All Forum Posts by: Bobby Narinov

Do not get any lease contract off the internet. Each state has different requirements so if you get any lease you may end up in trouble with your own state. If you find one make sure it is tailored for your state and it is recent. There are a plenty of new rules and regulations issued each year. I cannot honestly call them laws, because I firmly believe only the United States Congress has the rights to coin laws here we are having 10,000 agencies each of which issues, illegally If i may say, a ton of those per year. So the regular person can have a hard time catching up with them.

Whatever you find, it may be beneficial to ask a real estate specializing lawyer to take a look at it once per year. This may save you from the trouble of dealing with professional tenants and/or someone playing the discrimination card.

I had some break-ins in my apartment complex so I installed 8 cameras around the apartment complex. None of the tenants objected before the video equipment was installed.
But after the installation one of them didn't like the placement of one of the cameras (because it was capturing the path going to her apartment) so they are constantly hitting the camera with a long stick until it starts pointing to the roof.

What can I do to make them stop messing up with the cameras. I am getting tired of that cat-and-mouse game: they are moving the camera and then I have to hire someone to fix it back. Any Ideas even the stupid ones are acceptable.

@Damian Leonard congratulations on pulling the trigger.

What do you mean when you say "I am invested in 633 doors"? Are you in a partnership that invested in one or more apartment complexes with total of 633 doors or your portion of the partnership is 633 doors?

I was so shocked by Jim Moody's accusations above that I was unable to provide a reasonable answer to them. Every day I was writing one and deleting it before hitting the "Post Reply" button.

But today I'll be really short. I did try to communicate with Flex realty via e-mail. I don't want to call because calling is always misunderstood and misinterpreted. This way I have a paper/electronic trace of everything that was said and when. So picking up the phone does not work. Jim Moody have been personally CC-ed on all of my e-mails so it is a bit shocking that he needs an explicit phone call to tell him to check his e-mail.

there were many cases where he turned back on what was promised before I purchased the property from him:

• I was even charged management fees even though as part of the purchase agreement I was supposed to get at least 2 years of free management. When I complained the charges were removed, except for the $1 charge for the ability to receive my statements electronically. So I am saving him paper and envelopes and for the privilege of having my statements scanned I pay $1. I am not for the $1 charge but it kind of looks like I am been  nickeled and dimed here.
• he did offered to pay 5% for the free management so I can go with someone else but this is not what he charged me when I was charged 8%management fee. A small 37.5% difference.
• He promised to pay for my flood insurance, which he neglected to tell me that I'll need but so far he paid nothing even though he asked me to send him the receipt from my insurance agent. A minor ~$1200 omission.
• They never consulted me when they put the second tenant in my property. The same one that stopped paying on the 4th month and is now been evicted. It was an honest omission on their side.
• The conflict of interest between the maintenance company and the  management company is another problem I had in the past but Jim assured me that Flex Property management does not get any benefits from the maintenance company: they collect bids and pick the cheapest one. Except the two $200 bills I got were from a company that had the same address as Flex Property Management and probably the same owners (Having the word "Flex" in the maintenance company name is a dead giveaway). Not only that but two weeks after the $200 heater fix, the heater stopped working so I got charged another $60 to complete the unfinished repairs. The supervisor on the Flex Management side was one of the registered owners of the maintenance company.
• Can you guess when the eviction procedure starts with Flex Property Management? when the tenant is late (on the 5th)? When they figure out that the tenant is late (between 10th and 13th). or whenever they think they like it? I don't know. They did not tell me. The only thing I know was that on 25th (yes 3 weeks later) I was asked if I would like to start eviction procedure with the layer. When I complained I was told that the delay is for my own benefit and was supposed to save me money. I personally manage 30 doors in California and I can tell you that after I evicted several of them, I have no problem with the rest of them paying on time. By not serving them 3day notice rigth away you are teaching them that following their contract is FLEXible(all puns intended). So if you like tenants that are going to free-ride for several months - please use Flex Property Management. Their contract obligations and enforcement are FLEXible.  

 And finally the 25% below market equity that he was so generous to give me:

Jim, I am willing to split that equity with you 50/50. 12.5% for me and 12.5% for you. PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS and buy me out. I am willing to sell you back this "great investment" for just 12.5% more than you have sold it to me a year ago. You'll gain 12.5% plus the appreciation for the last 13 months. Deal? 

You are in luck. I did not get anything for The month of November: "We are closing our books around 24th of the month..." So I am waiting.

Meanwhile I am having the following additional problems:

• After my tenant left, Flex Realty didn't give me the security deposit of the tenant that broke his lease and left after 6 months of his lease-option contract.
• they are charging $1 extra for their new software upgrade system and are selling this as a great improvement to their communication with clients. Other companies are already using the same system but they do not charge you extra for it. And so far I do not see any improvement - quite the opposite - I see a regression.
• the maintenance company has the same owners as the managers so there is no oversight on maintenance repairs. Last two months (September and October) I got billed over $260  and $220 for maintenance services. I am already billed for this but I am disputing the charges. Even though we have an agreement contact me if the bill goes above $200/month it looks like it only applies for $200/per single bill. So in my case I can get charged 30 times a month for $200 and I would not be notified until they prepare the bill 2 months later. The first bill was $200 for starting the gas heater and a week later there is $60 for turning on the pilot light on the same gas heater. I would consider that a warranted service and I should not be charged for job badly done. On the second one I only got half of the receipts so I have no clue what I was charged for.
• Did I mentioned that I was supposed to have a 2 years of free management because I purchased my property from Flex Realty? Well, I no longer get that. I should probably call them tomorrow to check that one as well.

They say "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity" but I cannot figure out what is worse them wanting to rip me off or them being stupid?

In the past I had experience with a management company that was also doing the maintenance of the properties they manage and I explicitly asked about that relationship to which I got the "reassuring": "Flex Realty Property Management DOES NOT make money on maintenance nor does it do upcharges". Yes that is 100% correct and legally binding statement which is a 100% false and misleading answer to my questions. "Flex Realty Property Management" - The Company does not make money but their owners do. The owners of "Flexible Maintenance Solutions LLC" and "Flex Realty Property Management" are one and the same. Even the mailing addresses for the two companies are the same.

He has one year lease contract but he failed to pay his rent for this month so I am in my second week of evicting him. My eviction documents are [stuck] in the courts since last Wednesday. He is currently in police custody for breaking 2 retaining walls at my apartment complex and running away (DUI, Hit-n-run, attempted murder, etc.) I have an over $500 bill just from his last event two days ago. I hope they keep him in for more than 36 hours this time.

When it rains it pours with this guy.

Today the guy got drunk or on drugs and went through the parking wall. The backed up and broke another wall with a cast iron gate. After that he took off with his car. The police arrested him 3 hours later about a mile away. I hope the police keep him until my eviction process is done.

Without been a lawyer I can count: DUI, hit-n-run plus attempted murder. But in the communist California this is not a reason to keep him where he cannot hurt himself and others. 

I asked the previous manager to reach to his family and it turns out his brother has a restraining order against him. Go figure.

People like this really make your life interesting :) 

They have no before nor after pictures. They have no proof they have done anything but bill me for services I have not ordered nor received.

I have proof that their system does not work: I got a bill for a property I don't own, which Commissioner Cindy Geronimo calls a "glitch in the system" but would not accept even the remote possibility of wrongful/unnecessary billing. I am still awaiting the response from her on wether I was billed incorrectly. She asked me to bear with her while they are setting up their new system which will have pictures but now, they don't.

Finally, I was able to talk to their head honcho Commissioner Cindy Geronimo.

I spent over an hour talking to her but I don't think she was even listening. She was repeating the same 3 sentences over and over again:

"we want our city clean. There are bad owners that do not take care of their property. We moaned your grass and we charged you $4.95/minute." No this is not a mistake it is PER MINUTE. This is $297.00/hour. That is not all. I have 5,401 sq.ft. lot. This includes the house and the garage. My loan is probably 1/3 of the lot. but lets say it is the whole 5,000 sq.ft. It took them 95 minutes to cut the grass. What were they using to cut the grass - nail clippers?

To make the matters worse, I have a gardener that I am paying for doing exactly that. When I told her that she started asking for proof that my guy is actually doing his job. The audacity of this bump. She has no proof that there was a problem. She has no proof that they have performed any service but she is asking me to prove to her that I was not at fault. What happened with "innocent until proven guilty" ? I have mailed her the receipt from my management company and she said that they are going to take look and see if they made a mistake. The way I look at this - no way in hell for me to win against the city. they have given themselves a money printing machine and they are going to crank it as much as they can. 

I didn't want to engage Flex realty yesterday but last night I e-mailed them. Hopefully they'll know what is going on and help me reach the city.

I did receive some poor chap's bill for a similar amount. For some reason they were thinking I was the owner of that other property as well this is why I initially though it was a scam mail.