Time to find a new property manager ?

[Josh Uadiski]

So I have a Duplex in Columbus, OH (Weinland Park) that was recently renovated and I found a property manager that was highly recommend by my Realtor Brokerage. Once the first side of the duplex was complete they found a tenant fairly quickly at $2450/Month and things were going great. They handled everything as they said in the beginning and there was no complaints. The other side was finished in the middle of March of 2022 and they had it listed for a tenant in the beginning of April 2022. My family had moved to Florida and February and with no reason to believe they couldn’t handle the unit, I moved with them once the unit was listed.

It is now about to be the beginning of July and they have still yet to find a tenant for this side(after dropping price to $2100 after they stated comps in the area were going for $2500).

To make matters worse the original tenant they signed for the other side broke their lease early and left before June 1st. This is when we started running into more issues. They advised they would be able handle any unit turnovers and once the tenant left they advised the unit mainly needed paint and it would cost $6500. I asked for a new quote and they said they couldn’t secure quality for a lower price. I reached out to a contractor I used in the past and he walked the unit and did everything they asked and more for $3500. They were happy with the quality after another cleaning are ready to list it.

My question is should I start shopping for a new property manager? They are the only property manager I have ever used as I am fairly new into rentals, they charge the full first month rent of any tenant plus 10% revenue of the remainder of the lease. My concern isn’t the price they are charging but more so the red flags that have occurred in the last 3-4 months that make me believe they are either dropping the ball of this or that since I only have 2 units through them I am not a priority for them. Is it usually for a property to be ready to rent and sit vacant for 3 months ?

Other red flags were once my contractor was ready to walk the unit with them they showed up 20 mins early and said the contractor was still working and they didn’t want to disturb him, when the contractor said he was just doing minor touch up waiting on them. They then said they were behind schedule and couldn’t schedule another walk through for 5 days. Another red flag was that they advised me to remove my existing washer and dryer from the units as they weren’t in the best condition and they said it would be better to have the tenant to bring their own so that we didn’t have to worry about fixing them and that it would also cause them to want to stay in the unit longer. Now that we are having trouble finding tenants they said they found a tenant who would move in if they were provided a washer and dryer and asked if I minded providing one.

I guess I’m asking is this just something that most have to deal with using property managers and I just need to work through it with them ? Or should I look into finding a new property manager?