How to shop PMs when you are out of state

Question

Hi BP Family,

How can I distinguish good vs bad Property management and when is the time to change the property managers?

Currently I live in Cleveland and have this property in Garland TX that I purchased 6 months ago managed by local PM Company . They had a great review online how prompt and organized they are but I might have missed the $$ part . Now , I am feeling that they are very costly when your house needs fixes. does not matter small issue like changing a light bulb to the large fixes. I had a plumbing issue last month, and I resolved it myself because the plumbers that PMs have are expensive compare to what I found using my own resources . To perform the cleaning job created by plumbing , putting fan, replacing the carpet padding moving furnitures, and sanitizing job is estimated as $650. I had conversation with the tenant and the plumber and looked at the video, damage was was not that bad. I am getting the feeling that this company is making money out of these types of work .

Going back to January this year , when they did walkthrough of the house after old tenants left and to prepare move in for new tenant they provided the estimate of 5K. lots of items in the estimate sheet looked pretty high. In my vision when I visited the house in December last year , house was almost move move in ready. I eliminated the items which I could from the list and still the total came up to almost 4K . Having no experience in the past and and no boots on the ground, I went ahead with the estimate they provided.

I would appreciate if someone can help me look at the sheet and provide a educational approach .

Thank You in advance :)

Ray Harrell · Answer

PMs often sub-contract out the work and charge you another 15% on top of that for acting as general contractor. Fortunately for them you live in another city and will never know how bad or how long the work actually takes.

I had a PM company that was counting on me being an absentee landlord. I paid for $4,000 worth of "rental ready" repairs and went to view the property after they said they were done. Things I found: reglazing a tub...only splashed some paint on it; replace light fixtures...actually found some second hand light covers which were mismatched, in the same room; painting...they didn't cut in or mask and painted over light and outlet covers; replace and install window blinds; they used the existing mountings to install blinds even when the original mountings were done wrong (they charged $45 per set and used $10 Walmart blinds); patch, sand, and paint drywall...they patched and painted, but didn't sand. They also painted the bathroom walls, including the tiles inside the shower, with FLAT PAINT!

I took photos and sent them and then they said, "Oh, we weren't done." They had to send someone back out to redo all the shoddy work they claimed to have done. The drywall work they had to send someone three times.

All together I'd say the value of the materials and workmanship I received was about $1,500. But when the PM company collects your rents and gives you what's left after their trumped up expenses, what can you do?

Nima Lama · Answer

@Caleb Heimsoth original estimate of 5K was for Full paint but I asked them for only touch up , still the estimate came to 4K . About 6 of items are carpentry, and rest are like fixes of $50, $150, $65, here and there and added up to 4k . for example to tub stopper replacement is $35 .

Going to recent cleaning job they performed which was $650 , the explanation is , “water removal, pulled the carpet out to remove the padding, laid the carpet back down and added fan to dry out the carpet for few days, streched the carpet back out and sanitized the carpet “ i copy pasted the descrption from invoice . What I am trying to understand is this the standard cost ?

How to shop PMs when you are out of state

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