How much should a PM involve Landlord?

[Mike M.]

Hey guys,

I've been self-managing for 5 or so years now but recently turned over the PM on a couple properties to a local property management in town. I'm so use to being involved in the day-to-day business of the property management side of things so I'm struggling to understand how much the new property manager should be communicating with me and how often.

As an example, I had a tenant break a garage door recently (drove into the door on accident). Only reason i found out is because the tenant notified me, not even the property manager. In speaking with the property manager she issued the Tenant a 14 day noncompliance letter to purchase and repair the garage door on his own. At the end of the 14 day period it would be my choice to fix the door and charge him or to take other measures.

When i asked her if she would send me a copy of the noncompliance letter to the tenant, she said she wouldnt do that unless this goes to court. 

Does that sound normal to you?

I totally value and want a property manager to take the day-to-day management off my hands, but on issues with tenant damage and I would like to be kept up to date on matters, as well as have copies of all notices provided to the tenants for my own record keeping. 

Lastly, when i try and call them to speak to my property manager 99% of the time I wind up having to submit a note in their portal and wait for a call back.

As to to the new garage door that will be installed by the tenant, I wish they would be more involved, giving the tenant some options of companies to call, and to walk them through the repair process.

Am i wrong in any of these thoughts or concerns about my current PM---or---do i need to let the property manager do their thing and learn to take a step back?

I'd be curious to hear from you all how involved a property manager keeps you into your properties.

Many thanks!

[Nathan Gesner]

I'm getting conflicting messages here. You say that you want to be hands off and let the PM handle things, but then you're upset they won't give you a copy of a letter? That smacks of micro-management.

But I clearly don't know the whole picture. It's important that you schedule a time with the PM to cover expectations and boundaries. Find out how they prefer to communicate, when you can expect communication, and when they can run the operation without you bothering them. It's different with every PM and owner.

I'm a very "in charge" operation. I know how to manage rentals better than most landlords, so I have a hard conversation with owners up front that I expect them to leave me alone. I communicate with owners when there's a change in their income stream or when I need their permission to do something. Otherwise, I operate each property as if it were my own, always keeping the owner's best interests in mind. It works well because I proactively communicate in a manner that instills confidence in my owners.