Memphis Turnkey Out Of State investor Nightmare experience

[Venkat S.]

As an out of state investor I chose Buy Memphis Now company over others for my first turnkey rental property purchase and I am now repenting my decision. They sold to me a property that are having break-ins from Day 1! Apparently a squatter seems to claim the property by breaking in from the very first day, they are very well aware of this situation before they sold it to me as I have photos showing that similar break-ins happened to this even before me buying this property! I also had to lose my tenant because of these break-ins. If the break-ins started happening after a year or so of my purchase I can understand but these started happening even before I purchased the property and as an Out Of State investor I trusted them but they hid this information from me and sold this property. As an out of state investor I expect them as a turnkey provider to at least take hold of the current situation and secure the property and make sure that the property is break-in free and then hand over it to me as I was not aware of all these issues while buying the property! However they chose not to answer my emails now after the latest break in!

Please let me know any suggestions as how to proceed in this situation as I am stuck with my first Out Of State Turnkey purchase with the mortgage burden each month with no tenants and on top of it had to deal with these break-in expenses! I am not sure how to stop these break-ins as I am out of state! All my savings are gone because of this and I am stuck!!

[Chris Clothier]

@Alex Craig,

I'm going to back you up with some stats to fight this image of Memphis, crime and out of state buyers needing to constantly worry about vandalism.  All of the steps you listed earlier on your response are super proactive and easy.  The use of lighting, fake cameras, caging AC units, cleaning up the property itself and communicating with neighbors all go a long way in reducing the number of break-ins and theft.  Kudos to you guys.  

A suggestion is to also use locks on gates and even security signs in the front flower beds.  All of this is designed to make a would-be thief think twice about vandalizing a property and it will cut down on theft.  Unfortunately for the OP, it doesn't work every time.  However, we have seen a dramatic decrease every year in incidents at vacant houses and that is across the boards in all of the zip codes.  In Memphis, we in particular are experiencing fewer than 1 incident per 100 properties leased.   

And, for those that are reading this and wanting to know about what they should ask their management companies in any city, these same stats are true for every city we manage.  

The steps Alex and his company are taking absolutely reduce incidents of break-in no matter the zip code or city!

So, again, I wanted to commend you guys for all the steps you are taking to secure the properties and provide a good service!  We may be competitors in some respects, but I wanted to jump in and recognize you guys for the good stuff you are doing with your props and the way you are managing.