Debating Firing PM Company

[Jackie Chiles]

My wife and I have owned a property on which we've lost money on for the last 6 years or so. It started out as our primary residence in 2007 and stayed that way until we moved out of state in 2009. When we moved, the value of the house had fallen so much we decided to lease it out.I started leasing it out for $875 to get some money coming in the door. That price was totally set by me with no input from the PM. When I'd ask them what I should rent it out at, they provided little to no guidance. At that rate, we ended up losing $300 a month or so after PM fees of $87.5, HOA dues of $140, and an increased tax rate that goes from 4% for primary residence to 6% for secondary homes.

We've had issues with the PM in the past.  Example- once we randomly received some handwritten letter from the tenant asking us to let them out of the lease.  No heads up from the PM, just some random request from the tenant to move out.  We ended up letting them, but it was a little frustrating.

Another time the rent didn't come in so I called the PM up and they're like "oh, the tenant moved out.  Didn't you get the letter?"  It turns out they mailed it to an address we'd lived at like 4 years ago in spite of literally every other letter from them being sent via e-mail.  When I went to look at their website to see what the listing looked like- nothing.  I listed the thing myself on Zillow/craigslist/trulia.  I tried to raise the rent during this time to $1,100 while slowly reducing it a month at a time. I had some pretty good interest at $900, but for one reason or another, it ended up back at $875.  

I refinanced the property which dropped our losses down to $165 a month.  We moved back closer to the house so it's drain on us has been on my mind increasingly.   I called the PM back in December since the tenant's lease is up at the end of January to see what the tenant was going to do.   The PM said they'd call and find out.  Didn't hear back.

I called them back the first week of January and asked about maybe seeing if we could raise the rent to $900 a month, with my unspoken goal of getting it up to around $950 or so next year.  They said they'd already mailed out the renewal letter and that it was too late.  I'm thinking this is ridiculous.  Why wouldn't they ask me what I wanted to lease the place for before mailing it out?  It's been at the same price for over 5 years now. 

Just doing some research today, units identical to mine leased out for around $895-$1075

In any event, with a recent reassessment, my losses will drop to around $125 a month.  I'm closer to the house now that I can take a more active role in managing the place.  If I get rid of the PM, my losses will drop to around $38 a month.  

My problem is this- I have no idea who the tenant is.  If I terminate the PM, do they have to send me all the tenant's contact information, contract, etc.?  My goal is for this thing to be cash flow positive in a few years. I've been lucky in that maintenance has been minimal over the last 5 years, but I need some positive cash flow in case of something going wrong.