I have been a landlord for several years and I have managed my rental by myself with amazing success. For work reasons, I had to go out of state, thus I required a property manager. I needed help renting out and managing my lovely 5-year-old townhouse, so I contacted a property management company.
As I reflect on my time working with a property management company, I’ve made a list of questions I wish I’d asked and want to elaborate on my answers here.
From now on, “PM” shall stand for “property manager.”
Here are some questions you should ask (in no particular order) as well as an explanation of how I got burned. The lessons you take away from my blunders will hopefully be useful.
What is your tenant screening process?
At first, PM tried to dissuade me from getting engaged because she insisted on taking charge of everything. They put a deadbeat tenant with a poor credit history and collections right into my rental property, costing me thousands of dollars in the process ( I signed the paper work without asking too many questions). This was the worst possible tenant. It cost me a fortune in repairs and replacements. We’ve Taken Away the Following: Rental letting agent stortford are only concerned with making a profit at their tenants’ cost, not with their welfare. As a result, their number one goal is to rent out your home to the lowest bidder possible. If they don’t find a tenant for your home, they won’t get paid. Renting to a deadbeat tenant is a long, difficult, and expensive process. The property manager and the tenant benefit from this drawn-out ordeal at your expense. Participate heavily in this fundamental step of tenant selection, of course comply with applicable anti-discrimination regulations, but Limit who you will rent to based on their credit score, and don’t rent to anyone who doesn’t meet your requirements. Ask them for copies of all the screens the property mangement business completed on the tenants. If they are unable or unwilling to accomplish this for you, it is a red flag that they are not looking out for your best interests.
Do I get detailed invoices for the repairs made to my rental property?
PM did not give me detailed invoices that broke down every charge. The work invoices were usually one line item with a hundreds of dollars attached with it. It’s possible I was overcharged by $200. At first, I had to call and ask questions about the fees, but nobody ever answered any of my concerns.
Do you have a go-to crew of handymen on call to handle any necessary maintenance or repairs at my house?
Tenant abuse resulted in several service calls and costly repairs, all of which were completed by companies hired by my property management firm. They were hesitant to partner with a third party or the company I had selected. They wouldn’t do anything to help me get them to work with the company I wanted to work with unless I managed and coordinated everything myself. Poor quality work was done by PM’s vendors, as evidenced by the need for repeated repairs to the same problem (at the property owner’s expense) in the following months. ME. Lesson learned: Property Management Company either collects money (kickbacks) from these bad companies that do the work for them and charge excessive rates because they have no competition or charge reasonable rate and do shoddy service.
When a Tenant contacts for assistance, how do you prioritise which calls to answer first?
My tenant from hell would place a service call for any little tiny problem. And PM will gladly take my call, dispatch a service technician to look into it, and gladly bill me the service price for said technician to show up and do nothing more than turn a switch. The Takeaway: Inquire as to whether or not they perform any preliminary screening of problems to assess whether or not they can be resolved without sending out a repairman.
The number of inspections you do each year of residential properties.
I was never told during the interview process that I would be expected to pay for surprise, multiple, or last-minute inspections. Each year, PM conducts only one examination of a client’s home. I was unimpressed with either the thoroughness of the inspections or the detail provided in the reports.
How well do your services mesh with those of my (rental) community’s HOA?
PM was unwilling to deal with my HOA. As a result of my tenant’s actions, I was hit with a number of fines and warnings from the HOA of the rental property where I was a landlord. Even though I was paying a HMO property management company, I still had to deal with the hassle and stress of dealing with the HOA’s repeated warnings and penalties due of my tenant’s behaviour. There shouldn’t be any interest if they can’t cooperate with your homeowners’ association.
In the event of a disagreement about who should pay for what, how do you settle the matter?
Tenant problems plagued me. When a tenant damaged the sink’s food disposal, the property manager arranged for a new one to be fitted by a trusted vendor. A leak under the sink caused by poor plumbing work ruined the cupboards. The leak was not reported by the renter until after extensive damage had been done. I bet you can guess who wound up footing the bill for all the damage caused by careless tenants. ME! And PM would never expect a non-paying tenant to cover the cost. They could have asked the tenants for the money to restore the damage, but they just came straight to me.
How do you inform a landlord about overdue rent payments? How will I know what’s going on, exactly?
