Why is the government in the business of paying property management fees in the first place? I ask that question because we have this incentive program that covers 80% of the transaction costs someone would have paid if they sold their property, up to a cap of $12,000. If you go on MLS and look for an income property, you'll find on the fact sheet that one of the basic expenses of an income property is management. If you can't manage it yourself, you test whether the income from the property is sufficient to cover the management fee you might have to pay. Sometimes they charge 3%; sometimes they charge 6%. In any event, it is one of the expenses property investors always expect to incur unless they can manage the property themselves.
I think the responsibility of the government here is clearly to help the transferee with the costs associated with the transfer--that is to say, to pay their real estate fees, their legal fees, etc., and the cost of transportation--but if that individual wants to own a property and have it produce income for them while they're gone, it is not the role of the government to pay a property management fee. It is the role of the individual to decide whether or not they believe a given property lives up to the economics of an investment, is it not?
Why is the government paying property management fees? That's what I don't understand. Why would they?