Buying an 8plex with on site Manager which has never had an official contract or job description
I'm buying my first multi-unit building which is an 8plex in rural midwest. In the past the building had an on site manager who has just taken a reduced rent to manage all the units but she's never had an official contact, job description, etc. The property was purchased a year ago and the new owners lived close by and took away all her duties. Now that I'm buying it and I live far away so I'd like to get them back to her. With this being my first multi-unit building I'm just looking for some guidance.

What exactly are reasonable expectations for her? She says she's handled everything in the past including move in/out, maint issues, etc etc. How would you get that into a contract? Does anyone have some samples?
[{"id": "gf8d16e", "text": "Well first I\u2019d get a lawyer who\u2019s done this before - a multifamily PMA is pretty standard form, which is effectively what you\u2019re asking this person to do. Second I\u2019d set up a lockbox for rents to go into that she can\u2019t touch if she\u2019s paying your bills and then have a monthly funding request to another payable account that she can only cut checks from so she doesn\u2019t rip you off.\n\nEdit - also make sure your lawyer knows some employment law too since you know they could be construed as your employee and all. Better to make sure they\u2019re just a 3rd party vendor with agency to do some basic stuff.", "replies": [{"id": "gf8dbxr", "text": "Thanks. Good Advice. Thankfully all rents are payed electronically.\n\nBut how would you handle the laundry coin money? There's really no way to make sure she's not skimming that?", "replies": [{"id": "gf8ebnx", "text": "the coins are not a big part you can ball park monthly income and get a good idea on if there was some shenanigans but it probably covers the water and utility bill", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "gf8iroc", "text": "Well 2 things - (1) you need 2 bank accounts, one rents go into, another that you fund each month that she can pay expenses out of (2) coins are a huge pain in the ass. It\u2019s better ROI to just install 2 giant washer dryers and charge like a $25/month all you can use washer dryer charge. You won\u2019t have to worry about collecting coins and shit or wasting time\n\nEdit - not sure why I\u2019m being downvoted on this, if you\u2019re an absentee landlord (or well any landlord for that matter) best practice is to have segregated accounting so your employee can\u2019t rob you blind. Also the ROI on the inclusive washer charge works out a hell of a lot better than collecting coins, just bake it into the base rent as an extra like 25-35/unit/month and say free w/d is an amenity. The payback period on $25 is like 6 months.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "gf90bam", "text": "water usage.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "gfbbbjk", "text": "Put washers and dryers in the apartments and raise rents $100-$200 a month", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gf8e3v5", "text": "a true slum lord changes there number and puts there home address as a P.O box. are you out of state? if so give your manager total control and hope she can keep it up. find a local contractor and have them get a list of items needing fixing asap and start one by one fixing the needed repairs taking that off your managers plate. oh and you should give her free rent or pay her and get an invoice for what she does and time", "replies": [{"id": "gf8hn08", "text": "Free rent for managing 7-8 units? I'd say half rent, or if she's really good, 1/4 rent (i.e. 75% off).", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "gf8kcm9", "text": "Free rent on a 7-8 unit is crazy. I hate doing it on 200+ unit properties - will only do it for like a maintenance super. If you fire the person you can\u2019t get rid of them and their on free rent and good luck getting an eviction right now", "replies": [{"id": "gf9iq34", "text": "Wouldn\u2019t it make more sense to pay them a salary and market rent - deduct market rent from said salary?", "replies": [{"id": "gf9ra3z", "text": "It\u2019s been explained to me that employment laws prevent you from deducts to employee compensation. You pay them everything you owe them, then they pay you back separately. Also in my experience having employees live at the property is a necessary evil. I\u2019m ok with like 1 maintenance supervisor getting a free unit in exchange for being on call 24/7 but that\u2019s it. When you go to terminate an employee who lives at your property you can\u2019t compel them to move out and I\u2019ve had nightmares as a result. You\u2019re better off just paying cash comp and letting them deal with their own housing.", "replies": [{"id": "gfbqfct", "text": "&gt; When you go to terminate an employee who lives at your property you can\u2019t compel them to move out and I\u2019ve had nightmares as a result.\n\nthink this depends on state and you can actually work this the other way.  A company I use to work for had employees who lived on site sign an agreement they had to move out in 7 days of being fired and their tenancy was a condition of their employment.  \n\nThey had 30k units, they weren't fly by night.  Ask your lawyers and all that good stuff.", "replies": [{"id": "gfbrqd1", "text": "It\u2019s really tough to evict right now given COVID, but yea it is state by state. In a normal world not a problem but some states have straight moratoriums aside from the CDC declaration", "replies": [], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gf8zbgz", "text": "Lawyer here if you want to email. Have done some similar live in agreements but typically did full rent and then salary. I believe that looks better for sales.", "replies": [{"id": "gf9oyy3", "text": "&gt;but typically did full rent and then salary. I believe that looks better for sales.\n\nThat's a great point.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "gf9xa0n", "text": "Full Rent would cost me more than just getting a real PM. Currently she is just paying 1/2 of the normal rent in the building.", "replies": [{"id": "gfbpvo1", "text": "they are saying she should pay the full rent, then you pay her 1/2 a month back for her wages.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gf951qc", "text": "You mentioned that it's rural midwest, do professional property managers not exist out there?   Personally, I like to avoid live-in-managers and want everything run by a neutral 3rd party, not a resident.\n\nThat said, if I had an in-house manager I'd expect the following from them:\n\n* collect rent, fees, and overall enforce the signed leases\n* handle the vacancy and coordinate the unit turn\n* monthly reporting to me on any issues\n* market and show the units\n* coordinate the lease paperwork and make sure it's executed\n* light cleaning as necessary\n* snow removal as necessary\n\nBasically, I'd want them to be the property manager...", "replies": [{"id": "gf9xnvc", "text": "This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks... \n\nThe property is about an hour outside of a major city and located in a town of about 500 people. Every PM company I've called has said they aren't interested. My cousin is a contractor in the area, so he said he'd be willing to take on all the projects that need done but he didn't want the headache of dealing with tenants and stuff.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]