What does your PM not do for you?

[Robin Hunter]

I want to know: What are some things that your property management company does not do for you and/or your property, but you wish they did? 

[Brad Larsen]

@Robin Hunter  Here's a stab in the dark from putting my "Client Hat" on for a minute:

1) Pay Me Sooner (Me being the actual home owner).  Sadly, part of the service is to collect and then distribute rents and the electronic money world still affords people the opportunity to bounce a check....via ACH.  When this stops, we can pay people sooner.  

I have even seen programs where you get "Rapid Paid".  Meaning, the PM company fronts the Landlord the rent payment for the month on the 1st and then gets the funds from the tenant a day or two later. 

2) Pay My Mortgage and HOA Dues. Again, this is a nightmare of reconciliation to put onto a Property Manager. We COULD do this, however, we would have to charge like a book keeper / CPA to do this as missing a mortgage payment would be very very bad. HOA's are not much better as they have the power of foreclosure.

3) Pay all of my maintenance bills.  Homeowners naturally hate maintenance.  They hate the expense, and they hate the burden.  When we have to call them for a maintenance issue, you can physically hear them cringe on the phone.  Hearing from us at this point is never good.  To accomplish this, we would have to consider a Master Lease.  Example:  Your home would / could rent for $1,500 per month - we will guarantee you $1,000 per month and handle all maintenance concerns, rents, tenant issues, etc...  But, not many want to go this route.  

4) Provide me One Point of Contact!  We hear a lot of PM Companies manage by committee in most regards to leasing, maintenance, finances, etc...  The single owner point of contact for an owner makes a lot of sense.  

5) Keep me Up to Date! A lot of owners want to know what is going on with their home during a tenant roll over situation.  Constantly being updated during a vacancy is a good way to ease some of that burden.  Knowing bad news is better than having NO news.  Atleast with the bad news being shared, adjustments can be made.  "Sorry Mr. / Mrs. Owner - your home did not rent this week....you should consider an asking price adjustment." 

I'm sure there are many more to come up and I would like to see what we could put into our systems that may offer better service to our clients.