Disappointing experience with REI Nation PPMG property management

[Kewei Qu]

Want to share my experience doing turnkey with REI Nation.

I started buying my first property with them back in the summer of 2020. The property is great. I was very specific and insisted on a class A property. To date, the property is rented and with very few issues.

With a good start, I decided to purchase a second property with them last summer 2021. And this property has given me more headaches than I want. Ashley recommended this property to me as a class B property and mentioned super low tax rate as a bonus point. Trying to diversify my portfolio and branch into class B properties, I said yes. First, immediately after I purchased the property, tenant stopped paying. They got rental assistance for the last 3 months of 2021, but was not able to get anything for 2022. They secretly moved out without paying 4 months of rent for 2022, and of course trashed the place.

Second, make ready process from PPMG, their property management company. They quoted me $3745.55 (with 15% up charge) for all the things they are going to do. A week later, they told me someone broke in and stole a bunch of things. So they need another $488.75 of contribution(15% up charge). To which I said okay, please try to make the place ready as soon as possible to prevent future damage. Then another week later, the yard service needs another $1150 (15% up charge)  because it’s more work than they previously estimated. Today is the day they promised fix up is going to be done, to which they emailed sorry, the house got broken in again, we need another $805 (with 15% up charge). 
I’m super disappointed at the property management company, not only is the eviction taking 4 months but also the repeated broken in and damages. If this is a known issue, shouldn’t they do something differently?

Looking back, I think the class B is probably an inflated rating given the tenant issues and petty crimes in the neighborhood. The low property tax should have been an alarm for me. I think I'll continue to build up my portfolio with Turnkeys (have a busy job) but I'll stick with class A in the future and be more careful with property selection. I'm not sure if I'd like to continue with REI Nation and PPMG, given how they handled their class B property.

[Russell Brazil]

Welcome to real estate investing.  Those things can just as easily happen in a class A property as well.