Full-service property management in Jacksonville usually costs 10% of the monthly rent, plus a one-time setup or leasing fee and a few smaller charges. At Cool Realty LLC, the monthly fee is 10% of collected rent, starting in the second month of the lease, and it isn’t charged while the home is vacant. The setup fee is a flat $750, whatever the rent, and lease preparation is $65.
The percentage is the number every company quotes. The rest of the fee schedule is where two managers with the same rate end up more than a thousand dollars apart in a year. Below is what each fee pays for, what Jacksonville managers publish, and the first-year math at three rent levels.
What Jacksonville Property Managers Charge
Ten percent of the monthly rent is the rate you’ll see most often for managing a single-family home, townhome or condo in Jacksonville. In October 2026 we read the fee schedules that ten managers serving the area publish on their own websites, including our own pricing page. Eight of the ten list a 10% plan. The differences are in the other fees.
Fee | What published Jacksonville schedules show | Cool Realty LLC |
|---|---|---|
Monthly management fee | 10% on eight of ten schedules. Percentage plans run from 5% to 12%; flat plans from $115 to $250 a month | 10% of collected rent, starting in month two. 9% for active-duty military |
Setup or leasing fee | From nothing to a full month’s rent. Most often 50% or 75% of one month’s rent | $750 flat: $350 upfront, $400 when a tenant is placed |
Lease preparation | Included in the leasing or management fee where it is mentioned | $65, prepared by a real estate attorney |
Lease renewal | $0 to $350, or 25% of one month’s rent | $350, including an inspection and tenant review |
Monthly minimum | $100 to $279 on four plans | None. $0 while the home is vacant |
Eviction protection | Optional plans from $15 to $30 a month where offered | Optional, $30 a month |
Repairs | Billed separately. A few schedules state that repairs carry no markup | Handyman at $50 an hour plus materials. You approve quotes first |
What Each Property Management Fee Pays For
Monthly management fee
The monthly fee pays for running the rental once a tenant is in place: collecting rent, answering tenant calls, coordinating repairs, inspecting the property and reporting to you. A percentage of rent is the most common way to charge it. The alternative is a flat monthly fee, which stays the same whether the home rents for $1,500 or $3,000. A flat $150 equals 10% of a $1,500 rental, so above that rent the flat fee is the smaller monthly number.
With a percentage fee, ask what the percentage is applied to. A fee on collected rent is earned only when the tenant pays. A fee on scheduled rent, or a monthly minimum, can be owed in a month when no rent came in.
Cool Realty charges 10% of collected rent, starting in the second month of the lease.
Setup, leasing and tenant placement fees
This fee covers everything up to move-in: pricing the home, photographing and advertising it, showing it, screening applicants and signing the lease. Most managers charge it as a share of one month’s rent each time they place a tenant. On a $2,000 rental, 50% is $1,000 and 75% is $1,500.
We charge a flat $750 instead, whatever the rent. You pay $350 when you sign on, which covers property setup, photography and advertising, and $400 once a tenant is placed. If a tenant we placed doesn’t complete the lease term, we find a replacement without charging the onboarding fee again.
Lease preparation and renewal fees
Lease preparation is $65. The lease is prepared by a real estate attorney, not filled in from a template.
A renewal fee applies when a tenant signs on for another term. Ours is $350 and includes the updated lease, an inspection about 60 days before the lease ends, and a fresh look at the tenant’s qualifications. Other Jacksonville schedules charge anywhere from nothing to 25% of a month’s rent.
Fees that apply only in certain situations
Vacancy. Some schedules set a monthly minimum. Ask whether it’s charged while the home is empty. We charge nothing in a vacant month.
Extra inspections. The inspection schedule is part of full service: before move-in, a tenant self-inspection within 48 hours of move-in, an in-person visit at six months, and a move-out inspection. The pre-renewal inspection comes with the $350 renewal. Additional visits cost extra.
Eviction. Our optional Advanced Eviction Protection is $30 a month. It covers the legal fees and related costs of an eviction, you opt in when the lease starts, and you can cancel at any time.
Ending the agreement. Ask what it costs to leave. You can cancel ours with no penalty or fee if we haven’t found a tenant within 90 days of advertising the home. When a lease ends and isn’t being renewed, you can cancel with 60 days’ notice.
What Does the Monthly Management Fee Include?
At Cool Realty, the 10% covers the day-to-day work of managing a rented home:
Rent collection through the tenant portal, with late notices and follow-up when rent isn’t paid by the 3rd
Owner payouts by direct deposit, sent no later than the 10th of the month
Monthly statements and year-end reports in your owner portal
Maintenance coordination, with 24-hour on-call coverage for emergencies
The scheduled inspections described above
Move-in and move-out procedures, including handling the security deposit under Florida’s deposit rules
These are billed separately:
Repairs and materials
The $65 lease and the $350 renewal
Optional eviction protection
Inspections beyond the schedule
What Will You Pay in the First Year?
On a home renting for $2,000 a month, the first year of full-service management at Cool Realty costs $3,015. Here is the math at three rent levels. These are hypothetical examples, not quotes. They assume a vacant home, one tenant on a 12-month lease, and rent paid every month. Repairs and optional services are left out.
For context, Zillow put the average Jacksonville rent at $1,602 across all property types on October 9, 2026, with three-bedroom rentals at $1,800 and four-bedroom rentals at $2,088.
$1,600 rent | $2,000 rent | $2,500 rent | |
|---|---|---|---|
Setup fee | $750 | $750 | $750 |
Lease preparation | $65 | $65 | $65 |
Management fee, months 2 to 12 (10% × 11) | $1,760 | $2,200 | $2,750 |
First-year total | $2,575 | $3,015 | $3,565 |
Share of the year’s rent | 13.4% | 12.6% | 11.9% |
Year two, if the tenant renews (10% × 12, plus $350) | $2,270 | $2,750 | $3,350 |
Spread over 12 months, the $2,000 example works out to about $251 a month. Because the setup fee is flat, it takes a smaller share as rent rises, and year two costs less than year one at every rent level.
Active-duty military owners pay 9% instead of 10%. On the $2,000 example, that lowers the first year to $2,795.
If the home takes two months to rent, these totals don’t change, because our fee doesn’t start until rent does. What you lose in that case is the rent itself. Our vacancy loss calculator puts a number on it, and we’ve written separately about how long a Jacksonville rental takes to lease.
Why Two 10% Quotes Can Cost Very Different Amounts
We ran the same $2,000 rental through every published plan we could total: 13 plans from nine companies, ours included. First-year cost ranged from $2,300 to $5,198.
Seven of those plans advertise the same 10% monthly fee. Their first-year totals still ranged from $2,400 to $4,185. The gap comes from leasing fees, mandatory add-ons, and whether the first month is charged.
Ours came to $3,015, toward the low end but not the lowest. The lowest total isn’t automatically the best fit, either, because the plans don’t all include the same services.
To compare any two quotes the same way:
List every fee you’d owe in the first 12 months: setup, leasing, lease preparation, the monthly fee, and anything marked mandatory.
Add them up at your expected rent.
Divide the total by 12 months of rent.
The result is your effective first-year cost. On the 13 plans it ran from 9.6% to 21.7% of rent.
You may see articles put the real cost of management at 18% to 25% of rent. Only two of the 13 published plans reached 18%. Charges that aren’t on a fee schedule, such as repair markups, would push a total higher, which is the reason to ask about them.
Costs No Management Fee Covers
A management fee pays for the manager’s work. The property’s own costs stay with the owner under any plan:
Repairs and maintenance. We send you a quote for approval before work begins and a before-and-after photo report when it’s done. Our in-house handyman is $50 an hour plus materials, and the outside vendors we use are licensed and insured.
Property taxes, insurance, HOA or condo dues, and the mortgage.
Utilities and lawn care while the home is vacant.
Court costs for an eviction, unless you’ve added eviction protection. In Duval County, the clerk’s eviction packet lists $185 to file a residential eviction, $10 per summons, and $97 for the writ of possession ($7 to the clerk and $90 to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office). Serving the tenant and any attorney’s fee are extra.
Is Property Management Worth the Cost?
It depends on what managing the home yourself costs you in time and risk. On the $2,000 example, full-service management costs about $251 a month in the first year. For that, you hand off leasing, rent collection, repair calls, inspections and the legal steps when rent is late.
Management tends to make the most sense for owners who live outside the area, own more than one rental, are relocating on military orders, or have already been through a bad tenant experience.
It has downsides. The fee comes out of every month’s rent. You’re a step removed from the tenant and the property. And service varies from company to company, which is why the agreement and the fee schedule deserve a careful read before you sign.
There are lighter options. If you want to keep managing but need a tenant found, our tenant placement service is a one-time $100 plus one month’s rent, with no monthly fee. If the home isn’t rented at all, Home Watch is $300 a month for scheduled checks on a vacant or seasonal property.
Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Management Agreement
Is the monthly fee based on rent collected or rent scheduled?
Is there a fee or a monthly minimum while the home is vacant?
What do you charge to place a tenant, and is it charged again if that tenant leaves early?
What does a lease renewal cost, and what does it include?
Do you add a markup or coordination fee to repair invoices?
Which inspections are included, and what do extra ones cost?
Who keeps tenant late fees?
How do I end the agreement, and what does it cost?
Can I see the full fee schedule and a sample owner statement before I sign?
Our published fee schedule answers most of these. For a wider checklist, see our guide to choosing a property management company in Jacksonville.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average property management fee in Florida?
There is no official statewide average. The figure most often quoted for long-term rentals is 8% to 12% of monthly rent, usually without a source. In Jacksonville, eight of the ten published fee schedules we read in October 2026 include a 10% plan, so 10% is a fair benchmark for the monthly fee here.
How much is a reasonable management fee?
A reasonable fee is one you can total before you sign. For a long-term rental in Jacksonville, 10% a month is typical. What varies is the leasing fee, the renewal fee and the add-ons. Total the first year and divide by a year of rent. On published local plans that charge 10%, the result runs from 10% to about 17%.
Do I pay the management fee if my tenant doesn’t pay rent?
Not at Cool Realty. Our fee is 10% of collected rent, so a month with no rent collected is a month with no management fee. Not every agreement works this way. If the fee is based on scheduled rent, or the agreement sets a monthly minimum, you can owe it even when the tenant hasn’t paid.
Are property management fees tax deductible?
For a rental property, generally yes. IRS Publication 527 lists management fees among the most common rental expenses. How that applies to your return depends on your situation, so check with a tax professional.
Does a property manager need a license in Florida?
In most cases, yes. Under Chapter 475 of the Florida Statutes, a person who rents or leases real property for others for compensation is acting as a real estate broker and needs an active license, either as a broker or as a sales associate working under one. Owners leasing their own property are exempt, and so are salaried on-site leasing staff at apartment communities. You can look up any manager’s license on the Florida DBPR license search.
Get a Real Number for Your Property
The quickest way to see what management would cost is to start with what your home could rent for. Request a free rental analysis or call 904-602-5555, then run the first-year math above at that rent. The full fee schedule is on our pricing page.
Cool Realty LLC manages single-family homes, townhomes and condos across Jacksonville, Orange Park, St. Johns County and the rest of Northeast Florida from our office at 1857 Wells Rd, Suite 207, in Orange Park.
Fees and public figures are current as of October 2026. The examples are hypothetical, and this article is general information, not legal or tax advice.
