New Landlord: Baptism by Fire

[John P.]

I closed on a small new construct SFH in a another state a few weeks ago. It's a turnkey setup with property management (PM) in place. At first, everything is OK. Several potential tenants look at the house each week and the PM and I stay in touch. At least one tenant is very interested. Then, out of the blue yesterday, the PM tells me there's been a break-in. Someone tries to steal the refrigerator. They don't get it, but the water line is cut and the house has flooded. I give the OK to send a restoration company over to mitigate the situation and call my H/O insurance agent. I put in a claim once I find out it's likely to be above my deductible (which was a no-brainer--the baseboards need replacing, sheetrock work, carpets were pulled but will hopefully be saved, etc.) The police came shortly afterwards and did a report. I'll hopefully get it today. The insurance adjuster is going tomorrow. Evidently, the builder (who is building other homes in the subdivision) found out about this first. I'm not sure who first got in the house to see the damage. Hopefully all that will be in the police report. The agent who sold the house knows the builder really well, and they think it's probably foul play from a sub-contractor. I'm not sure how they got in, but the PM immediately changed the codes and is getting security system stickers for the windows. The house has a security system, but it hasn't been activated. Any advice, comments, condolences ;) , etc. are welcome. The PM implied that the builder may do a lot of the repair really cheap (or free...I'm not sure). They have a reputation to keep up in the subdivision and town.