How to compare property management proposals in Mobile, Alabama

Start with scope, not the rate

A management fee is a price for an amount of work. Until you know the amount of work, the price has nothing to attach to.

So before you compare a single number, write out the work and ask each provider to mark every line included, extra or not offered:

• Marketing the property, taking calls and showing it
• Tenant screening, and what the screening standard actually is
• Preparing and signing the lease
• Collecting rent, and chasing it when it is late
• Coordinating maintenance and dealing with vendors
• Inspections, and how many are included in a year
• Monthly owner statements and year-end accounting
• Lease renewals and rent reviews
• Serving notices
• Move-out, deposit accounting and turnover
• Coordinating an eviction if it comes to that

That marked-up list is the comparison. Everything else is commentary on it.

Find the events that create a charge

Monthly management is rarely the only line. Ask each provider which of these creates a charge, how it is calculated, and whether it is capped:

• Placing a new tenant
• Renewing an existing one
• A vacancy, and whether the monthly fee continues through it
• Coordinating a repair, and whether that is a flat amount or a percentage of the invoice
• An inspection beyond the ones included
• Serving a notice, or coordinating an eviction
• Ending the agreement before its term is up
• Setting up the account in the first place

None of those are improper. A manager who charges for turnover work is charging for work, and somebody has to do it. The only real problem is an event you did not know was an event. Getting the list in writing is what turns a surprise into a decision.

Who can spend your money, and how much

This is the clause owners skip and then think about constantly for the next two years.

• What is the spending limit before they have to ask you, and did you pick that number or did the form?
• What counts as an emergency, in writing, where that limit does not apply?
• What happens when they cannot reach you, which on the Gulf Coast is a real scenario and not a hypothetical one?
• Is any markup added to a vendor invoice, and is it disclosed to you?
• Does the manager own, or have an interest in, the maintenance company doing the work? Ask plainly. A yes is not disqualifying, but it should be disclosed rather than discovered.

What you get in writing, and when

• What is on the monthly statement, and which day of the month it lands
• Whether you see the actual vendor invoices or only the totals
• Where rent and security deposits are held
• What you get at year end for your accountant
• Whether there is an owner portal, and what you can see in it without calling anybody
• Whether inspections come with photographs and a date

A manager holding money that belongs to someone else is holding it under Alabama license law, which is one of several reasons the license question comes before the fee question. We wrote that one up separately: does a property manager need a license in Alabama.

How it ends

Read the end of the agreement before you enjoy the beginning of it.

• How long is the term, and does it renew by itself?
• How much notice ends it, and in what form?
• Is there a charge for ending it, and does it apply if you sell the property?
• What transfers when it ends: leases, deposits, keys, tenant ledgers, vendor warranties, inspection history
• Do they keep managing properly through the notice period? Ask how that has gone before.

Then run the arithmetic on your own property

Do not compare two percentages in the abstract. Put them against your actual rent and the events your property is actually likely to have in a year.

For scale while you are doing that: average rent for a two bedroom in the city of Mobile was $1,216 a month as of September 2026 (RentCafe, September 2026). A one bedroom averaged $1,020 and a three bedroom $1,592. Those are city averages, not your property, and they move.

Take your own rent. Multiply the monthly rate across twelve months. Then add the events: are you likely to place a tenant this year, renew one, carry a vacancy, run a turnover? Do that twice, once per proposal, with the same assumptions both times. The answer is frequently not the one with the smaller headline.

Arithmetic, not a quote, and not a prediction about your property.

The questions, on one page