All Forum Posts by: John Boland

@Jim D. We received an annual summary last year at tax time: Gross Rent, Management Fee, Maintenance Cost. No breakdown, just end of year total. We have not received anything yet for 2020....

@Ricardo R. Fair assessment of the title. Never the intention to portray him as though he is not the keystone to the operation.

I felt I was pretty transparent as to how involved he is and an asset. In multiple responses I said how he “has been great” and “excellent property manager”. As I was waking up throughout the day you can even see my responses mellow out.

This was never an out of the blue fill out my form MF. He and I had the conversation through email and over the phone. Talked about the possibility of expanding my portfolio, ways to upgrade the property he manages for us into rentals in nicer areas. But, after a month of no progress on any information (a basic monthly summary), I asked again to which I felt blown off.

There has never been a question of his performance or trustworthiness. Even the greatest carpenter can suck at paperwork. But just cause he is excellent in all other areas besides this doesn’t mean I don’t trust him, I still want to see it though.

When I originally posted there was no true intent or should I say there was no clear question I was asking. Perhaps what I was saying wasn’t what everyone else was hearing.

@Alex Forest This started off with a no to the cap ex savings under his management and then turned into wanting to know more of the month to month. Outside of the rent amount, his fee, my mortgage I cant speak on where every dollar goes. I know that per the lease landscaping maintenance will be maintained by the landlord, outside of the first year I dont know if its still the same company being used and/or the same rate. It is just more and more that I am becoming aware of that im not aware to 

@Joe S. "demands" makes it sound like I am asking for something outlandish... As to the post, I was looking for others perspectives on what I am experiencing...which is something I have never dealt with before. And for the "demands", I feel if someone is entrusted/hired to maintain something they should in turn be able to show the cost of doing so and documentation to prove it. That is the only "demand" being made. 

All, like I said at the beginning: "I am in need of perspective". You have each given a different take and I am truly appreciative of that. 

Our PM has done an excellent job and has always had our back. My lack of involvement and knowledge on the comings and goings is exactly what I am trying to improve upon. A precedent was set over the past 2 years and I am trying to raise the standard. This may be uncomfortable for he and I but it needs to be done. My "spreadsheet" to summarize is: Fees, Maintenance, Repairs. I still feel asking what the expenses are for the month to month is not unreasonable and should be readily available, at the very least for the previous month. A means to obtain this information without an email chain should be established. I am not trying to become a more hands on owner micromanaging, I am trying to become a more aware one as I should have been at the start. 

@Joe Martella there is no portal or location to acquiring any information without asking him directly for it

@Joe Martella yes he has been amazing. Do not think I don’t see that. He was able to secure financing to finish the repairs which obviously we are grateful for and he has taken a portion of rent to pay that bill. We handled our own mortgage and the other debt that was created.

Again, he is awesome at the things he does. Now to my involvement, oh boy did I put myself out of the loop. No hiding that fact, my knowledge went as far as “did we get the rent to pay the mortgage? Yes? Okay”. I couldn’t have been more hands off.

Do we need to have a savings for maintenance/cap ex, obviously. Do I think the PM should manage it, absolutely not. Him asking the question to do it made me ask the question of where is all the money going? I’m playing catch-up but better late than never. I appreciate his foresight and I do think his mindset is he doesn’t want us to go through what we did before.

@Ken Gee spot on about the cap ex savings. That’s really what kind of stirred the pot and prompted me to get involved. Up until recently I was in the Navy and so long as the mortgage was covered it was out of sight out of mind. My lack of caring created a void to knowledge of what was going on.

@AJ H. It is a hard decision because he has helped us through a lot and in every other capacity has been great.

It’s really the paperwork side that bothers me. Having a portal would be nice but it’s really I feel I should be able to ask any of the questions I have on numbers and have the answer within an hour.

I have come to the fork in the road with my property manager....and I need perspective.

To give the background my wife and I relocated and turned our home into a rental, a common move. We then rented to the first applicants willing to pay, a common mistake. After the first year they began to slip on payments and instead of evicting we tried to be nice and give them a chance... 3 months later of no rent and we faced a crisis.

In comes the property manager. He was referred to us by a coworker and we knew we needed a pro. We met and right away noticed his bull dog tendencies, the type you want arguing on your behalf. Perfect for a couple like us.

He had the eviction process rolling and even got the former tenants to settle. And finally when we got back into our house we saw the destruction left behind. Rotting food, burnt counters, destroyed toilets... my wife and I were in our mid 20s and this was our first home so we were a bit emotional. Right away he knew what needed to be done, who to call, how to get this house to rent worthy status again.

After the 4 months of missing rent and the time it will take to make repairs we were looking at paycheck to paycheck. We were able to take a loan from family to help pay for the repairs but it was still short of what was needed. The PM knowing we were in a tight spot offered to find financing for the rest of the repairs.

Now to the present. He has had the property rented out consistently without a single month of vacancy for the past two years. Haven’t had any issues or maintenance concerns, and what we were renting for 1750 he is renting for 2300. Everything is running smooth... kinda. He says the debt was paid off and he would like to use that same monthly debt payment to create a savings for us for future cap ex. Now up until this point it was my wife doing all the dealings with the property and the PM

In the past 3 months I’ve had a change of heart to rental properties. I was against it but after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad I say give me all the properties I can buy. I knew that first I had to better understand the properties I already had ... and to question him about this idea of a savings to be managed by him.

Time to manage the manager! So I contacted the PM and created a spreadsheet stating what numbers I wanted to see, bank information, essentially a monthly statement. I feel he has been a great PM outside of paperwork to this point and I figured I’d show exactly what I want. He had oral surgery done so I gave some leeway to complete the task. Today I finally asked for any progress to which he answered “I’ll get to it this week”....

I have sent him an email stating new expectations moving forward, refusing to do it in a text or phone call, and that any concerns shall be emailed to me. He of course texted and called, which I did not respond to. He finally sent an email late saying he cannot complete the paperwork this week(which he has had a month to do), that I should call him if I have any concerns, that he will perform any emergency action but does not consider the requested paperwork as such.

Am I delusional or is this absolutely no way to conduct business? Any guidance would be amazing cause it’s 4 am and I’ve been up for 2 hours stewing over this.