Giving a tenant your personal info

[Eli M.]

Dear BP community,

I have a managing company that manages my properties. Is it ok for me to give my phone number to my tenants to make sure all their maintenance requests are answered in a timely manner?

Thank you for your input

[Gabe Waldrep]

To me that would depend on your desired level of involvement. Once you give them your personal info, you add yourself to their list of whom to call when they have a problem. They will turn to you after hours and holidays when your managing company is not available to answer the phones. If you don't mind taking maintenance calls and late rent calls, then go ahead. But I would advise against it. This is why you pay a management company.

As an alternative, you could create a survey that you send to them once a month (or more frequently if you think necessary). Use this survey to ask how many maintenance needs they have had, how many calls they placed to the management company, how quickly the response rate is, was the need addressed, etc. You can send this survey by email or setup a dummy number used for text only that sends the survey. Just a thought.

[Chuy Gonzalez]

No, that's what your PM is for. The last tenant I gave my number would call ME with her sob stories about late rent or maintenance issues. That's what you pay the PM for. 

[Nancy DeSocio]

Hi @Eli M.,

This is an interesting post!  If you give your tenants any info (phone, email, etc), they will contact you...guaranteed.

However, the issue you present is a reality.  Some tenants won't be happy with the level of service the PM offers, which could be a valid issue or possibly unrealistic tenant expectations.  The question is, do you really care?  And there's no right/wrong answer here, but I'm assuming you do care, as you posted the question.   How we handle this is by scheduling regulars calls with our PM, reviewing the maintenance requests on their website (I assume you have this set up), and checking in on those items that have been hanging around for a while.  This system has worked well for us so far.

Good luck with your journey!

[Eli M.]

I honestly don't mind to be involved. The question is will my property management company will take this as an offense, as if I'm trying to check them?

[Bryan Blankenship]

@Eli M. DON'T DO IT! Lol, but seriously, they will call you at 2:11a.m. on a Wednesday to complain that their toilet handle is jiggling.

Schedule regular check-ins with your property manager as @Nancy DeSocio suggested, or check your owner statements and online portal (if they have one). Keep in mind that the larger a property manager's portfolio, the longer non-emergencies may be delayed. Most tenants understand the triage and are happy as long as they know they're being heard. Granted, if a situation arises where maintenance is being flat-out ignored for extended periods of time, then you absolutely have a problem and should switch PM companies. However, it's a mostly thankless job and they will generally do their best to keep everyone happy and in the loop. :)

[Eli M.]

Thank you for your good and practical suggestions.

Can you please tell me how that online portal works, how can a tenant place his maintenance request there?

[Patrick M.]

All of my tenants have my personal info, and because of proper screening I receive a text only when an issue presents itself.

The day I hand over $25,000+ a year to some momo property manager is the day I don't want to know nothin' about nothin'.

[Matt M.]

I have taken care of 35+ properties for two clients for the past 10 years. They have all my info for maintenance requests. None of them in 10 years (tons of tenants) have ever taken advantage and bugged me. I’ve gotten one midnight and one 4am no heat calls in 10 years. Unless your tenants are really needy PITAs, you’ll be fine.

[Anthony Wick]

@Eli M.

Like everybody said, that’s what your PM is for. But who cares if your PM doesn’t like you checking on them?! They work for you. If they don’t like it, they should either do better or be fired.

[Caleb Heimsoth]

@Eli M. That’s such a bad idea to give tenants your personal Info. If your PM isn’t doing their job, get a new one. The minute you give tenants your phone number, I guarantee you they’ll abuse it.

Plus then you may become friends with your tenants, which could make evicting them harder. Who wants that.

[Stephen Willis]

I guess no. Since you already have a managing company to help you, it should be them to contact you directly but not the tenants.