I can't really think of specifics Mat. Over charging for services or being lazy when finding cheap solutions is a constant problem. I have also found that many managers want to bury their head in the sand instead of deal with late pays or evictions too.
Some of the smaller companies constantly have turnover or "upgrade" their system causing trouble with money hitting our bank on time. They also want to sign new management contracts midway through a tenant's tenure because some new crisis came up they didn't expect. Recently it was owners being foreclosed on, which necessitated kicking out tenants.
Another major problem is cash flow. Managers collect rents at the beginning of the month and take forever to send the money to me because of how their system works. That would be something I would stress if you are trying to differentiate yourself. Owners with many properties will really appreciate not having tens of properties where they have to shell out the mortgage prior to collecting rents.
Some simple statements each month are very helpful too. I don't want to read through 15 journal entries to see what happened for the month and I certainly don't want to trace balances across months. Give me something simple to understand with a common sense breakdown of how the property is performing.
For larger properties this seems to be less of a problem, but a lot of the problems described above are very common for smaller property managers...from an owner's standpoint.
I am sure I can think of other things...I'll try to post about them as I can think of them.
The property management business is very tough. You have to deal with all of the crap that investors don't want to deal with, owners angry about stuff breaking, tenants paying late, evictions, placing tenants, etc. That is a lot of crap to put up with for 7-10% of gross rents.
Having said that...I have had almost universally poor experiences with property managers. They just don't care for your property like you would and they are really more concerned about THEIR business instead of yours.
I have had the same experiences. Having said that, I would rather gouge out my own eyes than take that soul crushing job. Tenants lie more easily than they tell the truth. My family has a hundred or so doors, and around the 6th of the month, we have dying parents, sick children and lost jobs like clockwork. How many people can have more than three or four parents?
The only advice I would have about property managers is to get them young, before the nature of the job has had time to rob them of their integrity! :lol:
I have had the same experiences. Having said that, I would rather gouge out my own eyes than take that soul crushing job. Tenants lie more easily than they tell the truth. My family has a hundred or so doors, and around the 6th of the month, we have dying parents, sick children and lost jobs like clockwork. How many people can have more than three or four parents.
Jeremy, that's hilarious, thanks for the levity. :D
@ Bryan, Yeah and it was probably a relative to property management co....I found out the last guy I was using had all kinds of side deals (kick backs) going with contractors he used.