Ripped off by my Property Manager / Agent - Advice Needed
Hey all - wanted to post here asking if there's any recourse I can take against my property manager who took all my money and ran, and also provide a public service announcement to help anyone who may consider using him in the future.
First some back story. I'm an American currently living abroad in Tokyo, Japan, and a couple years back I decided to buy my first rental property in Bakersfield, CA. I'm not from California, but I knew someone local who (I thought) I could trust. Shortly after the purchase that all fell apart, and so I was in search of a new properly manager. This was late 2015.
I asked around on the BP forums and got in touch with another remote Bakersfield. She told me she had been put in touch with a local real estate agent who was looking to do some property management on the side and had been using for a few months with great results. She put us in touch and he agreed to take my property on, and we both signed a property management agreement in January 2016.
I won't go into the details, but he stopped sending me rent claiming high maintenance expenses to which he coming up with excuses for why he couldn't send me the receipts for. Things finally got so bad that I decided to list the property for sale in mid 2017 in an attempt to get what I could of my money back. I used the property manager as my selling agent because I still held out some hope that he was being honest with me, and overall it just seemed easier as I didn't know anyone else.
Bad decision. He botched the initial sales deal, costing me $30,000 from the initial offer I received, but I was finally able to sell. After he received his sales commission I never heard from him again.
He still owes me 9 months worth of rent for the 6 unit property which gross came to roughly $3,000/month. He refuses to answer or return my calls to his cell phone, emails, or calls to his work. What's even worse is I'm told that I'm likely to get audited by the Japan tax authorities because I've listed a previously cash producing asset as suddenly having a gross income of $0 for the entirety of 2017, which is seen as a major red flag.
Does anyone have any recommendations for what actions I can and should take given my situation? The proximity makes things a bit difficult for me, but I want to get what I can of my money back and also not let a scammer get away so easily like this.
His information is listed below. Please avoid at all costs if you ever happen to come across him in the Bakersfield, CA area.
Daniel Mena
Golden Valley Real Estate Group
BRE Broker Lic. No. 01422062