Advice for Dealing with Property Manager

[Daniel Sabato]

Hello everyone I’m looking for some general advice for a situation that I imagine is pretty common around here. I’ve got a property manager handling 2 of my properties. One of the properties has been a nightmare, tenant moved in, basically never paid rent for the 4 months & vacated the property, left the interior in shambles & left a nice bill for me to get it rent ready again. Property Manager sent them to outside collections & said they did everything when vetting the tenant, background check, credit check etc; I’m very frustrated with the situation & I’m not sure if I should fire my PM & move on or just consider this a bad situation all around & move forward with them. The second property is fairly new & the PM hasn’t had to do much with it. I understand this is part of the business and I need to be as unemotional about it as possible but it feels like a real kick in the chin when someone has so little respect for your property & the overall business transaction in general.

I’m also wondering has anyone ever received the unpaid rent from an outside collection agency after a tenant leaves? I feel like that’s a long shot but I don’t know. Any advice is appreciated.

[Tracy Streich]

I also agree with @Kim Meredith Hampton  You can do everything right and still swing and miss.   The best hitters at the professional level of baseball average 3/10.  Now you want to do a little better than that at tenant placement but yo cannot guarantee a good tenant every time.   People put their best foot forward and never let yo know they are going to be a dead beat   

I also wholeheartedly disagree with @Lam N.  If you choose your PM wisely they are your partner.   As a PM I can tell you I have a lot of incentive to place good tenants and keep cost down.   That is my job.  I don't do it I get fired and cannot get more clients.   Bad tenants are a TON of work for the PM.  Hasty generalizations about any group will only get you bad results   There are good PMs and bad ones as well.   Just like there are good and bad flippers, wholesalers and advisors in RE.  Vet them well, find good partners and do what you do best.  If you don't let others help you will look back in 10 years and still have 2 rentals.