What kind of relationship do you have with your property manager?

[Hannah Mulvey]

Hi all, 

I'm wondering what kind of relationship you all have with your property manager. Are you friends? Are you just business associates? How do you handle problems with property managers? 

My relationship with my property manager is a good balance between friends and business associates. I want to try to keep the peace and not be a pain in the butt for him, but I call him out when I feel something isn't right. A lot has been going wrong lately, and I have sent somewhat nasty emails because of the frequency of things going wrong, but I'm worried I will be seen as a bad client because of it. I want to remain civil and professional, but some of the problems I have been having were avoidable had the property manager been keeping better track of the house. I don't want to receive bad service because of my behavior, as I know "problem clients" are sometimes pushed to the side. Then again, I might be getting taken advantage of because I have been submissive in the past. 

What is your relationship with your property manager like, and how do you think problems should be handled?

[Brie Schmidt]

My PM and I are business partners.  We text pretty much daily about the little things (so and so is going to be late with rent, this unit got rented, this unit had a service call, ect) We meet for dinner once a month to go over the previous month, where we are at this month, current problems, and future objectives.  These 4-5 hour meetings in person (its about a 3-4 hour drive for me round trip) really help us make sure we are on the same page.

We also openly discuss problems or issues and talk through a solution.  If he dropped the ball on something I tell him he did, ask why, and we figure out how to prevent it in the future.  We also constantly talk about how we can improve processes and then put an action plan in place to do so. 

Every meeting I walk away with a to-do list of what I need to do to help him out.  He gets a to-do list of my top objectives in the next few weeks.

My situation might be different because my PM is in-house, so I am his only income.