As a property manager I can see where this situation is going. Your property manager will not start the eviction process because it looks like he and the tenant know each other. I would recommend trying to get out of your contract with the property manager. Also did you sign a contract giving him the authority to make such costly repairs? Often times as a property manager you are solicited by contractors looking for work, in exhange they give you a referral fee. This might be tempting for your property manager since it is not out of his pocket. I would look at the invoices and also see if he took any other bids for the “necessary” work.

Mystery shop them.

Call about a vacancy and go as a prospective tenant. Call their office a few times acting like you have the wrong number to see if they pickup each time. How are they answering the phone? Are they professional? Also, call after hours one time to see what happens. Is there an answering service? Is there an emergency voice mail box?

When calling them as a prospective client, they are going to tell you whatever you want to hear. If they have no idea you’re a prospective client, then you are going to get the real them.

Most importantly, ask for references! At least three owner and tenant references. You want to make sure that tenants are kept happy, too!

When you call the references, ask unique questions like “have your tenants ever been without heat at 2 AM — and if so, how did the property manager handle it?” With tenants ask “have you ever been without heat at 2 AM — and if so, how did the property manager handle it?” If those questions don’t have answers, think of other unique ones.

A good property manager will call an HVAC company at 2 AM and pay astronomical emergency rates. A great property manager will take the tenant space heaters and call the HVAC guy the next day. Not only do you, the owner save some money, the tenants are happy and warm, too.

Finally, get a copy of the property management agreement and lease early on. If they won’t provide you with example copies then move on. I am amazed at how many companies use a one or two page property management agreement. We use a 12 page property management agreement. EVERYTHING IS SPELLED OUT IN THAT DOCUMENT SO THERE ARE NO QUESTIONS! The same is true with our 11 page lease — no questions are left unanswered.

I forgot to mention that based on your entry, I would not group you in that 20%. I just wanted to highlight why property managers get frustrated. It’s rare to see a property manager weigh in on things.

As for being in the wrong business, I have to disagree. I have never lost a client. 80% of my clients make my job enjoyable. 20% make it pure hell. I keep them on, as I realize its just their personality, but I still have a right to anonymously complain about them — just as they have a right to complain about me.

Overall, I love my job. It’s trying and stressing some days, but what job isn’t? I’d be bored and feel unchallenged if I didn’t have a never-ending to do list.

Based on the feedback that I get from both current and prospective clients, I am about as responsive as they get. I think a big part of that is that I am not trying to grow our property management division too quickly. When most property managers start out they have to add a bunch of clients to break even.

We were already successful in our other business, so I was able to start and grow this slowly. I am always accessible through my BlackBerry — whether you email me at 7 AM or 10:30 PM. I also use gotomypc.com, so my office desktop is available to me anywhere I have an internet connection. Clients love that I do business around their hours. I do squeeze 6 hours of sleep in a night, and I manage to take two or three Sunday’s off each month. Otherwise, it’s work, work, work. I will happily admit that I am a workaholic.

I will tell you though … if you’re one of those clients that make me hurry up only to wait on you, the day is going to come that I am going to stop hurrying up. You get what you give.

Also, we have in-house people to do just about everything that doesn’t require a special license (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc.). Not only do our prices come in an average of 30% lower than most companies (we discount for our property management clients), but the client also avoids the contractor fee, which is typically 20% in his market. I cannot fathom how we could charge that extra 20% when we are acting as the contractor.

As for why you probably get overpriced bids — the property manager makes more money if there is a percentage based contractor fee. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if the contractor slips the property manager some money for each job. We do not have that incentive, as we are doing the work in-house.

As for a handbook, that sounds like a great idea! The only thing I’d be concerned with is that we’re told we do things differently than the “other companies out there.” Before starting I picked the brain of the owner of one of the more respected companies in the area. I do not believe in reinventing the wheel. I love how they run their business and wanted to do the same. Luckily, that mentor is also my friend, so we now pick each other’s brain.

My original point is that there are usually two sides to every story. For every difficult property manager there is a difficult client.

Do I make mistakes? Surely I do! I am human, after all.

Do my clients make mistakes? Surely they do! They are human, after all.

Unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast. If you don’t want to deal with those stresses, you are probably in the wrong business. Maybe you should put together a handbook or something. I’d be glad to put it out there!

On your point of finding vendors, in my experience, every contractor that I’ve been recommended from property managers gives overpriced bids. When I look for my own contractors, on the reccomendations of friends/fellow investors, I inevitably get a better price AND they typically do better work.