Beef Hooked,
You are wading through another one of the reasons why we decided to discontinue acquiring that form of asset from our portfolio.
Too much collusion (REI and their members are in the thick of it...no point complaining to them about their own members hey !!), and way too high fees.
Your total list is almost identical to what we were quoted for PM fees. Total PM take ranged from 18.5% up to 22.5%. Makes managing yourself a no-brainer, given the simplicity of the RTA.
To answer your question Goanna, the PM fee itself is just revenue straight off the top....any physical thing they actually do is charged separately. You get zippo for the actual PM fee.
Over here in the West, we are sometimes perplexed at the amount of people who are happy to just palm it all off to a PM. For 6.5% why not indeed. Crank that up to 22%, and you may change your tune.
I suggested to my wife, who is a qualified PM, perhaps start up an agency and charge a flat 10% fee. There seems to be something inherently fair about the flat 10% fee that as an Owner I am attracted to...rather than being slugged for 17 different charges, which bumps the recommended 8.5% up to well over 20%. Of course, the business model didn't work, due to anumber of significant reasons ;
1. We found out being a qualified PM doesn't allow you to charge PM fees. You need to have a tri-ennial certificate for that. That's held by the elderly fat cat at the back of the agency who does nothing except collect a big fat fee for everyone to work under his authority. Jumping through the REI hoops to get one of these wasn't worth it.
2. Massive overhead charges (due to paying the fat cat holding the TC).
3. Huge whinge factor from both Tenants and Owners.
We decided we wanted to move away from the whinging, not jump in the deep end and be constantly surrounded by it.
Anyway, good luck BH, I reckon you're on a flogging to nowhere.