Sep 2, 2026 · 43 min · 13 segments
Should you manage your own HMOs, or pay somebody else to do it? It’s one of the most common questions HMO investors ask, and the decision is often based on one thing: how much money you could save by…
Andy GrahamHost
So today we are going to talk about something that comes up again and again and again.
And it's this, should you manage your own HMOs or should you just pay somebody else to do it? Now, I have covered this topic before on the podcast, but it was way, way, way back in February 2021.
I did an episode on self-management and the question itself hasn't really changed.
People are still asking me today the very same thing, but almost everything that underpins the answer to that has actually changed over the last five or six years.
So today what I want to do is talk about all of this with you to help you make an informed decision as to whether or not you should or should not be managing your HMOs.
That isn't necessarily what has prompted me to record this episode, although it has definitely changed stuff, hasn't it? It's changed the way that tenancies work.
There are overheads and operating costs that have changed significantly over the last few years.
What our tenants expect from a shared house in terms of the living and the standard, and also what they expect from a property manager and a landlord has changed significantly.
just finding and keeping good people now as a direct result got much more difficult.
And this all affects the answer to this question, should I self-manage or not? So you can see very quickly that the answer to this question should be about far, far, far more than just the economics involved.
That's the calculation that's super straightforward to work out, but everything else...
So yes, if you are a landlord that self-manages or if you're a landlord that hasn't managed, it is probably a good time to just readdress things this question, maybe revisit it and have a think about whether or not the current structure that you have set up is the right one for you, or whether, given the changes that have come about, whether it would be time for a change.
Now, before we go any further today, let me be really clear about what this episode is and what it isn't.
The only promise I'm making to you today is to be honest and give you a transparent breakdown of the pros and cons of self-management versus using an agent.
So today we are going to talk about something that comes up again and again and again.
And it's this, should you manage your own HMOs or should you just pay somebody else to do it? Now, I have covered this topic before on the podcast, but it was way, way, way back in February 2021.
I did an episode on self-management and the question itself hasn't really changed.
People are still asking me today the very same thing, but almost everything that underpins the answer to that has actually changed over the last five or six years.
So today what I want to do is talk about all of this with you to help you make an informed decision as to whether or not you should or should not be managing your HMOs.
That isn't necessarily what has prompted me to record this episode, although it has definitely changed stuff, hasn't it? It's changed the way that tenancies work.
There are overheads and operating costs that have changed significantly over the last few years.
What our tenants expect from a shared house in terms of the living and the standard, and also what they expect from a property manager and a landlord has changed significantly.
just finding and keeping good people now as a direct result got much more difficult.
And this all affects the answer to this question, should I self-manage or not? So you can see very quickly that the answer to this question should be about far, far, far more than just the economics involved.
That's the calculation that's super straightforward to work out, but everything else...
So yes, if you are a landlord that self-manages or if you're a landlord that hasn't managed, it is probably a good time to just readdress things this question, maybe revisit it and have a think about whether or not the current structure that you have set up is the right one for you, or whether, given the changes that have come about, whether it would be time for a change.
Now, before we go any further today, let me be really clear about what this episode is and what it isn't.
The only promise I'm making to you today is to be honest and give you a transparent breakdown of the pros and cons of self-management versus using an agent.
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