Advice needed regarding property manager

[Alex Thomsen]

Hello fellow investors! I'm a fairly new buy & hold investor with 3 SFH properties in NC under my belt. I'm writing because I need some advice on what to do with one of my property managers who manages two of my properties. The company who this person works for has managed these two properties for the past 2-3 years fairly well. However, my past manager moved up in ranks within the company last summer and this new manager was the replacement. Initially, I had a quite good impression of her as she is communicating well and quite attentive to my requests, but as time has moved on, I am getting mixed feelings about her abilities to manage the properties. My first red flag was when one of my tenants kept paying rent really late, and seemed to fool the manager on several occasions. The tenant would promise the manager to pay on a certain late date and then never pay that day - my manager would then try to evict her whereafter the tenant would ride it out and pay just before she got evicted. This happened several times, and a few times I told the manager that we should not trust the tenant. My manager would always come up with some excuse for trusting the tenant such as she talked to the tenant personally etc. In any case, I was basically fine as long as I got paid at some point, and the plan is to not renew the contract with the tenant (the contract expires in the summer).

The part that have got me more worried is that the tenant of my second house moved out more than 3 months ago and the manager haven't been able to rent the property out to new tenants yet. This property is a newer house in a decent neighborhood and has previously been rented out quite fast. In the beginning I gave her a break because of the holiday season, but this period of time past a while ago. About one month ago it looked like we finally had some tenants and signed a lease, but they failed to pay the first month's rent and the security deposit, and therefore, never moved in. Now after reducing the rental rate several times and to the cheapest rate of the neighborhood, I am starting to wonder whether there is something wrong with this manager and what to do with her. On one side, she seems organized and service minded but on the other side she just fails to get her job done. Any advice on what to do would be much appreciated!

Should I just change the property management company ASAP or my situation more normal than I realize?

[John Underwood]

I would start with a lengthy conversation about what she is or isn't doing and your expectations. 

What is she doing to rent your house? Where is she advertising? How many applicants is she getting? Is she doing any open houses? I can rent a vacancy before someone moves out or within a week or two max.

Make sure it is listed on Zillow,  if that isn't getting it done put it on FB marketplace. 

Maybe try and speak to the guy that moved up about your concerns.

If nothing improves within a couple of weeks start looking for a new PM.