Need Help - Insane situation

[Alex SImon]

So for the past year or so I've owned two properties in Philly and they were going along pretty well with a few little hiccups here and there. Now all of a sudden, two of the three units stopped paying and the other just up and left without notice. My property manager has started eviction on the two non-paying tenants, but honestly I can't shake the idea that all of this happening at once was not a coincidence. Something is seriously wrong with this picture and I have no idea how to find out what it is. I'm a newbie, and until this very moment I had no idea just how inexperienced I was. Part of me thinks this is somehow an intentional move by my property manager, though I can't think of any conceivable motive for such a thing.

So I have no idea how to proceed here, and I would really appreciate some advice from any experienced landlords on the matter. I'm on the other side of the planet from my properties and I never thought I'd be dealing with evictions so soon, let alone two at once! Do I just let the manager do their jobs (assuming that I'm just being paranoid and they *aren't* setting out to ruin me)? Do I try to contact the non-paying tenants to find out more information? Anyone know anything that could be useful here?

I mean, the only conceivable motive for the property manager somehow orchestrating this is pure childish spite.  But I have see way too much of that in the world to put that possibility completely out of my mind.

[JD Martin]

Having never talked to the tenants doesn't make you a terrible landlord. Lots of investors never even know who their tenants are, more or less, as their (competent) property management handles everything. 

If it were me, I would probably get the eviction concluded and the property empty and then proceed with competent management. A primary component of a property manager is to stay in constant communication with the owner of the property as to the economic performance of the asset, and that includes everything from maintenance costs to evictions. Think of it this way: if you had a stock fund with Vanguard, and you had some questions about the component mix, and they dragged their feet on providing any information, you'd probably just switch funds. This should be no different.