Flat Fee Property Management

Flat Fee Property Management in Los Angeles

One fixed monthly amount per property for rent collection and maintenance coordination. Not a percentage of rent, so the fee does not climb every time your rent does. Offered across Los Angeles County by Bessa Properties, a California DRE-licensed company.

Why a percentage fee bothers so many LA owners

Most management companies in Los Angeles charge a percentage of collected rent. On paper that sounds fair. In practice the manager’s pay goes up when you raise the rent, even though the work of collecting it and answering the tenant’s calls stays the same. A house in Beverly Hills and a house in Inglewood take about the same effort to run each month, but under a percentage model the Beverly Hills owner pays two or three times as much for it.

The percentage model also hides what you are paying. Owners tell us they cannot say, off the top of their head, what management cost them last year. They know the percentage, not the number. When the annual increase goes through, the statement gets a little smaller and nobody mentions why.

A flat fee turns that around. You know the amount before you sign. It is the same in January as in December. When you take the annual increase on a rent-stabilized unit, the extra rent is yours.

What the flat fee covers

The monthly fee covers two things, and we keep the definition tight on purpose so there is nothing to argue about later.

Leasing is separate. When a unit turns over, pricing it, photographing it, listing it, showing it, screening applicants, and writing the lease is a one-time leasing fee, charged only when we place a tenant. If your tenant stays for six years, you pay it once in six years. We think that is fairer than folding leasing into a higher monthly fee that everyone pays whether or not their unit ever goes vacant.

Flat fee against percentage, side by side

Who the flat fee suits

Owners of a single house or condo

This is where the math is clearest. A single-family house on the Westside or in the Valley collects a high rent, and a percentage fee on that rent is a large number for what is usually a quiet property with one tenant. A flat fee prices the work, not the zip code.

Duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes

Small buildings are the backbone of rental housing in Los Angeles. Many were built before October 1978, and inside the City of Los Angeles that puts them under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance. The owner often lives in one unit. The flat fee is quoted per property, so a fourplex is one number, not four percentages.

Larger buildings

For buildings with a dozen or more units the fee is still fixed, but the quote reflects the unit count and what the building needs. If you own an older building with a long maintenance list, tell us during the call and the quote will account for it. We would rather price it right than surprise you in month three.

When it is not the right fit

If your rent is unusually low for the area, a percentage fee might cost you less than a flat fee. We will say so on the call. The point of quoting each property individually is that we can tell you which structure is cheaper for you, in writing, before you decide anything.

The rules a fixed fee has to keep up with

A low fee is worthless if the manager misses a filing. Los Angeles County has more layers of rental law than almost anywhere in the state, and the flat fee includes handling the ones that touch rent collection and day-to-day operations.

• City of Los Angeles RSO units: the allowable annual increase for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 is 3%, and beginning July 1, 2026 the City calculates future increases at 90% of CPI with a 1% floor and a 4% ceiling. The old 1% add-ons for landlord-paid gas and electricity are gone. We prepare the notice with the correct percentage and keep the annual registration current.
• Units covered by the state Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) instead of a local ordinance: the cap for the Los Angeles area from August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027 is 8.7% (5% plus a 3.7% CPI figure), and the cap can never exceed 10%.
• Cities with their own registries and caps, including Inglewood, Culver City, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood. Each has its own registration deadline and its own posted percentage, and we track them city by city.
• Security deposits, which state law now caps at one month’s rent for most landlords, with the itemized accounting and photographs required at move-out.
• Trust accounting for owner and tenant funds, with monthly statements you can hand to your CPA at year end.

How the quote works

Call us or book a time. We ask about the property: address, number of units, roughly what it rents for, whether you live on site, what condition it is in, and whether anything is going on with a tenant right now. That takes about fifteen minutes. You then get a written quote with the monthly flat fee, the one-time leasing fee, and a plain list of what each one covers. If the flat fee is not the cheaper option for your property, the quote says that too.

If you are switching from another manager, we handle the notice to them, collect the leases, deposits, and keys, and audit each lease against the rent control rules that apply to the building before we start.

Questions owners ask about the flat fee