All Forum Posts by: Abdul Azeez

 In the same boat as you my friend. Sometimes it's better to just pull the plug when things feel off. We had our manager not relaying any issues to us or having their "handyman" do them, so it made us look like bad landlords when simple repairs went completely unanswered. We had a tenant stop paying rent after we took ownership, told her to evict them. Then she took ANOTHER TENANTS word that they moved out on their own, tells me the units now empty and what do you know.... I show up to start rehab and they're still in there living life unbothered. Then another tenant (2nd floor) had a small leak & it dripped through the first floor unit ceiling. We were aware of this and even had a contractor signed to do the work needed already, the tenant downstairs thought we should move faster so she called a city inspector. When the inspector called our manager, she basically brushed her off and was a red flag. Inspector went out to the property and treated us like we were slumlords and gave us a whole report of all sorts of things to rush and finish. After speaking to the inspector myself she then understood things were under control and was cool about it, actually never even came back out just told me send photos of repairs to her email as they were done and that was good enough for her but said & I quote "After I called your manager, her acting completely clueless and brushing me off was a huge red flag and left a sour taste in my mouth so I was inclined to come out and start a report on you." Then we had some snow & I got billed $160 because she needed someone to shovel, I later found out from a tenant that the tenant actually shoveled for free & said he seen "her guy" come all he did was throw a red solo cup full of salt on the steps.

This is all 5 months into ownership and use of this management company. 2 weeks left til new management takes over & I cant wait.

Today's lesson, "You get what you pay for".

It gets frustrating hearing about owners slamming PMC's, but then most of these owners picked their PMC by going with the lowest price.

EXAMPLE: just hired by an owner - almost 3 years after first speaking with him! He went with a competitor based solely on their lower price. Now he has the following problems we have to fix for him:

1) 4-plex has been red-tagged by city as PMC did repairs without pulling permits. He had to pay tenants to buyout their leases. 

2) His duplex has two nonpaying tenants that haven't paid in over 18 months. PMC told him they've been wairting for approved CERA funds for over 9 months. Has NEVER taken us that long to get funds, we're investigating that either they just applied or the PMC took the funds.

This client ADMITTED that he remembered us warning him 3 years ago, that cheapest doesn't mean better.

His choice to go with the cheapest has now actually cost him tens of thousands of dollars MORE.

FYI - the PMC he went with has an extremely bad reputation.

@Abdul Azeez so the new company is horrible as well?

Abdul, I'm sorry to hear about your experience. It's interesting that they have over 1,200 reviews with a 4.5-star rating. I have to wonder if they're paying for those reviews.

Folks - I have talked to two PM companies. My concerns are the following:

1. One of them has a 1 year agreement and if I terminate earlier there will be an early termination fee for PM fees for the remaining months.

2. One of them has a 1 year agreement but has a 60 days notice if I am going to sell the place and I need to pre-clear with them and I need to use them as the selling agent. Else they can terminate the agreement. If I do not give the 60 day notice or don't use them as selling agent, I will owe one month rent as penalty

3. The first one in #1 above needs me to finalize everything by end of this week Feb 18 failing which they cannot guarantee they can fully on-board. Also, if I reach agreement this month, they would charge a management fee. My other PM company would also charge a management fee this month. So, am I double paying then? Also if I cannot get everything transferred this week and go with them next week, there is still a risk that the current PM will get the rent for March. 

Would appreciate any insight or steer me in the right direction. Also my current PM company said they will send me a note by yesterday to ask me to switch by end of this week but I have not received it yet. Should I force the topic and send them a note instead?