Tenant trashed the unit - what can I do?

[Trent Lee]

I have my first time dealing with a tenant who has trashed the home. Roughly $16,000 in damages.

I realized there is a little I can do now but I’m looking for recommendations to avoid this in the future. Is there insurance or other options that cover this?

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Bruce Woodruff:

Better tenant screening is # 1 by far. And any PM company that allowed that to happen should be fired! Take it over yourself and go by and pick up the check every month like @Michael Schleicher said.

I don't like to say bad things about property management companies because most of them do the best they can when considering how many properties each PM manages, the distance between properties and the value for their hourly wages.

I've been dealing with tenants since 1965, started purchasing homes in 1972, own several apartment buildings and several homes in 4 states. I always managed all my properties locally, from a distance and never had serious tenant issues like I had when I had a PM from only about 2018 to 2021.

I am taking a guess that a PM company earns no more than $20 to $25 per hour for the work they do. In today's expensive to live in world you can't expect a PM to drive hundreds or thousands of miles every month or every few months to personally collect your rents. Not for $20 to $50 per hour when the distance between properties is spread out and not when they are using their personal vehicle, gasoline and have to leave their office for several entire days!

I sold most of my out-of-state properties, but I am currently looking at 70 to 100 units in Ohio and my biggest fear and hurdle is choosing the best on-side manager. I see no reason to have a PM because the results are, "Too Many Hands Spoil The Soup".

I hated having a PM in Las Vegas. BP members constantly write posts saying they don't want to be bothered with day-to-day management and I found that having a PM was far worse than doing my own management because once I hired my PM I threw another 'Iron In The Fire', 'Threw In Another Wrench', or whatever you call it because now rather that dealing with tenants and resolving tenant issues in one quick move I now had to personally humble myself to dealing when a 'Fifth Wheel With Even More Moving Parts' and the decisions my PM made in regards to who they rented to and how they cleaned rentals BEFORE TENANTS MOVED IN was super scary and the damages caused by the PM resulted in costs of not one penny less than $8,000 to clean every house when a tenant moved, one house cost me $12,000 and a house in Idaho cost me $32,00 to clean and repair only the damages caused by a tenant who lived in the house for only 3 years with the exception of my costs to trim some trees. The house in Idaho was a 3-bath 4 bedroom and the tenant destroyed every plumbing fixture, the kitchen cabinets, granite counter tops, stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, washer, dryer and the $32,000 cost was with my personally doing the work with one employee.

So!!! So much for literally paying a PM to screw up your entire business and your livelihood. PM's are not bad people. They just don't get paid enough to micro-manage like a hands-on owner can.