Property Management Horror Stories

[Mark Ainley]

It has been a while since I have seen any tenant/property management horror stories in the forums.  It is important we share these experiences as investors even if we might be embarrassed about the circumstances.  Your stories will help educate and prepare other investors on this site for what to watch out for when they have tenants or screen property managers.  

Break it down this way:

1. The problem or loss that was created(share the brief story)(dont name names)

2. What you learn from the mistake and how you can prevent being in a similar circumstance down the road

@Brie Schmidt

@John Casmon

[Brie Schmidt]

About a year ago I moved some of my properties to a new PM.  About a month in they told me I had a sewer crack and sent me a $12k quote.  I asked them why they thought it was a sewer crack and they sent me the complaint from the tenant and said it was scoped and they couldn't get past 35 feet so that was where the sewer was cracked.  I sent the complaint to the old PM who had managed it for a few years, we never had this type of complaint and it seemed odd that it just cracked out of nowhere.  The old PM said it sounded like a really bad clog.  

I asked for the video, it couldn't be produced.  Months went by and I kept asking for a reason why they thought it was a crack and all I kept getting was more bids over $10k to replace our sewer.  Finally I asked the old PM to do a scope, it was just a bad clog and cost less than $1k to water jet it.