What Property Management Costs in Memphis: The Questions That Expose the Real Price

Ask five Memphis property managers what they charge and you will get five clean-sounding percentages. The percentage is real, but it is rarely the price. The real price lives in four dials, and the cheapest headline number is often the most expensive contract in the stack.

We observe every Memphis manager's public listings nightly for the Memphis property management index, and we publish our own fee schedule in full. Here is how to read anyone's.

The four dials

• The management percentage. The number on the website. For long-term rentals ours is 8 percent of collected rent, charged only when rent actually collects.
• Tenant placement. Usually a share of the first month's rent for finding and screening the tenant. Ours is 50 percent of one month. A low monthly percentage with a full-month placement fee can out-cost a higher percentage over a typical tenancy.
• Renewals. Some contracts charge a fresh placement-sized fee every time a tenant re-signs. Ours is a flat 195 dollars. Over a five-year tenant, this dial alone can swing the total by more than the percentage does.
• Maintenance billing. The quiet one, and often the biggest. A manager who outsources repairs adds margin: minimum service-call charges, marked-up materials, coordination fees. A manager with an in-house crew can bill parts and labor at cost. Same water heater, very different invoice. Ask for an itemized sample invoice before you sign.

Short-term rentals price differently

For Airbnb-style management the market convention is a percentage of room revenue, and the manager often keeps the guest cleaning fee as a second income stream on top. We charge 10 percent of gross revenue, all-in, with cleaning done by our own team and billed to the guest at cost to you. When you compare STR managers, ask one question first: who keeps the cleaning fee?

How to compare managers without a spreadsheet

Put every candidate's four dials in a row and price a realistic year: twelve months of rent, one placement or renewal, two repair events. We keep a side-by-side fee comparison of 10 Memphis firms current so you do not have to collect the quotes yourself. Then judge the operator side by numbers they publish, not adjectives. Occupancy is a fee in disguise: a manager whose portfolio runs 70 percent occupancy against a 57 percent market average is buying you more revenue than a cheaper fee saves. We keep our numbers, and every competitor's, in one place on the index, and the how-to-judge checklist lives in how to choose a Memphis property manager.

If you are still deciding whether the property should be a rental at all, start with what your street actually supports.

Fee figures for LPS are our current published schedule; occupancy figures come from our portfolio and market tracking, as of July 2026.

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