Memphis rental – tenant now 3 months behind, PM communication has become a problem

TL;DR: Bought a Memphis rental in December with tenants already in place who had a history of paying on time. They’re now ~3 months behind and only making partial payments. PM put them on a $500/week payment plan, which worked for about a month, but communication has since fallen apart. I’ve texted him 3 times since August 1 with no response, and today he told me he’d call me back in 30 minutes but several hours later still hasn’t. His position is that we shouldn’t evict because the property could sit vacant and Memphis is supposedly difficult for finding new tenants right now and we risk a break in.

I’m looking for some advice from other investors, especially anyone with experience owning rentals in Memphis.

We purchased a Memphis rental in December 2025. The property already had tenants in place, and when we reviewed the rent roll and payment history before purchasing, the tenants appeared to have a solid history of paying on time. There weren’t any obvious red flags with their payment history at the time of purchase.

Unfortunately, things have changed significantly since then.

The tenants are now approximately three months behind on rent and have only been making partial payments. Our property manager originally told me they were going to put the tenants on a payment plan of $500/week until they caught up, and then transition them to paying rent twice a month.

That arrangement actually seemed to work for about a month. Since then, however, I haven’t received much information about what is happening.

Communication with the PM has become my biggest concern.

I’ve texted him three times since August 1st asking for an update and haven’t received a response. I finally called him today. He texted me saying he would call me back in 30 minutes. Several hours later, I still haven’t heard anything.

The PM’s position is that they don’t want to evict the tenants because they don’t want the property sitting vacant, and supposedly the Memphis rental market is making it difficult to find new tenants right now.

I understand the concern about vacancy. I’d obviously rather have a paying tenant than go through an eviction, turnover, repairs, and potentially several months of vacancy.

But at this point I’m struggling with the idea of continuing to let a tenant accumulate more and more delinquent rent while the PM isn’t communicating with me.

I’m also seriously considering switching property management companies. My hesitation is that I don’t know whether I should make that change while the tenants are already delinquent and potentially in the middle of a payment arrangement, or whether it would be better to wait until this situation is resolved.

A few questions for those of you who have dealt with something similar:

1. Would you fire the PM at this point, or give them an opportunity to resolve the situation?

2. Would you continue the payment plan, or start the eviction process?

3. If you were switching PMs, would you do it now while the tenant is delinquent, or wait until the tenant situation is resolved?

4. How much weight would you put on the argument that “we don’t want to evict because it may be difficult to find another tenant”?

5. For Memphis investors, is the rental market actually difficult enough right now that you would tolerate a tenant being several months behind rather than risk vacancy?

6. What would you expect from your PM in terms of communication in a situation like this?

I’m trying to be reasonable here. I don’t necessarily want to evict someone who has historically been a good tenant if there’s a realistic way for them to get caught up. At the same time, I’m concerned that the payment plan has essentially turned into an indefinite arrangement, and I’m not getting enough information from the person I’m paying to manage the property.

Fortunately our other rentals cash flow covers the mortgage for this one but at what point do you say enough is enough.

I’d really appreciate hearing from other landlords who have been in this position, particularly anyone managing rentals in Memphis.

What would you do if this were your property?