Taking out the trash

[Robert LaPrelle]

I'm trying to transition away from managing all of my properties myself. Mostly that's going pretty well, but I'm running into one big problem. Every now and again, someone leaves a mess in one of my units. This can run anywhere from dog feces all over the basement carpet to 6 inches of clothes covering the top floor of the house. My costs for clean-up are WAY higher than I feel like they should be.

Back when I did everything myself, it wasn't a huge deal. I just took care of it. I think the longest I every spent cleaning up a unit was nights and weekends for about 2 weeks. After taking care of the random trash and the dog feces, I'd bring in professionals for flooring, painting, detailed cleaning, etc. All of my old contractors are still doing great work, but my Property Manager can't find anyone to deal with the bulk messes like what I mentioned above. I sometimes end up paying contractor rates just to get someone to throw away used furniture. I recently had to throw away a perfectly good refrigerator because it was cheaper to buy a new one than to hire someone to clean the mold out of the old one. I have moved out of state, so dealing with it myself is no longer an option. 

My question is this: Who do you call to manage the random, disgusting, and sometimes bizarre messes that tenants leave behind?

[Ashley Herring]

I think a good property manager could help you with this. My owners never had to deal with the headache of all that. That's why they hired us. Yes, it's not cheap but we had reliable vendors that we could hold accountable since we gave them so much business. I cannot even begin to tell you how many crazy scenarios I have encountered but hiring a vendor to handle it was the PM's job. If my owner didn't like his/her price, I would inform them that once this current "clean up" was completed, I will make it a priority to look for other bids/contractors. (Vacancy costs money too. Might as well get the job done as quickly as possible and move on.) I had several go-to "trash out" crews that would only charge $25-$50 to remove a fridge or couch. I've had full units that need to be trashed out so I hired the trash out crews to remove the items at a low cost, again due to the business the company gave them. If the PM isn't doing that for you, you can help them find a handyman or contractor. I always welcomed assistance from the homeowner. I've had homeowners request that I try out vendors and I will happily oblige. I think the key here is to find out if the PM is really doing what they need to be doing. If they are, together try to find a reputable company that can help with these issues. Hope this helps. :)