Did I make a mistake trusting a property manager this much?!

[Warner Alexander]

Wanted to share a quick experience and get some perspective from others here…

I hired a property manager thinking it would make my life easier, but honestly it turned into one of the more frustrating parts of owning the property.

I dealt with:

• Constant lack of communication
• High turnover on their team (felt like I was talking to someone new every time)
• Accounting that was all over the place
• Tenant satisfaction issues
• Expensive maintenance with a 10% markup on top of already high vendor bids

Over time, it just felt like I was constantly being overcharged and never really knew what was going on. The trust slowly disappeared.

What’s crazy is… I still didn’t rush to replace them.

Part of it was:

• I didn’t fully trust myself to self-manage
• I didn’t want the day-to-day responsibility
• And honestly, I didn’t even know how to find a good property manager after that experience

I originally found them through a BiggerPockets + a quick Google search, which clearly didn’t work out the way I expected.

So now I feel stuck in the middle: Bad PM vs figuring it out myself

Curious how others have navigated this…

• Have you ever been in a situation where you lost trust in your PM but stayed anyway?
• At what point did you decide to switch (or self-manage)?
• How do you actually vet a GOOD property manager?
• And how much visibility do you realistically expect into what they’re doing (repairs, costs, tenant issues, etc.)?

Would really appreciate hearing how others have handled this, because I know experiences can vary a lot.

[Stefanie Bradford]

@Mike Paolucci Awesome info! Thanks for sharing!!