PMs vs. Landlords: What’s the one thing the other side always gets wrong?

[Alex Eberle]

New property manager here — trying to learn from the best before I make expensive mistakes. I want to hear from both PMs and landlords because I think that dual perspective is something a lot of people miss early on.

**Questions for experienced property managers:**

1. What's the #1 thing that separates PMs who retain clients long-term from those who constantly churn?

2. How did you handle your first really difficult tenant situation before you had experience to draw from?

3. What software, systems, or daily habits made the biggest difference in your first year?

4. How did you price your services starting out — and would you do it differently now?

**Questions for landlords (this is the part I really need help with):**

1. What actually made you decide to hire a property manager instead of self-managing? Was it a specific breaking point?

2. When you were evaluating PMs, what gave you confidence in someone who didn't have a massive portfolio yet?

3. What are the green flags — the things a PM does or says that make you think "yes, I can trust this person with my property"?

4. On the flip side, what are the instant red flags that make you walk away?

5. After you've hired someone, what keeps you loyal to them long-term? Is it communication, fewer headaches, financial reporting, all of the above?

I ask because I think a lot of new PMs focus on the operational side — leases, maintenance, tenant screening — but maybe underestimate how much the landlord relationship and trust-building is really the foundation of the whole business.

Would love a current take on this. Happy to share what I'm learning along the way too — and I'll report back once I've been at this longer!

[Richard F.]

With nearly 30 years, at various times between 125 and 850 units, a couple hundred Clients, (some of which followed me from one company to the next over a couple decades) placing an estimated 1000 plus Tenants, reviewing over 3000 credit apps, and performing several thousand non-intrusive, visual, inspections, here are my responses/suggestions:

1) Telling the truth, and as soon as practical. Clients and Tenants alike do not want to hear bad or unwanted news of any type, but it is better than sugarcoating and causing a misunderstanding or ignoring an issue until someone else "notices". #2 would be know the laws, know your contracts, be consistent, and always be fair to BOTH parties. #3 Document, document, document. Lots of photos and documentation help all situations.

2) I was Mr. Nice Guy starting out. A Tenant was late on rent, and asked me to "stop by" so we could talk. I did so, and he was looking very forlorn, painful, tired, etc. as he explained he had an emergency surgery, even showing me a large bandaged area on his side/abdomen. Of course I was willing to give him time, knowing that his wife had to stay home to take care of their multiple kids. The following weekend, on a Sunday, I happened to be in the area and decided to stop in to see how they were getting on. To my surprise, when I pulled in their driveway, the Tenant was in the middle of a quite competitive game of volleyball. I got out of my car, walked over and just told him to be out by the following weekend, which, thankfully, he managed to do. That taught me the value of saying "NO". No exceptions, no extensions, no you cannot do that. The Customer (Client or Tenant) is NOT always right in this business.

3) Developing solid systems for each major process; applying the principals of Quality Management and Continuous Improvement.

4) I was a PM working for other Brokers and did not price services initially, but you have to evaluate how much time will be spent by entire staff for each door. This will vary, much as "deals" vary, depending on age and condition as well as the effectiveness of screening both new and inherited Tenants; and in the effectiveness of communicating policies, procedures, rules, responsibilities, and accountability to Tenants and Clients alike. In later years, I did make recommendations to my Broker regarding several items which they did adopt: They had been absorbing the local GET tax, rather than passing through to Client; the management contract did not have provision for additional charges for major projects such as fire restorations, total renos, or Court time. A percentage amount was established, along with parameters of when and how that would be invoked; lastly, rather than a quick "Yes, just sign here" when someone approached for Management, we started requiring an on site visit of representative units and copies of current agreements (if any). During the site visit, but away from any Tenants, we would point out issues that we would either require immediate repair/updates, or approval of a schedule of repairs over a year or less before we would accept management. Some LL's are just tighter than two coats of paint, which is fine, but the PM gets all the blame and heat from the Tenants and, up to a point, Code Enforcement, so it requires much more time, and therefore a higher management fee.

As an aside, having a sharp, competent, in-house maintenance staff absolutely can benefit all parties if you do not get greedy with your charges. I worked for two companies that offered these services. We billed and charged based on 15 minute increments, and with different rates ( established at a minimal upcharge from actual cost for each individual) based on the type of work- plumbing, electrical, general carpentry, cleaning/hauling, groundskeeping, painting. We also, eventually, at my recommendation, built a shop and storeroom that a local vendor kept stocked based on our requirements. We were able to build our own cabinets and perform many routine repairs. We farmed out roofing, carpet installation, and some of the larger reno projects (largely due to higher risk of injury), but performed everything else. The key was quality people and a solid set of processes for common maintenance issues. As with the base management fee, the maintenance charges grew significantly with more doors.