A Question Every Owner Faces When Scaling
Past a certain portfolio size, manual management becomes impossible. Two options appear: hire someone full-time, or run software. The real question is not which is better, but which solves your problem.
True Cost of an Employee
Salary is not the full cost. Add social insurance, allowances, paid leave, recruitment and training, and end-of-service benefits. The common accounting rule is that true employee cost runs 30-40% above base salary.
There is also an invisible cost: knowledge leaves with the employee unless it lives in a system.
True Cost of Software
Annual subscription, messaging fees, possibly setup. Clearer and more predictable, but with hard limits: it cannot inspect a unit, negotiate with a struggling tenant, or judge an unusual situation.
What Each Does Best
Software excels at: tireless reminders, precise calculations, payment allocation, instant reports, permanent records, and round-the-clock operation.
People excel at: negotiation, field inspection, exceptions, relationships, and judgment calls nobody programmed for.
The Common Mistake: Treating Them as Alternatives
The costliest error is hiring someone then handing them spreadsheets. You pay a full salary for repetitive admin work while the reason you hired them gets neglected.
The right order: software handles the repetitive, people handle judgment. One person with a good system manages what used to need three with spreadsheets.
How to Decide
- Count monthly hours of repetitive admin work
- Count monthly hours of field work
- If the first dominates, start with software
- If the second dominates, hire — but run software alongside