per inspection | Move-in, move-out, periodic |
| Annual statement or tax package | $25 to $100 per property | Year end |
A line marked 'included' is included, and the owner is told so. An owner who finds a coordination fee on a statement after being told maintenance was included is an owner about to leave.
For a Canadian building the rules are provincial rather than state. The quote names the provincial residential tenancy act, and the fee is quoted as a share of collected rent set by the local market.
Quote software can hold the template and produce the statement. Buildium, AppFolio, DoorLoop, Rent Manager, and Yardi Breeze all handle owner statements, fee schedules, and trust accounting.
- 5. Authority limits. The amount per work order and per month the company may spend without approval, the emergency authority, and how approval is requested and recorded. Typical limits run $300 to $500 per work order and $1,000 to $2,500 per month.
The break-even scenarios show why emergency authority matters to the company as much as to the owner: an unfunded emergency is unbilled hours.
- 6. Deposits and trust funds.Who holds tenant deposits, in what kind of account, and under what rules. The state landlord-tenant statute and the state real estate commission set the rules. The quote names them rather than restating them. The owner's reserve held by the company, and what it may be used for.
- 7. Reporting.What the owner receives, when, and in what form: the monthly statement with the work list, the year-end summary, the inspection reports, and access to the portal if there is one.
- 8. Term and termination.Start date, term, renewal, notice to end, and what is handed over at the end: deposits with an accounting, records, keys, and open work orders.
- 9. Assumptions.The condition of the units as seen at the walk-through, the leases as provided, and any inherited deposit records as received. If the company has not yet inspected, the quote says so and reserves the right to revise after inspection.
The worked example: a six unit quote, filled line by line
An owner with a six-unit building, five occupied, asks for a quote. The company inspects, reads the five leases, and finds no deposit ledger.
Six-Unit Worked Example
- List six units, five lease end dates, one vacancy
- Add deposit ledger reconstruction as one-time service
- Quote monthly fee on five units until sixth leased
- Set authority limits per work order and per month
- State trust account rules and deposit transfer
- Record walk-through date, condition notes, missing ledger
The worked example
| Quote line | What the quote states | Figure used here |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Parties and property | Owner's legal name, title entity, six-unit address, five occupied units with lease dates, one vacant | Six units, five leases read |
| 2. Scope of services | The nine listed services, nothing added | Same list as the template |
| 3. Exclusions | Capital projects over the owner's limit, legal work, tax filings, insurance, referrals | Referred out |
| 4. Management fee | 10% of collected rent, midpoint of the public 8% to 12% range | Rent actually collected |
| 4. Leasing fee | 50% of one month's rent, midpoint of the public 50% to 100% range | New lease only |
| 4. Renewal fee | $200 flat, midpoint of the public $100 to $300 range | Each renewal |
| 4. Coordination | 15% of the vendor invoice, midpoint of the public 10% to 20% range | Each closed work order |
| 4. Onboarding | $325 per unit, midpoint of the public $150 to $500 range | Once, at signing |
| 4. Vacancy handling | $75 per vacant unit per month, midpoint of the public $50 to $100 range | The one vacant unit |
| 4. Eviction coordination | $375 flat, midpoint of the public $250 to $500 range | Notice served |
| 4. Inspections | $100 each, midpoint of the public $50 to $150 range | Move-in, move-out, periodic |
| 4. Annual statement | $60 per property, midpoint of the public $25 to $100 range | Year end |
| 5. Authority limits | $400 per work order, $1,750 per month, midpoints of the typical limits | Spend without approval |
| 6. Deposits and trust funds | State statute and state real estate commission named, not restated | Five inherited deposits, no ledger |
| 7. Reporting | Monthly statement with the work list, year-end summary, inspection reports, portal access | Monthly |
| 8. Term | Twelve months, renewal, 30 days notice, handover list | Start date stated |
| 9. Assumptions | Five leases as provided, no deposit ledger received | Revisions after inspection |
Each figure above is the midpoint of a published market range, so the table shows the shape of a quote for this building. The real numbers the title promises are the company's own, derived from its cost to serve.
From cost to serve to the fee
The company builds its fee from four inputs, all from its own books.
Input / Where the company gets it
- Loaded labor per unit per month
- Field and office hours charged to the property, at the loaded hourly rate
- Software and administration per unit per month
- The monthly plan and admin time divided by units under management
- Other overhead per unit per month
- Insurance, vehicle, phone, and office divided by units under management
- Target margin
- The profit target set for the service line
Fee equals cost to serve divided by one minus the target margin.
Take a cost to serve of $80 per unit per month as an arithmetic example. A 25% target margin gives a fee of $107, since $80 divided by 0.75 is $107. A 15% margin gives $94, since $80 divided by 0.85 is $94.
On the six-unit building, the first figure bills $642 per month. That is the number the owner sees on the fee line, and it comes from the company's books. If the derived fee falls outside the public band, the company changes the cost, the margin, or the scope.
Fee models compared
Where it fits
- Share of collected rent
- Owners who want the company to feel every vacancy
- Flat amount per unit
- Owners who want a predictable number, portfolios with stable rents
- Tiered by unit count
- Owners with growing portfolios
- Fee plus itemized coordination
- Owners who want to see what each work order cost
- All-inclusive
- Owners who hate line items
What it hides
- Share of collected rent
- Fee falls when rent falls, and the company's cost does not
- Flat amount per unit
- Vacancy has to be priced separately or absorbed
- Tiered by unit count
- The tier boundaries become the negotiation
- Fee plus itemized coordination
- The statement is longer and every line is a question
- All-inclusive
- The company carries every maintenance hour at one price
In practice, share-of-collected-rent deals commonly sit at 8% to 12% for residential. Flat per-unit fees often run $75 to $150.
Tiered schedules often start near $100 per unit for 1 to 4 units and fall toward $70 per unit at 20 or more. Fee plus itemized coordination adds a 10% to 20% markup on vendor invoices. All-inclusive pricing often runs $100 to $200 per unit per month.
The model is chosen for the owner segment the company serves, and the segment is chosen with the territory. The territory-first location method and the site scoring protocol explain how the owner mix is read from local records before the fee model is set.
Before the quote leaves the office
- The advertised fee, the quoted fee, and the fee the agreement will charge are the same figure with the same conditions. The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses is the reference for why.
- The loaded labor cost behind the fee is current. The Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage tables by area are a check on the wage component when the company's payroll history is thin.
- The quote is filed with the walk-through notes and the derivation. The IRS guidance on what records a business should keep is the retention floor, and the quote is the first document an attorney will ask for if the relationship goes wrong.
- A qualified attorney has reviewed the template once, and the pricing and profit guide has been reread for any fee line the template is missing.
Common questions
Should the quote include sample figures?
It should include the company's own figures for this owner, derived from its cost to serve, not figures copied from another company.
How long should a quote stay open?
State a date. Costs move, and an owner who accepts a six-month-old quote accepts a price the company no longer charges.
Can the owner negotiate individual lines?
The owner can ask. The company decides which lines have room, using the derivation, and records any concession with an end date.
Is the quote binding?
That depends on how it is worded and on state law. That is why the template says the agreement, not the quote, governs, and why an attorney reviews the template.
