Am I Being Punk'd?? PM sends insane estimate for condo make-ready expenses

[AJ Romero]

I own a condo in Southeast Denver that I've had for over 10 years, but have had to rent it out for the last 8. Due to living out of town most of this time we hired out property management to an established manager in the area whose business ended up being bought out by another PM. I stayed with the new guy just for the ease of transition. We had a few bumps in the road initially but he has been "managing" the unit with fairly few mishaps over the last 3 years.

I receive a call from this PM's office a month ago letting me know that the tenant for the last 2 years was moving out and they were going to try and raise the rent on the unit by $100. Of course, I was pleased to hear this information. I then get another call last week from the PM himself letting me know that he was having trouble getting the place re-leased due to the fact that some improvements needed to be made to justify the new rental price ($895). He informed me that he would have his contractor come out to make an estimate for these repairs/improvements. I expected to see a bill around $5000 or so. What I received was a bill of a whopping $12,576.25.

Honestly, getting a bill like this through my property manager for the last 3 years has really shaken the mild confidence that I had in this individual. Why in the HECK would I ever spend 12K to get a $100/mo increase in rent?? How could I ever justify making improvements when it would take over 10 years to recoup my investment?? I wish I could post this bill with all of its ridiculous estimates. $3500 to paint a 975 sq ft condo...$3400 to replace carpet which covers maybe only 60% of the unit (no stairs involved)...$90 to re-caulk the tub/shower...SERIOUSLY??

I would love suggestions on how to deal with this. I currently live over 100 miles away and have small children.

Thanks in advance for your help,

AJ