All Forum Posts by: James Mcsweeney

Question for professional property managers - Whenever my maintenance team does a repair or move out inspection, what is the easiest way to share before/after photos along with any invoices?

I'm going to rent out my primary home which has a Ring installed. I don't need it at my new spot so wanted to see if I could just transfer this to the tenants as a bonus. Is this legal and ok to do?

I have a duplex that has racked up over 8k in water bills and 10k in plumbing issues. I live out of state and relied on this property manager for communication and management. Here are few problems that led to these costs:

1. Property manager told me there was only 1 water meter, when there were actually 2 meters with 2 separate water bill accounts. The 2nd one was discovered because a city technician came on and turned on the 2nd meter when a new tenant moved in. It flooded my lawn and the crawl space costing me over 10k to repair.

2. They also failed to move the utility bill under their account (previously it was under tenants name who stopped paying and is getting evicted). The unpaid bill came up to over 8k.

3. Aside from water issues, they sent out multiple HVAC technicians that amounted to 2k in repairs that never fixed the issue. Eventually I hired my own HVAC and fixed it for good.

There are many other occasions where they would not communicate with me nor tenant on getting certain issues addressed like leaking sinks (which damaged the cabinets and had to be replaced), broken ac, etc.

At what point do landlords have grounds to sue a property manager? Is it worth it?

I have a duplex that has racked up over 8k in water bills and 10k in plumbing issues. I live out of state and relied on this property manager for communication and management. Here are few problems that led to these costs:

1. Property manager told me there was only 1 water meter, when there were actually 2 meters with 2 separate water bill accounts. The 2nd one was discovered because a city technician came on and turned on the 2nd meter when a new tenant moved in. It flooded my lawn and the crawl space costing me over 10k to repair.

2. They also failed to move the utility bill under their account (previously it was under tenants name who stopped paying and is getting evicted). The unpaid bill came up to over 8k.

3. Aside from water issues, they sent out multiple HVAC technicians that amounted to 2k in repairs that never fixed the issue. Eventually I hired my own HVAC and fixed it for good.

There are many other occasions where they would not communicate with me nor tenant on getting certain issues addressed like leaking sinks (which damaged the cabinets and had to be replaced), broken ac, etc.

At what point do landlords have grounds to sue a property manager? Is it worth it?

One of my tenants turned on an abandoned water meter. This has resulted in a huge water bill over 3k. I am upset at my property manager because they should have told the tenants about turning on the utilities. Are there any solutions this besides footing the bill?

I have rental I am looking to sell that has tenants in them, so likely need to sell to another investor. My property manager said they could represent me because they had a brokerage arm as well. Are there any downsides to using an agent that is affiliated with a property management company? I just wasn't aware if this was common.

Just curious how competent are property managers are in selling properties - especially rentals with tenants in them. I mentioned to my pm that I may sell 1 of my rentals. They said they have a brokerage  and could represent me, and also had tons of investors that would be interested. On one hand, it makes sense to use them since they already manage it and I wouldn't be selling to home buyers. On other hand, I wonder if it's any better to use a real estate agent dedicated to buy/sell? But does that even matter?

Currently in contract with a duplex, good condition. 2/1 each side. But appraisal is coming in short over 15k. With the difference, i'm looking at roughly 8% CoC return. I can get better deals, but I do like the area. Are other investors experiencing same thing? Given the competition, are you experiencing appraisals coming in short and just covering difference or walking on it?

Yeah I saw that in my area too. It was from a couple of months ago, and I was wondering if anyone had any new experiences.. What were the terms of the solar lease per acre and did it include any royalties??

I just don't know whether landlord control of the network is such a great idea. 
Same goes for the first time a tenant gets a call from their landlord claiming there are an "unusual number of people" in the house." Or when a video of some tenant at home in the buff shows up on YouTube and they blame it on their landlord's "SPY-Fi" (yes, I just made that up and I will be trademarking it later today, LOL)! 

Perhaps it would be wiser to simple mention these great tech advances to the tenant and perhaps provide incentives for them to get the network (and certain add-on devices) themselves, much like an insurance company might offer lower car insurance rates if you get an alarm system for your vehicle.