Texting tenants and keeping an extra eye on PM

[James O.]

I have heard many stories of OOS investors having bad experiences with PMs taking advantage of them. Things like charging $500+ for "tune up", replacing windows, etc. when in fact, they didn't even stop by the property. Would it be a bad idea to text tenants anytime there is a "repair" to make sure that everything went ok? Something like "Hi, I heard the ac unit broke down. I am sorry about that. I wanted to make sure everything was fixed and all your needs are taken care of". The only downside I can see is that it may open up a whole new can of worms by them having your number to contact when something minor happens. What do you guys think?

[Jessica Bridges]

If you do not trust your PM, they should not be your PM. We have verbiage in our management agreement about owners talking to tenants. I understand what you are feeling, but I would not go behind the PM's back to follow up on their work. What I recommend is asking the PM for all invoices, asking them to quote the repair first if it is over a certain amount. We also require tenants to do any repairs under $100. It helps with the pointless trips.