Property Manager in Davenport, IA
Hi All, I have a SFR in Davenport and the management company has been slipping. I think it is time to move on. Does anyone know of a reputable management company in the area?
And it doesn't have to just be a company that does it. I like individuals as well, so long as they aren't overburdened with too much other stuff.
@Bryan O. I have been pleased with A2Z Real Estate Management. They have recently added staff to improve response rates, we have seen steady activity even this far into the winter and conversion from leads to tenants has improved as well. @Michael Pease can give you more info or you can go to their website
@Bryan O. I'd love to chat with you sometime! I manage many SFH in the Quad City area and also larger apartment buildings. I'm an investor myself, not just a manager so my company runs the day to day operation for my units the same as for other investors. My personal background is actually in accounting. I've been a licensed CPA in IA for the past 5 years and started my own tax and accounting company as well in 2017. These two businesses work hand in hand to ensure that people are getting the best day to day and long term advice possible.
Just curious, what are the concerns you have with your current manager? Lack of timeliness, over charging, etc...
I'd love to connect sometime!
Thanks for the plug @Paul Stern!
Hi @Michael Pease. I have a number of problems with them. I have managed my own local properties for years, and if you combine all of their service calls it still wouldn't add up to this 1 property:
1) Likely fraudulent charges
2) No photos provided for nearly any work. Where photos are provided, they are not with GPS tagging enabled so I can never validate if it is actually my property
3) Poor communication
4) Most services are in-house, so even if the work is not legitimate, they own the handymen that write the invoices to make it look legit
Thanks for posting. I will reach out to you.
Curious what arrangements you have with them. Fraudulent charges are obviuosly a MAJOR concern. Are you worried they are misreporting rents or something along those lines?
Photos for work if agreed upon in the contracts signed would be a nuisance but an accomodation that could be provided if desired I'd guess. In the few years I've been doing this I've never had a request of this kind and in the 9+ years I've owned real estate I've very rarely asked for this from a contractor/company hired.
Communication is a very normal concern. What do you mean by poor communication? Is it the communication between you and the manager or between the manager and the tenants. Often what I've found over the years is if a relationship exists with the owner and the tenants that they will express a lack of communication to the owner anytime something doesn't go their way. A reputable company such as mine will be able to demonstrate call logs and messages between the company and the residents.
Maintenance is something in my opinion you have to trust the management company and maintenance team on and have a comfort level with them. If you do not, you will never trust any work that is not your own. Questioning the time it takes to perform work or work performed should be an easy question to answer for the management company.
Being an investor and a property manager I understand the struggle better than most between managers and the owners. These are legitimate concerns that can be addressed with more openness between the owner/manager. Happy to walk you through how we operate daily for our clients!
@Michael Pease @Bryan O. - Hey guys - I'm actually in the market for a good PM in Davenport as well. Would love to get some thoughts and experiences from you, if you don't mind.
The idea of fraudulent charges do scare me a bit .
Thanks in advance!
@Joe T. would be happy to connect anytime! I'll send you a message so we can connect offline!
I love seeing all of this interest in the Quad Cities! I wrote a brief blog post I would recommend anyone looking for a property manager to check out. It is a quick synopsis of what to look for based off of my experience both managing properties and talking to other investors which have hired management firms. Click here to check it out!
Anybody find a good PM mgmt firm in the Quad Cities. Looking for PM firm to run 36-units in a C-class area of Davenport. Please feel free to send any recommendations my way. Thanks in advance.
@Adam Hutchison I sure didn't... I now remotely manage the property from Colorado. I like it better, but the tricky part is turnover. On the brighter side, I no longer get stolen from every month and was able to find out about $3,000 of damages that were ignored by management previously and get it fixed before it caused bigger problems.
Hi @Bryan O. Would you mind sharing the PM firm you decided to go with or are you self managing? I'm having a very bad experience with my current PM in Davenport and am exploring alternatives currently. Also, would you feel comfortable sharing the name of the PM you were previously wondering (maybe via a message) I'm curious if it's the same firm I'm using?
Thank you!
@Sean L. I used to use Eesy Street, but now I self manager. If I could find a good agent for tenant turn I think I would be set, and I like it better being the one in control... I don't have so many rentals that I can't balance them, and I found that the extra ~1 hr/month (usually all year's time in 1 month) is worth it to have a pulse on your property, decide the specific repairs, etc.
@Bryan O. Thanks Bryan, I'm using them currently and facing similar issues. I'm glad to hear that self-managing has been working out for you though.
I actually just bought a duplex in Davenport that was already under contract with @Michael Pease at A2Z management. The property seems to be in decent condition now, with supposedly good long term section 8 tenants. I will need to rehab and upgrade the vacant side, and am very curious about how that process will be remotely (possibly working with A2Z to facilitate that).
@Sean L. @Bryan O. @Adam Hutchison
I have started investing in the Davenport, IA, area in the last year. I like the potential return the pro-forma shows, but I've been burned a couple of times already with expensive turnover, tenants leaving a mess and having to pay thousands $ to remove the junk and prep the unit for new tenants. Also my property management company says they are having trouble hiring good people so they are taking 2-3 months to turn a unit and prepare for the next tenant.
I'm really frustrated with this slow turn time. Also this firm has pretty poor communication, they seem generally unorganized. One of my buildings is a 4-plex, and they were somehow confused with the number of units and were only advertising for 3 of them. 9 months after buying the building only 2 units are rented out.
I'm interested in hearing others feedback about the Quad Cities market. Are people seeing high % of tenants leaving a disaster behind when they move out? Are people having trouble filling their vacancies? I'm not sure if these are symptoms of the market or instead of a poor property manager.
#2 Managing Your Property Contributor
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#2 Managing Your Property Contributor
- Property Manager
- Royal Oak, MI
In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.
It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!
Owners mistakenly ASSUME all PMCs offer the exact SAME SERVICES and PERFORM those services EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, so price is the only differentiator.
So, the first question they usually ask a PMC is about fees - instead of asking about services and HOW those services are executed.
EXAMPLE: PMC states they will handle tenant screening – what does that specifically mean? What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.? You’d be shocked by how little actual screening many PMC’s do!
This also leads owners to ASSUME simpler is better when it comes to management contracts.
The reality is the opposite - if it's not in writing then the PMC doesn't have to provide the service or can charge extra for it!
We have a 14-page management contract that we've added our real experiences to over the years, with the intent of protecting both us AND the landlord. Beyond the Monthly Management, Placement & Maintenance fees, all other fees in our contract are IF EVENT -> THEN fees.
We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:
We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.
EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!
P.S. If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general. Take ownership of your mistake and learn to do the proper due diligence recommended above😊
Quote from @Randy Steele:
@Sean L. @Bryan O. @Adam Hutchison
I have started investing in the Davenport, IA, area in the last year. I like the potential return the pro-forma shows, but I've been burned a couple of times already with expensive turnover, tenants leaving a mess and having to pay thousands $ to remove the junk and prep the unit for new tenants. Also my property management company says they are having trouble hiring good people so they are taking 2-3 months to turn a unit and prepare for the next tenant.
I'm really frustrated with this slow turn time. Also this firm has pretty poor communication, they seem generally unorganized. One of my buildings is a 4-plex, and they were somehow confused with the number of units and were only advertising for 3 of them. 9 months after buying the building only 2 units are rented out.
I'm interested in hearing others feedback about the Quad Cities market. Are people seeing high % of tenants leaving a disaster behind when they move out? Are people having trouble filling their vacancies? I'm not sure if these are symptoms of the market or instead of a poor property manager.
Sounds like we are using the same PM firm. McDonnell?
I have been in the QC market for over 8 years and there isn't one PM firm in town that is good. I'm in handful of other markets throughout the US and I don't have near the same issues I have in the QC market. I have actually stopped investing in the QC area cause of the management companies and put my focus on other towns in Iowa and throughout the Midwest.
@Adam Hutchison You guessed it, I've been with McDonnell for roughly a year now. I don't want to throw them entirely under the bus, they do some things well, but overall communication and time it takes to turn a unit are not acceptable and have me looking elsewhere.
Quote from @Randy Steele:
@Adam Hutchison You guessed it, I've been with McDonnell for roughly a year now. I don't want to throw them entirely under the bus, they do some things well, but overall communication and time it takes to turn a unit are not acceptable and have me looking elsewhere.
Randy, I have experience with Milltown, EasyStreet and PMI. If you aren't happy today with how things are going, you will extremely disappointed with the following. I have spoken with VP, but have no knowledge. Keep me updated if you find a viable option.
@Adam Hutchison I spent several hours on the phone with several companies (Milltown, VP, Ruhl/Ruhl, A2Z) and have decided to move my units over to A2Z. They seem like a good fit for our portfolio. The frustrating thing is there's really no way to put items in a contract that have forced us to leave McDonnell: 1) have good communication, or 2) turn a unit in a timely manner. So time will tell if their actions live up to their sales pitch from our discussion. Wish me luck!
Quote from @Randy Steele:Best of luck and keep me updated.
@Adam Hutchison I spent several hours on the phone with several companies (Milltown, VP, Ruhl/Ruhl, A2Z) and have decided to move my units over to A2Z. They seem like a good fit for our portfolio. The frustrating thing is there's really no way to put items in a contract that have forced us to leave McDonnell: 1) have good communication, or 2) turn a unit in a timely manner. So time will tell if their actions live up to their sales pitch from our discussion. Wish me luck!
Quote from @Randy Steele:
@Adam Hutchison I spent several hours on the phone with several companies (Milltown, VP, Ruhl/Ruhl, A2Z) and have decided to move my units over to A2Z. They seem like a good fit for our portfolio. The frustrating thing is there's really no way to put items in a contract that have forced us to leave McDonnell: 1) have good communication, or 2) turn a unit in a timely manner. So time will tell if their actions live up to their sales pitch from our discussion. Wish me luck!
Randy, checking in to see how the first 90 days have gone with A2Z?
I have some units in Davenport also. I'm very curious to hear about you experiences with A2Z.
Fellow BPers,
A2Z has been a breath of fresh air compared to my previous property manager, so far so good!