Net operating income (NOI) is what your property earns after expenses. NOI alignment means the manager's fee rises and falls with that number, so the manager only makes money when you do. PAM's fee is 8% of collected rent, capped at $250 a month, and waived entirely while a unit sits vacant.
Net operating income is what's left after the property's expenses. NOI alignment asks one question of a property manager: is the fee structure tied to that number, or built alongside it? A manager who profits only when the investor profits has every reason to keep units occupied, rents at market and costs at cost.
The alternative is a manager who has built a second income stream into the relationship: fees that look small on their own, are charged regardless of performance, and are often paid by the resident rather than shown to the investor. Those fees are the subject of this pillar.
Four figures define how PAM is paid. Each is on the pricing page, in full, with nothing hidden inside a service agreement.
Of collected rent, capped at $250 per month. Waived entirely while a unit is vacant, so the fee stops the moment the income does.
No markup on maintenance labor or materials. Vendor invoices pass through at cost, plus a flat $10 to coordinate the job.
Or one month's rent, whichever is less. Charged once, when a resident is placed.
A success fee, charged only when a renewal actually happens. No renewal, no fee.
What To Ask Your Manager
Ask for every fee charged to you and every fee charged to your resident, on one page. Then ask which of them is tied to the property performing. A resident benefit package, a risk mitigation fee, a security deposit replacement product: each is revenue to the manager that never becomes rent to you.
Industry Standard
A resident benefit package at roughly $40 a month. A monthly risk mitigation fee of $50 to $90 for residents flagged as higher-risk. Combined, more than $1,000 a year functioning as undisclosed rent, paid by the resident and never reaching the investor. Deposit replacement products follow the same pattern: an ongoing fee instead of a refundable deposit, and no real damage protection for the owner.
PAM
One management fee, capped and waived at vacancy. No resident fees that bypass the investor. No markup on repairs. Placement and renewal charged only on success. Wisconsin law places a manager in the position of advocating for resident and investor at once, and a fee structure that quietly benefits the manager at either side's expense fails that test.
Take a single $90-a-month risk mitigation fee. Over a year it adds up to $1,080 paid by the resident that should have been rent. It plays out one of two ways.
Either the investor absorbs it as below-market rent, because the resident's total monthly cost is already at the ceiling of what they will pay. Or the inflated total pushes the resident toward a shorter stay, and the investor pays for the turnover instead. Both cost the investor money, and neither appears as a line item on a statement.
A manager who only profits when the investor profits has every reason to keep units occupied, rents at market and costs at cost.
Score your current manager on fees, renewals, occupancy and reporting. The result shows where the money is leaking, with PAM's published numbers beside it.