Hello everyone, I’m wondering what you think about something that came up recently. I own several rental properties that are being managed by a property management/real estate company. Recently, one of my tenants decided not to renew their lease. Soon after that, the property manager found another tenant which is great. I signed the new agreement probably two weeks ago or so. During that time, I discussed necessary repairs to the property with PM and all that they said I needed to do was carpet replacement and a small tree removal. So I went ahead and signed the new lease agreement. Now several days ago, after the lease was signed, PM sends me an estimate of additional repairs they want me to take care of including painting the entire interior, refinishing deck boards and painting exterior soffit. The extra repairs will be over $5,000. They are saying I must take care of this before the new tenants move in. My complaint is that they waited to tell me until after I signed the lease which Is forcing me to pay several thousand for someone else to take care of everything as opposed to doing them myself (i have always preferred doing most of the cosmetic repairs on my own anyways as I enjoy it and it saves money). Do I have any other options than to go through with this?  Is this normal with property managers?  I’ve owned at least one rental for over 15 years and never had this happen before 

If the lease agreement is signed and it doesn't state these items will be addressed I don't see how the PM or tenant can force you to do anything.  Then again, if it needs to be done, maybe request a couple of other bids to save some money.  

That is not what agreed upon. Inform them to look for someone else as tenants. If they press on hinting you wish to end the PM relationship. 

I'd say absolutely not. An agreement was already made and in place. If things needed to be done then it should've been brought up before signing the lease. In my opinion, once the lease is signed then they are agreeing to the apartment how it is. Just like buying a house. You don't buy a house and then demand that it be painted.
If these are things you want to do then do them. If you want to/have time to touch up paint then do it. The exterior stuff can be done anytime.

I would also be very clear with the PM that this is not to happen again. It's very unprofessional and unorganized, and defeats the point of having a PM.

If they don't want to move in give them the option to break the lease and find new tenants,  none of the issues you are saying seem to be repairs needed to make the home livable and enjoyable. just seems like you have picky tenant. 

Thanks for all your input.  It pretty well backs up how I felt about the situation and how much the PM can expect or demand of me as a landlord.  

Sounds like this is coming from the tenant and the PM is trying to make both sides happy. 

If you haven’t listed it in your lease, you don’t have to. It seems your property manager is so unprofessional.

I think I agree with the comments about the PM not being very professional.  While I suspect that the repairs might be necessary, I don’t particularly care about how they were presented.  And as a side note, they have not sent me any pictures either of the issues. And today, I just noticed that they dropped the monthly rent about $30 with the new tenants rather than a slight increase (this property is in va beach and a very decent neighborhood).  I know I should have paid closer attention when signing the lease agreement but one of the reasons I have a property manager is to do just that...manage the property lol.  Anyways it looks like I’m stuck for another year so I’ll just make the best of it.  

Originally posted by @Loren Zook :

Hello everyone, I’m wondering what you think about something that came up recently. I own several rental properties that are being managed by a property management/real estate company. Recently, one of my tenants decided not to renew their lease. Soon after that, the property manager found another tenant which is great. I signed the new agreement probably two weeks ago or so. During that time, I discussed necessary repairs to the property with PM and all that they said I needed to do was carpet replacement and a small tree removal. So I went ahead and signed the new lease agreement. Now several days ago, after the lease was signed, PM sends me an estimate of additional repairs they want me to take care of including painting the entire interior, refinishing deck boards and painting exterior soffit. The extra repairs will be over $5,000. They are saying I must take care of this before the new tenants move in. My complaint is that they waited to tell me until after I signed the lease which Is forcing me to pay several thousand for someone else to take care of everything as opposed to doing them myself (i have always preferred doing most of the cosmetic repairs on my own anyways as I enjoy it and it saves money). Do I have any other options than to go through with this?  Is this normal with property managers?  I’ve owned at least one rental for over 15 years and never had this happen before 

 The Property Manager's process is broken. They should not be showing your property to anyone until the rent ready renovation has been completed. Then at that time and that time only should they begin showing it to tenants letting them all know that this is the final condition of the unit. "What they see is what they get." Doing it this way will eliminate all of your problems. The fact that they don't do this really makes me question their level of professionalism.