All Forum Posts by: Edward Brewington

The property management company I work with in Michigan wants to charge me $250 for a renewal of a lease. I have two other PMs in another State and they don't even charge me for this. Is this common? It's just resigning a tenant already in there. What am I missing? 

Likewise, what would you define as penny pinching by a property manager? What do you expect in terms of fees?

I appreciate all responses.

FYI.... I live abroad so I cannot manage it on my own. 

I bit the bullet and paid it after the PM gave a 20% discount. I post this so all of us (investors) can learn from my mistakes, so we can all learn how to prevent these things from happening in the future. Here is the response I got:

"My Director has authorized a $20.00 refund toward the service call.

I know you feel that we (MPM) should have prevented the issue, but here is what I think happened;

I verified the gas service was on and the new stove was properly installed and functioning PRIOR to the tenant signing the lease and moving in.

The tenant signed the lease and had the utility services placed in his name. I think that for what ever reason, when the service was changed over from the previous tenant account to the new tenant's name, there was an interruption of service that allowed the pilot light on the water heater to go out.

In the 5+ years of working in property management, I've never had this issue occur.

The tenant stated on the work order request that the water heater was not "KEEPING" the water hot. (which sounds like a bad thermo-coupler or failed unit)."

This was reasonable. 

However, if I am choosing a PM in the future, I want one who has his own staff (licensed contractors) as a part of his team instead of hiring independent contractors. 

Second, the smaller PMs like the one I have in Parma, Ohio seems 10X better because he personally gets it done. Plus, his suggestions are spot on, knows the business well, and does not try to nickle and dime me compared to larger PMs.

Third, if I was in the States, I would self-manage but I don't have that luxury because I live abroad. 

Hope this helps other people too. Good luck everyone!!! 

All valid responses.....I really appreciate everyone's advice. I've told them that this should have been lit before they moved in. Also, I asked several times if there was a simple walk through, checking if everything works properly since they completely remodeled the whole house. I have gotten NO answer on that question. I'm still waiting for their response before I proceed....it's been two days now. 

Again, the PM just remodeled the whole house. They fixed up the every room plus the kitchen. I spent a good amount. I just expect them to do a walk through to make sure everything works.....I think that is common sense....and still they have NOT answered if they did that in the first place although I asked if they did a walk through. I wonder why. 

"The $99.00 repair charge is in fact for the water heater issue, which turned out to be rectified by simply relighting the pilot light. Even though that was the only issue, they still charge a service call/fee.

If the water heater would have needed to be replaced, the service call/fee is usually waived or deducted from the total cost of replacing the entire unit and labor.

All licensed/insured contractors that I'm aware of charge service fees. In fact, I've had to agree to pay a plumber $70.00 just to have them arrive and LOOK at the issue!

I also had a home buyer move into their newly purchased/inspected home and discover that the air conditioner was not cooling. They called for service on a Saturday and ended up paying the AC contractor $138.00. Afterwards the AC was working great!!!!

The AC contractor could find nothing wrong with the actual AC system. The issue was that the AC circuit breaker had been tripped off in the breaker box and simply had to be reset!

I'm copying our Director on these emails so he can be aware of your concerns and feelings about the $99.00 charge."

This is the response I got from my PM. The point I'm making is......they fully remodeled the property. Why wasn't there a walk through that checked if everything was functioning properly? I asked this by I get no answer to this question. I wonder why. 

I understand many of the responses, but I have two other PMs and one is a smaller company but personally goes out to the property himself. Awesome service and gives great advice and stays on top of everything. The other PM manages a lot of properties and I had to pay things myself in my name because they were charging $15 to pay bills. However, they have their own staff to fix things so they are pretty on top of things. It seems the smaller PMs are better.

I actually live in South Korea, and I own 4 U.S. properties....the rest of my properties (29....one commercial building) are here in SK. There are huge differences between owning property in the U.S. and Korea. Tenants call the realtor and then the realtor calls us to state any issues, no fees. They make their money in the buying/selling primarily. I do NOT feel they nickle and dime me here.....in fact the service is quite awesome. 

Thanks for the replies! I see. Perhaps I need to take care of this, but I feel it is my property management's responsibility to have the property fully running before the tenant arrives, esp since they fully remodeled the home after the last tenant left. I understand and see everyone's point. Thanks. 

I recently had my rental property thoroughly remodeled w/ my property management in charge.They took a month to get a tenant. When they got a new tenant he reported the heater did not work. He had no hot water. The property management sent out company to fix the boiler because the tenant said it did not work. It was simply a  pilot light out and simply needed to be lit. I use to light my boiler by myself when I was kid....easiest thing ever. They did nothing but light the pilot light, nothing had to be replaced. They charged me $99.

My question is.....one......shouldn't the property management had this running before the tenant came in? 

Second, the tenant called this in without checking the boiler or even looking. Am I responsible for this? The boiler was perfectly functional.

Last, $99 for simply coming out. They said they would waive the fee if I had to fix or replace the boiler. 

Thoughts. Am I right to think this is outrageous? 

I would say I'm informed, not blindly guessing and believing word of mouth advice, doing my due diligence. I've done very well with all my properties and I plan on that continuing. 

Again, if any of you want to answer this....

Why do you think this market is strong? Why do you have confidence to buy more now? Do you think the market is inflated, overpriced? If not, why? Now, I'm really curious.

As I said before, I'm prepared. I'm ready to pounce when it crumbles back to reality, and if you are buying now I think you're taking a huge risk. My question to you is......Why do you think this market is strong? Why do you have confidence to buy more now? Do you think the market is inflated, overpriced? If not, why? I'm curious.   

What worries me is how the stock market has reached its highest level while the US and China are in a trade war, our farmers are being bailed out, perhaps losing the customers they once had, talks of lowing the interest rate (if the economy is strong why lower the rate) and bank stocks are going down, 17% from the peak in 2018.....a sign that something is up. Speaking of banks, Deutsche Bank is down 85% from its peak in 2007.....the stock has been spiraling down. It has an exposure of 43 trillion (in Euros) in derivatives (CLOs) and just created a "Bad Bank" to "restructure" their problem. How much exposure do US banks have to DB? That's a good question. Also, if anything happens to DB, and I think its most likely a very severe crisis now and they're trying to hide this, then this could be a major shock to the world economy......DB is 3X larger than Lehman Brothers which pretty much signaled the 2008 crash......the signs of this trend were there well before Lehman, but ignored. On top of this, average Americans are just getting by where 40% would have major problems if an unexpected expense of $400 arose. This economy in my eyes is fake, a massive bubble, a house of cards about to crumble and I'm wondering why I'm the only one who sees this......even Jim Cramer, whose advice I take with a grain of salt, said the other day, "The real world is much worse than what the stock market indicates." You think? Ha, ha. I'd say prepare for the worse and be ready to buy when everything seems depressed and at its worst because this economy makes no sense!