Immediate, Expensive City Violations on Turnkey Property

[Mark B.]

I have purchased 4 "turnkey" properties in the past 8 months through the same company and overall I have no major complaints until recently.  One of the properties is in a somewhat better suburban B/B- neighborhood.  What I didn't know is, in that particular city unlike the others in the C class neighborhoods, that this particular city apparently has an itchy trigger finger on issuing expensive violations.  They don't mandate the properties be POS violation free on sale like some other suburbs in the area do.  But instead of that they have building inspectors going out to inspect the exterior, sidewalk, driveway, chimney and are issuing violations, probably once the property was registered as a rental property.  I closed on the property in August and in March received six violations.  Some minor, but some very major ones, such as tuck pointing the chimney and replacing the damaged driveway and sidewalk.  I'm receiving estimates and we're talking about well over $10K.  This is a $60K property that I had already put $6K into repairs after being told explicitly by the agent that he doesn't see me needing to spend any money to get it rent ready except for a couple minor items, and he told me that the tuck pointing that came up on the inspection would be able to be deferred maintenance.  But nothing about the driveway or sidewalk issues at all.  And if it's not clear, the turnkey company is estimating, billing and completing all repairs.

I'm aware that I should be doing my own due diligence on every deal and I'm new at this, but I feel like I was misled and am being raked over the coals in this instance.  I'm not trying to be a slum lord but I am trying to buy properties that need a little bit of work to get up and running, but to be mandated by the city to put an additional $10-15K into repairs for a $60K house inside of a year of owning it seems a bit excessive.  And I feel like I was misled and not given the necessary information to make an informed decision.  I saw the property photos, I knew the driveway was cracked (but not destroyed by any stretch), and I knew the tuck pointing issue.  But I would expect a company to be up front and honest that a given city is prone to issuing violations and that X, Y and Z are cause for concern because they'll expect you to fix them quickly and they're costly repairs.  

The money isn't the issue, if it's mandatory to fix these issues I'll do them.  Although the city mandating that you have to replace an entire driveway rather than fixing it seems slightly overstepping.  But my real issue is determining how to discuss this with the property management.  I do feel like I was given misinformation, misled and not furnished with the knowledge that they should provide as a real estate agent that would have helped me make an informed buying decision, knowing all the circumstances.  I had intended to purchase 6-10 additional properties per year for the foreseeable future but now I'm concerned as to whether or not this company is looking out for my best interests, but if everything continued to go well there would be no stopping me from continuing to work with them and procure dozens of properties over the next handful of years.  I'm aware that I can chalk this up as an expensive learning lesson and move on, but I'd love to hear some perspective from anyone who might have something to add.  Any help is much appreciated. Thanks so much.