Problems › Should We Hire or Outsource? › Real Estate & Property
The test is not cost. It is whether the capability is close enough to what you sell that owning it changes your position. This page works through it for property companies specifically — including an unedited excerpt from a real analysis of a property company.
The test is not cost. It is whether the capability is close enough to what you sell that owning it changes your position. Property companies carry a specific bind here — the only asset that would sell easily is the one worth keeping, and LP consent is required above $75M. Until that is priced, net operating income will keep moving for reasons nobody can attribute, and the debate about fully loaded cost will stay a matter of opinion.
Hire-versus-outsource is usually argued on cost per hour, which is the least decisive input. An outsourced function is generally cheaper at low utilisation and more expensive at high utilisation, so the honest comparison depends on volume you have to forecast anyway.
The decisive question is proximity to what you actually sell. Capabilities that touch the customer's experience of the thing you charge for, or that accumulate knowledge you can compound, are worth owning even at a premium. Everything else is a purchasing decision.
The third factor is variance. Owning a function buys control over quality and timing; outsourcing buys flexibility. Which matters more depends on whether your customers notice variance.
These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.
✓ The debate is being conducted entirely on hourly rates
✓ Utilisation of the proposed hire is assumed rather than estimated
✓ The function touches the customer directly
The move that usually makes it worse. Outsourcing something that accumulates knowledge you would have compounded, which is cheaper every year and weaker every year.
It is for you if you run or finance a property company and the debate is being conducted entirely on hourly rates. It is the situation where the numbers are available but nobody has put them in an order that produces a decision.
It is not for you if Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
Below is an excerpt from a real run of this analysis on a property company. It is a sample profile rather than a customer, and it is unedited engine output — this is the format you get, on your own numbers.
The subject is Brentmoor Property Group, a sample company profile used for testing rather than a customer — $1.4B of assets under management.
Excerpt from a real Percision run · Cost Reduction & Efficiency · sample company profile
The move. Monetize the 1.7M sq ft industrial portfolio's operational data into a fee platform that generates 15-22% EBITDA margins and recycles capital back into owned assets.
The leak it closes. Reduces excess headcount cost by $4.2M annually through 84-person reduction while maintaining service quality via tenant-experience platform automation
The assumption it rests on. Regional light-industrial owners will outsource management to Brentmoor at 3-5% of NOI fee rate — the engine put the probability at 0.6.
| Investment required | $2.5-4.0M over 18 months — 8-person team × $180K fully-loaded cost × 18 months ($2.6M) plus $1.5-2.5M tenant-experience platform technology build |
| Expected return | 200-320% over 36 months — $5-8M annual fee income by Month 36 on $2.5-4.0M investment, assuming 15-22% EBITDA margins on fee revenue |
| Revenue, year 1 | $0.8-1.2M fee income from 0.8-1.2M sq ft third-party assets |
| Revenue, year 2 | $2.3-3.8M fee income from 2.5-3.0M sq ft third-party assets |
| Revenue, year 3 | $5-8M fee income from 4.5-5.5M sq ft third-party assets |
| Exit criteria | Exit this move if (a) third-party assets under management <1.5M sq ft by Month 18, OR (b) fee income run-rate <$1.5M annually by Month 24, OR (c) tenant-experience platform fails to generate measurable 3%+ rent premium on 50% of portfolio by Month 24. |
This is one move out of a full analysis. Read a complete report — every page, no email required.
This question routes to Organizational Alignment Model, one of 29 engagements the platform runs. For property companies it works through net operating income, occupancy, debt maturity ladder and cap-rate spread, then produces the sequence rather than a list of options — which move first, what it funds, and the observation that would say the sequence is wrong.
You watch the analysis get built before paying anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.
At the utilisation where fully loaded internal cost falls below the external rate for the same output. Calculate that break-even point explicitly — it is usually lower than people assume and the debate ends there.
Anything where the accumulated knowledge is part of what you sell. Losing that is not a cost line, it is a slow reduction in what you are able to charge for.
By variance rather than by average. Outsourced work is often comparable on average and wider in spread, which matters exactly as much as your customers notice it.
Materially, yes. The only asset that would sell easily is the one worth keeping, and LP consent is required above $75M — which changes both the diagnosis and the order of the fixes. The metrics that decide it here are net operating income, occupancy, debt maturity ladder, and an answer built on industry-general benchmarks will usually point at the wrong one first.
Less than most people expect. Your last twelve months of revenue and cost split the way you already split it, plus whatever you hold on net operating income and occupancy. The analysis is explicit about what it is assuming where your data stops, which is more useful than waiting for numbers you may never have.
Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
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