HELP! Dealing with PM and Tenants that abuse maintenance calls

[Dimitri Wilson]

New investor (8 months in) investing remotely in Indianapolis. I currently own a SFH and Duplex both being managed by the same PM team.

Apart from the expected late rents from C class tenants, the monthly maintenance calls has gotten me alarmed and concerned. From the way things are going, I project maintenance calls alone would eat up to 30%-40% of gross rental income.  (see attached for past work orders)

Any experienced investor can tell me if this is the norm for investing in working-class housing? How should I go about resolving this issue with my PM as it is clearly in their interests to respond to as many service requests as possible for extra income and have an easier time dealing with tenants?

[Nathan Gesner]

@Dimitri Wilson most of these look like valid complaints on the surface: lost water, no heat, frozen water pipes, water damage in the bedroom, toilet leaking, etc.

I just took over management of 24 units that the owner was "managing" on his own. He's constantly complaining that he can't afford the vendors I'm sending over but I'm sending them over to deal with water leaking from toilets, water leaking through the roof, frozen pipes, furnaces going out when the temperature is -15, no hot water, sewage backing up into showers and sinks, etc. I'm not just doing this for the tenants; I'm trying to protect his property from further damage!

Would the water leak cause damage to the home? Is there a problem with mice and cockroaches? Did the pipes freeze? Is it an old water heater and furnace that could use new parts or possible replacement?

It sounds like you have an older, lower-class home that needs to be maintained. You can be proactive and fix it up or you can react every time something breaks. Either way, these things don't fix themselves.