The True Cost of DIY Landlording (And When It Stops Making Sense)

When you first bought your rental property, managing it yourself seemed like the obvious choice. Why pay someone else when you can handle a few tenant calls and collect rent directly? For many landlords, that logic works — until it doesn’t.

The true cost of DIY landlording goes far beyond the money you save by not hiring a property manager. Here’s an honest accounting of what self-management actually costs, so you can decide whether it still makes sense for your situation.

The Time Cost

Most landlords dramatically underestimate the time they spend on property management. It’s not just the big events — it’s the accumulation of small tasks that fragment your days and evenings.

Consider a typical month for a DIY landlord with a single property: responding to tenant messages and calls (2-4 hours), coordinating a maintenance request (1-3 hours including getting quotes, scheduling, and following up), bookkeeping and rent tracking (1-2 hours), dealing with one unexpected issue (1-3 hours), and seasonal tasks like arranging snow removal or lawn care.

That’s 5-12 hours per month for one property. If you own three or four units, you’re looking at 15-40 hours monthly — a part-time job you didn’t plan for, squeezed into evenings and weekends that could be spent with your family or on work that moves your career forward.

The Knowledge Cost

Managing a rental property in Ontario requires working knowledge of the Residential Tenancies Act, Ontario Human Rights Code obligations, municipal bylaws and licensing, proper notice forms and procedures, fair market rent pricing, tenant screening best practices, maintenance standards and trade coordination, and basic accounting for rental income.

Mistakes in any of these areas have financial consequences. An improperly served N4 notice gets dismissed at the LTB, adding months to an eviction. A discriminatory screening practice leads to a Human Rights Tribunal complaint. A missed maintenance obligation results in a rent abatement order. These aren’t hypothetical risks — they happen to DIY landlords every month in Ontario.

The Opportunity Cost

This is the cost most landlords overlook entirely. Every hour you spend managing your rental is an hour you don’t spend on something else. For a professional earning $50-100/hour, spending 10 hours a month on property management represents $500-1,000 in lost earning potential — often more than the management fee you’d pay.

For landlords building a portfolio, the opportunity cost includes the time you’re not spending finding, analyzing, and closing your next investment. The landlord who manages two properties themselves grows slower than the landlord who delegates management and focuses on acquisition.

The Stress Cost

The hardest cost to quantify is the mental load. Knowing that your phone could ring at any moment with a tenant emergency. Worrying about whether your property is being maintained. Lying awake wondering if you handled a situation correctly under the RTA. For landlords with families, this stress bleeds into personal time in ways that affect relationships, sleep, and quality of life.

This is especially acute for accidental landlords — people who became landlords through circumstance (kept a home after moving, inherited a property) rather than by design. The operational demands of landlording were never part of the plan, and the mental load feels disproportionate to the income generated.

The Financial Tipping Points

Here’s when DIY landlording typically stops making financial sense:

One extended vacancy. If your unit sits empty for an extra two weeks because you couldn’t show it, market it, or screen tenants fast enough, the lost rent often exceeds an entire year of management fees.

One bad tenant. Poor screening that leads to a non-paying tenant can cost $5,000-$15,000+ in lost rent, legal fees, and property damage. Professional screening reduces this risk dramatically.

One major maintenance mistake. Ignoring a small leak that becomes a $10,000 water damage repair. Missing a furnace issue that leads to an emergency replacement instead of a planned one. Reactive management is always more expensive than proactive management.

Scale. Managing one property is manageable. Managing three or more while working a full-time job and raising a family is a recipe for something getting dropped — and in property management, dropped balls are expensive.

What Professional Management Actually Costs

At Catana Property Management, our Standard package costs 5% of rent collected. On a $2,000/month rental, that’s $100/month. For that, you get tenant screening, lease management, rent collection, maintenance coordination with structured spending thresholds, semi-annual inspections, monthly financial reporting with a property health snapshot, after-hours emergency response, and RTA-compliant notice handling.

Our Rent-Guard package at 7% ($140/month on a $2,000 rental) adds income protection features including a leasing warranty and rent coverage safeguard.

No management fee during vacancy. No termination fees. The math either works for your situation or it doesn’t — and we’re happy to walk through the numbers honestly on a free Rental Readiness Call.

Frequently Asked Questions

At what point does a property manager pay for itself?

For most landlords, the break-even point is preventing one vacancy week, one bad tenant, or one reactive maintenance emergency per year. Any of these typically costs more than a full year of management fees.

Can I manage some things myself and outsource others?

Some property managers offer leasing-only services where they handle tenant placement and you manage ongoing operations. This can work well for hands-on landlords who primarily struggle with the leasing process.

I only have one property. Is it worth hiring a manager?

It depends on your personal situation. If you have a demanding career, a young family, or live far from the property, the time and stress savings of professional management on even a single unit can be worth the cost.

What if I’m not happy with the property manager?

This is why Catana charges no termination fee. If our service doesn’t meet your expectations, you can leave at any time. We retain clients through performance, not contracts.