Property Management Problems

***The following names have been changed to protect identifies of the people involved in these stories.***

“The Leak Won’t Stop!”

Sally, a TRE Homes tenant, called one afternoon to report a leak. She suspected it was coming from her A/C unit. She lived in the downstairs unit of a two-story duplex, so we sent our HVAC technician to take a look at the upper level unit. They cleaned the ducts and confirmed the A/C unit was in good working condition and said the leak seemed to be tied to a roof issue. We sent out our roofer to take a look and he said there were in fact a couple problem areas to address that could be causing a slow leak after rains. We made the repairs and all seemed to be well.

A few weeks later, another call came in from Sally to report the leak had made its way back. This time, trying to solve the problem once in for all, we sent out our plumber to check out the water sources from the second level. He called immediately to report the leak was not relating to water...we had a bigger issue on our hands. The dark liquid dripping from the walls peaked his curiosity. He leaned closer to the wall to discover a buzzing sound, and not any normal A/C noises. He discover that there was a massive beehive! The leak was not water, but honey. I called my bee expert to go take a look and they ended up having to rip open an entire wall to rid Sally’s unit of over 1,000 bees. It took over ten days to finally exterminate all the bees. We had to repair the sheetrock and have a professional cleaning service take care of all the mess. Sally was glad we had finally solved the mysterious leak and that she could now live leak-free. Maintenance issues are not always simple. We are blessed to have a full-time Maintenance Supervisor, as well as a network of A+ vendors.

He Won’t Leave!

After Paige could no longer handle the drama with her tenant, Jennifer, she called TRE Homes to step in. Paige explained to me that Jennifer had allowed her boyfriend to move in without having him added to the lease. After a nasty breakup that resulted in a 911 call at 2:00am, Jennifer no longer wanted him there. She called Paige daily to see what she could do to help. She even threatened to break her lease and move out unless Paige got her ex out of there. Paige felt that it wasn’t her problem to get involved with, but didn’t want Jennifer to break the lease.

We took over and asked for legal counsel to come up with a game plan on what to do next (legal guidance for answers to tough questions are included in our management service). We learned that someone invited into a property and being allowed to stay for a certain period of time actually gives them rights as an occupant, even if they aren’t on the lease. The only way to get the unwanted occupant out of the house was to evict everyone. You can’t evict just one person from a property, it’s all or nothing! I ended up calling the tenant, Jennifer, to explain that if she would like us to evict her boyfriend, she would also be evicted. This would damage her credit and her ability to lease or own any future homes. If she were to simply move out she would be legally responsible for rent until the end of the lease, including any damages done to the property. (We have an account with Transunion where we file against tenants’ credit in the instance where money is owed to an owner after move out.)

Her lease, as well as all our leases, state that anyone staying more than 7 days must fill out an application and be added to a lease for liability reasons. So, she was actually in violation of her lease contract for allowing him to stay for more than 7 days. It was clear that Jennifer did not want to take either route. At that time she was trying to save to buy a house and needed to protect her credit. She felt it was in her best interest to work it out with her boyfriend and offer to help find him a new place. She called me back a couple days later and informed me that the situation had been resolved and she was happy to stay at the house for the remainder of her lease. She requested that we change the locks, which we told her we were happy to do at her expense.

"Good Lord, It's a Fire!"

Matt is the Broker/Founder of TRE Homes. He lived at an awesome college house on Circle Dr. during his time at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. We called it the “Man Cave”. The house was one of his mother's rental properties and Matt promised to take good care of it. Eight guys living under one roof surprisingly went pretty well while Matt was there, but Matt graduated and the house turned into random college roommates. That’s when TRE Homes took over the management.

Fast forward a few years and a new group of construction guys move in. I got a call at midnight from the tenants telling me that the house was on fire! My first question was, “did you call 911?” They told me they had and told me to turn on the news in Corpus Christi to check it out. Matt and I sat up for hours watching the live footage. The group of guys had to move out and after two months of engineers and contractors inspecting the house, we finally got the insurance check to start the work. We are now remodeling the house to in order to sell it.

We help with insurance claims and can coordinate the adjuster and contractors to make sure jobs are handled the right way.

Problems in real estate and property management are inevitable. When you have “tried and true” systems in place to prepare for these expected problems, solving them becomes quick and painless. As a property manager, it’s my job to handle all the problems for a rental property, and every problem has a solution. All the owner does is watch their bank account go up and focus on spending time in ways they actual enjoy. Some homeowners have the time and energy to manage their own rentals, especially if they only have one or two properties in their portfolio. I can’t imagine trying to manage rentals as an individual without a set of systems in place. I have learned that being proactive and organizationally reactive are absolutely key.

The benefits of owning rental properties are amazing. This article only serves to mentally prepare you for possibly what is to come. We have had our fair share of solving problems with rental properties over the years, so now they don’t feel so overwhelming to handle. These are a couple of juicy stories that could help you prepare and/or prevent these problems. At the very least, you will be entertained at our expense!

“Problems are opportunities to build character. The problems we encounter each day give us a chance to abandon our egos and our over indulged personal preferences in order to grow in flexibility and patience. Problems are one of the time-tested paths to personal growth.”

–Perfectly Yourself, Matthew Kelly