Have seller fire management, or fire after closing?

[Jonathan Johnson]

Not an easy question, don't mean to be mean.

There are 4, maybe 5, people doing a poor job of what 2 people could do great.
100-unit apartment, 30% vacant due only to management and poor marketing, the building is great. They only use a sign out front to market. There were 4 or 5 units in need of repair and when I went to go see them I was expecting holes, mildew, dead cats, fire damage... saw dirty carpet, dirty appliances, minor drywall repairs, and a need for a fresh coat of paint. $3k-5k per "damaged" room.

The managers I talked to both literally said, "I hate people." "People are idiots." "They asked me to fix this and I said no. HAhaha." --> This was not one of the ridiculous requests tenants can make sometimes. Also, he admitted to illegally installing a plastic access hatch to get to the pipes (they need to be metal legally), which lets me on to the type of work ethic he has.

If I hire a property management company at 10% of rental income, I'll save about $70k a year in expenses and make $200k more if they can rent out another 20 units (I figure 10 units will always be vacant due to natural rent cycles).

So, do I ask the sellers to let them go on the day of closing? Or do I do that? There are a LOT of tools in the office, as well as a nice TV for the security cameras and the computer. Not sure how I try to limit the risk of them taking off with EVERYTHING.

I've also not had experience with firing people, but I could read up on that before doing it.