Quick Answer
Real Property Management (RPM) is a nationwide property management franchise, not a single company. Each of its 300+ local offices sets its own fees, but landlords typically report management fees of 8% to 12%+ of collected rent, plus a separate leasing fee (often 50-100% of one month’s rent) and, in many cases, a markup on maintenance invoices.
Self-managing with software like RentRedi keeps that cost at a flat $12 to $29.95 a month for unlimited units, no matter your portfolio size, but you keep the day-to-day tenant and maintenance responsibilities. The right choice comes down to how much hands-on involvement you want, not just the headline fee.
Table of Contents
- What Real Property Management Actually Is
- What a Franchise Fee Structure Means for Your Wallet
- Quick Comparison: Real Property Management vs. RentRedi
- Why Landlords Choose Software Over a PM Franchise
- What You’re Actually Giving Up (and Keeping) With Each Option
- A Landlord’s Decision, Illustrated
- Common Mistakes Landlords Make When Comparing the Two
- FAQ
- The Bottom Line
What Real Property Management Actually Is
Real Property Management is a larger residential property management franchise network in North America, built from more than 300 independently owned and operated local offices. Founded in 1986 and expanded through franchising starting in 2005, it operates the way most franchise brands do: a shared name, shared technology, and shared training, but each local office is its own small business with its own owner, its own staff, and its own pricing. RPM has been part of Neighborly, a larger home-services franchise group, since 2018.
That last part matters more than most landlords realize going in. There’s a local franchisee that holds your territory, and their fee schedule is set by that individual owner, within the bounds of what the franchise agreement allows.
This is genuinely different from comparing RentRedi to a single competing software platform, where the same product and the same price apply to every user. With RPM, “how much does it cost” and “how good is the service” are two questions with a different answer in every zip code.
What a Franchise Fee Structure Means for Your Wallet
A franchise’s revenue model tells you where the money comes from, and RPM’s public franchise disclosure data is unusually specific on this point. Across reporting franchises, roughly 46-47% of revenue comes from property owners (the management fees you pay directly), another 6% comes from residents (tenant-paid fees like renewal charges and setup fees), and 41-45% comes from property maintenance work performed on the properties under management.
That maintenance share is the number worth sitting with. When almost half of a property manager’s revenue comes from maintenance, a markup on repair invoices isn’t a rare add-on, it’s a core part of how the business is designed to make money. Industry-wide, that markup commonly runs 10% to 25% on top of whatever the vendor already charged. A $600 furnace repair with a 20% markup adds $120 you likely wouldn’t see itemized until the invoice lands.
Layer on the rest of a typical property management fee schedule and the real annual cost becomes clearer. BiggerPockets has run this math directly: using a $1,700/month rental as an example, setup, management, placement, and maintenance fees combined added up to roughly $3,500 in the first year, more than two months of rent, before that cost eases somewhat in renewal years.
- Monthly management fee: commonly 8% to 12% of collected rent, though one local RPM office’s published fee schedule shows tiers from roughly 8.9% up to 15.9% depending on the service level
- Leasing or tenant placement fee: often 50% to 100% of one month’s rent, charged every time a unit turns over
- Lease renewal fee: typically $100 to $500, or a percentage of rent, though some offices bundle this into a higher all-inclusive plan
- Setup fee: a one-time $150 to $500 charge some offices apply when you first sign on
- Maintenance markup: 10% to 25% on vendor invoices at many offices
None of this makes RPM a bad option. It makes it a variable one. Two landlords with identical properties in different cities, or even different offices in the same metro, can end up on meaningfully different fee schedules for the same “Real Property Management” name.
Quick Comparison: Real Property Management vs. RentRedi
| Factor | RentRedi | Real Property Management |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost model | ✅ (flat $12-$29.95/mo, unlimited units) | ⚠️ (8-12%+ of collected rent, scales with your rent roll) |
| Leasing / tenant placement fee | ✅ (no separate placement fee) | ⚠️ (commonly 50-100% of one month’s rent per turnover) |
| Lease renewal fee | ✅ | ⚠️ ($100-$500 or a percentage of rent, varies by office) |
| Maintenance invoice markup | ✅ (no markup on repairs) | ⚠️ (commonly 10-25% added to vendor invoices) |
| Tenant screening | ✅ (TransUnion) | ✅ |
| Online rent collection | ✅ (only $1 ACH) | ✅ |
| Tenant credit reporting | ✅ (all 3 credit bureaus) | ❌ (not standard across franchise offices) |
| Rental listing syndication | ✅ (Zillow Network & more) | ✅ |
| Who chooses the tenant | ✅ (you approve every applicant) | ⚠️ (manager typically has discretion, per the management agreement) |
| Pricing consistency nationwide | ✅ (one flat rate everywhere) | ⚠️ (each of 300+ franchise offices sets its own fee schedule) |
| Support access | ✅ (24/7 live chat, plus phone, email, and Spanish support. 5-star rated in reviews.) | ⚠️ (hours and responsiveness vary by local office) |
| Contract terms | ✅ (no contract, cancel anytime) | ⚠️ (management agreements commonly run 12 months, with early termination fees) |
| Accounting & tax reporting (Schedule E, P&L) | ✅ | ❌ (not typically included, most owners still need separate bookkeeping) |
Takeaway: Real Property Management can genuinely make sense for an owner who wants zero day-to-day involvement and is comfortable paying a percentage of rent (plus the extra fees) for that. But because the fee and the service level are set independently by whichever local office holds your territory, “what you’ll pay” isn’t answerable until you get a quote, and it typically scales up as your portfolio grows. A flat-rate software model does the opposite: the price stays the same at one unit or fifty.
Why Landlords Choose Software Over a PM Franchise
You keep the fee flat, not percentage-based. A RentRedi subscription costs the same $12/mo on the annual plan whether you manage one unit or fifty, since pricing isn’t tied to rent collected. A percentage-based management fee does the opposite: the more rent you collect, the more you pay for the exact same amount of manager effort.
You don’t pay a leasing fee every time a unit turns over. Tenant screening, applications, and listing syndication to Zillow and other sites are included in your subscription. A property manager’s leasing fee, often a full month’s rent, hits every single time a tenant moves out.
Nobody marks up your repair invoices. Because maintenance work is where property management franchises earn a meaningful share of their revenue, markups of 10-25% on vendor invoices are common. Managing your own vendor relationships through software means you see and pay the actual invoice.
You approve every applicant yourself. Self-managing means you’re the one reviewing screening reports and making the call on who moves in, rather than delegating that discretion to a manager you may have only spoken with once.
Your price doesn’t depend on which office picks up the phone. Because RPM’s fee schedule is set locally by each franchise, two landlords calling different offices can get different quotes for the same service. A flat-rate platform charges the same amount to every landlord, everywhere.
You’re not locked into a 12-month agreement. Property management agreements commonly run a year with an early termination fee if you want out sooner. RentRedi has no contract and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What You’re Actually Giving Up (and Keeping) With Each Option
The honest version of this comparison isn’t “software wins on every line.” A management franchise takes real work off your plate: answering the 11 p.m. maintenance call, coordinating a contractor visit, handling a difficult tenant conversation in person. If none of that appeals to you, and you’d rather pay a percentage of rent to make it someone else’s problem, that’s a legitimate trade, and it’s the entire reason franchises like RPM have grown into a 300-plus-office network.
What self-managing with software gives you back is control and a predictable bill. You still answer the maintenance request, but you’re not paying someone else a markup to relay it to the same contractor you could have called yourself. You still screen the tenant, but you’re the one making the final call instead of a manager working from their own criteria.
And your monthly cost doesn’t creep up as your portfolio grows, since RentRedi’s rent collection, autopay, and reminder tools are built to make single-owner management realistic even across multiple properties. Landlords who lean on autopay and reminders inside RentRedi see more consistent results meaningfully too: RentRedi’s own survey data shows units with tenants enrolled in autopay hit a 99% on-time rent rate, compared with 87% for units without it, and automatic reminders were the tool tenants ranked highest for helping them pay on time.
A Landlord’s Decision, Illustrated
Consider a landlord like Marcus, who owns four single-family rentals in a mid-size metro. This is an illustrative scenario, not a specific customer story, but it’s a common one. Marcus got a quote from his local Real Property Management office: a 10% monthly management fee, a leasing fee equal to one month’s rent per turnover, and a 15% markup on any maintenance work over $150. On his four properties renting for $1,600 each, that penciled out to roughly $640 a month in management fees alone before a single leasing or maintenance charge hit, plus $1,600 for every unit that turned over.
Marcus wasn’t opposed to paying for help. What gave him pause was that the fee scaled with his rent roll, and he still wanted a say in who moved into his properties. He switched to self-managing with RentRedi instead, using autopay and rent reminders to cut down on late payments and letting the software’s screening and listing tools handle the parts of leasing he found most time-consuming. His monthly software cost across all four units stayed at $12, the same rate he’d pay for one unit or ten. His experience tracks with what BiggerPockets investors report about self-management overall: the savings are real, but they come with the trade-off of handling tenant welfare, inspections, and late payments yourself instead of delegating them.
Common Mistakes Landlords Make When Comparing the Two
The biggest mistake is comparing the headline management fee percentage without adding in the leasing fee, renewal fee, and maintenance markup, since those extras often add up to more than the monthly fee itself over a year. A second common mistake is assuming every Real Property Management office charges the same rate, when the fee schedule is set independently by each of the 300-plus local franchisees. A third is underestimating how much of self-managing is actually about the tools you use, not raw hours worked. Landlords who try to self-manage with a spreadsheet and a personal bank account often burn out fast; the ones who stick with it are usually running rent collection, screening, and reminders through a single platform instead of piecing it together manually.
The Trade Show Test
- “You’re not paying a percentage of your own rent roll just to have someone answer the phone.” A flat monthly rate means your bill doesn’t grow as your portfolio does.
- “There’s no leasing fee eating a month of rent every time a tenant moves out.” Screening and listing tools are already part of your subscription.
- “Nobody’s marking up your repair invoice.” You see the vendor’s actual bill, not a franchise’s cut on top of it.
- “You still get to say yes or no to every applicant.” Screening reports come to you, not to someone else’s judgment call.
- “You can walk away in 30 days if it’s not for you.” No 12-month management agreement, no early termination fee.
FAQ
How much does Real Property Management actually charge?
It depends entirely on which local office holds your territory, since each of RPM’s 300-plus franchises sets its own fee schedule. Reported management fees commonly run 8% to 12% of collected rent, with some offices publishing rates up to 15.9% for premium service tiers. Add a typical leasing fee of 50-100% of one month’s rent, plus possible renewal and setup fees, before comparing the total to a flat-rate alternative.
Is Real Property Management the same company at every location?
Not in the way most people assume. RPM is a franchise network, so the local office you’d work with is an independently owned business operating under a shared brand and technology platform. Pricing, staffing, and service quality can all vary by office, which is why two landlords in different cities can report very different experiences under the same name.
Can one person really self-manage rental properties without a management company?
Yes, especially with software handling the repetitive parts: rent collection, autopay, reminders, screening, and listing syndication. RentRedi is built for landlords managing rentals themselves, from a single unit up through much larger portfolios, without needing to hand day-to-day operations to a third party.
What do you give up by not hiring a property manager?
You keep the responsibility for maintenance coordination, tenant communication, and being the point of contact when something goes wrong. A property manager takes that off your plate for a fee. Self-managing means you’re doing that work yourself, though software reduces how much of it is manual by automating collection, reminders, and screening.
Does maintenance markup really add up that much?
It can. Public franchise disclosure data shows property maintenance work makes up 41-45% of the average RPM franchise’s revenue, and industry-wide markups on vendor invoices commonly run 10% to 25%. On a portfolio with regular repairs, that’s a recurring cost self-managing landlords avoid entirely by working with their own vendors directly.
Why does RentRedi’s pricing stay flat no matter how many units I have?
RentRedi charges one flat subscription rate rather than a percentage of rent or a per-unit fee, so the price doesn’t climb as your portfolio grows. Every plan, whether billed monthly, semi-annually, or annually, includes the same full feature set: rent collection, screening, accounting, listings, and maintenance tracking.
The Bottom Line
Real Property Management can be the right call for an owner who wants a local, hands-off manager and is comfortable paying a percentage of rent, plus leasing and maintenance fees, for that convenience. But because it’s a franchise, the price and service you’d actually get depends entirely on which of its 300-plus offices holds your territory, and that fee typically grows right alongside your rent roll.
If you’re weighing that quote against staying hands-on, run the full math first: management fee, leasing fee, renewal fee, and maintenance markup, added up over a year, not just the headline percentage. Then compare it to a flat monthly rate that doesn’t change as you add units.
Next steps:
- Get a written, itemized fee schedule from your local RPM office, not just the headline percentage.
- Add up leasing, renewal, and maintenance markup fees against a full year, not just one month.
- Compare that total to RentRedi’s flat-rate plans and see which one actually costs less for your portfolio.
Ready to see the difference for your own units? Try RentRedi risk-free, unlimited properties, one flat rate, 30-day money-back guarantee.