All Forum Posts by: Jo Zhou

@Rachrl H, yes, I told that to my PM this morning. The PM still threaten me that the tenant will sue me.  I have no idea why PM work against us. 

My PM just called in and reinforced that the potential tenant  will sue us for discrimination because they already provided us the $1mm renter insurance coverage. The PM’s attorney is also on this issue that confirmed we are covered if the renter has the renter insurance.  I told him if we take this tenant, my landlord insurance will be canceled. The PM said that the tenant will sue the insurance company also. It seems that the tenant has decided to sue whoever it is.

Also, PM asked me if the property is under LLC, or just has umbrella policy. It makes me feel suspicious. As Russell Brazil suspected that something didn't add up, are they trying to get all of my properties? please let me know how I should prepare for it? Who has a CA attorney is good at this matter? Should I put each property under LLC? (I have 3).

Who knows a good property manager, attorney, San Diego fellows, please message me. 

Thank you, thank you for everybody’s help.

@alex, Exactly, I don't mind working with the tenant for the issue, but who will want to rent the place to people who wants to sue us at the first place. I am panic because PM said that the tenants will sue us for violating Fair Housing Act. Would it be fair to landlord? I doubt if it is the tenants' intention to sue us or PM forces us to rent. If this tenants sue us, who will take a tenant who will sue the landlord easily? I would definitely work with people who give us options, but threat us.

I was shocked by my PM, we worked together for 6 years. Finally, they start biting me. People changes or something?

The dog is not a service animal. My PM said that the tenant has bought the $1,000,000, PM's attorney said it will be fine to rent the house to them. My own attorney said no, do not rent to them. My PM said that I have a bad attorney. I believe I have a terrible PM now even if they are so good 6 years ago.

How do I fire a PM? Could I just let them go? Ask for all the deposits, leases? Can I break the management lease agreement?

Please help me look at my situation: My PM threats me that the potential tenants will sue my insurance company and me for not taking them because they have a pitbull. Seriously, my Property Manager threated me that If we don't take this potential tenants, the tenant will sue. My PM is siding with the tenants? They said that the Fair Housing Act prevents people from discriminating the tenants with dogs. I am in California, is it true? 

Can I fire the my PM right away? I feel they are forcing me to take the tenants and they said they had to do it because it is fair to the tenants. They have to be fair.

Before we made the decision not to take this tenant with Pitbull, I read through all the posting in biggerpocket, majority of the landlords will not take the pitbull because of the liability issue. My insurance company sent me a special message and warned me not to rent the house to the tenant with 6 types of dogs, pitbull is one of them.

Please give me some advise what I should do, please, thank you.

After 1st week, it took the handyman to throw away the previous tenant’s belongs because the handyman’s daily job is he has a moving company. He only come to work after his day job and weekend. The painter actually works in a construction company. He came to paint at night. The 2nd week, the painting is done. Those are fine because we are in the process of looking for a floor company. When it comes to the floor company, I decided to use the company who can finish faster. The PM said after floor is done, she will call the gardener to work on the yard, but I thought the floor and yard are not related, they can be done at the same time. Since my gardener could do the work on the weekend, I asked my gardener to do it. That finally made PM mad. 

The floor guy that PM wanted me to use does not work on weekend. I respect people who will not work on Sunday, but the guy cannot work on this coming Monday and Tuesday,too for some reason. That’s why I chose the other company which promise to finish by next Wednesday. Actually, they will be finished on Monday.

My PM told she didn’t work on weekend, so she didn’t answer my text or phone at the weekend. Is it normal for PM? If tenant calls on weekend, the issue will be addressed on Monday, too?

I read some article in BP, it mentioned a person can manage maximum 40 properties, over 40s, they will need help. My PM had 45 properties, so I understand she is busy, I feel I am helping her, but she said I made her busier because I didn’t use her guys and waste her time for estimates and communication. I didn’t complaint her because I think I am learning how to manage the property, she is still more experienced than me. I respect her knowledge and experience. I am preparing myself to take over some day. 

@Account Closed Regarding to the workload that I mentioned above, what do you think how long it will take the house to be ready for rent? What expectations should I have to my PM? Thank you for your opinions.

Thank you for all of your recommendations. I really appreciated. I am going to look for a new PM. I just want to make sure if I involved too much, it bothered my PM. I would like to do the right things to PM, too. 

After the previous tenant moved out on April 2, The House needs lots of repair works. It includes throw tenant’s leftover to a dumpster, change the floor, clean the yard, paint the whole house, deep cleaning the whole house. 

My PM used some people who have their daily job, only can work on my property in the evening or in the weekend. This slow down the process significantly.

Since I chose a company to change the floor, they can finish the job in 3 days, I didn’t use PM’s guy, who will do it at least 2 weeks.  I used my gardener to clean the yard today, PM’s gardener didn’t say when he will do the job even if I got the quote from him too. 

Because I stepped in some of the PM’s work, My PM is mad at me, saying I wasted her vendors’ time. She is threading let me do everything. Since I will be out of country very soon for one year, I am afraid that I will have no PM during that year, so I cannot change PM.

I would like to know if my PM’s complaint is reasonable. Usually, how long will a house be prepared for rent again?

Thank you.

Hi, guys, I am very appreciated that so many of you are there to give me advise and recommendations and express your thoughts, your feeling. I deeply appreciated there was a community like this exists, so we could share stories and experience.

I would like to give you an update and you may be interested in. The old couple kept their promises and moved out on April 2, some government agency did come to pick them up. If the story stopped here, they are really nice couple. However, if you saw what they left, you may lose all your sympathy. And even worse, after I talked to the neighbor, you may start getting mad.

The old couples were picked up and left a full house of their belongings in there. My PM called 2 dumpsters to remove the stuff, the handyman is still working on moving stuff. The garbage is everywhere.  The full floor was covered by the dog poops and pees. All the closet doors were painted with artist drawings. The room doors were punched holes, and so on with the garage doors.  The bathroom cannot speak of. All the lawns were dead, the trees and bushes were cut down... I mean, were they allowed to do that? At the first, I wondered why the old couple could do such a demolition. After talking to the neighbor, he told me that at least 3 more people (not the old couple) lived in the house. The other three were the daughter and daughter in law and their son. They planted marijuana in the back yard, this is the one that really made me lose all the sympathy. Now I am thinking if I should go to a small court to claim some of the damage.?

I almost have to replace everything. My PM suggested vinyl plank for the floor. Including removing all the existing floor, install the new baseboard, for 1400 sqfts are around $10,000, is it reasonable price?  Painting the whole house is $1200 plus paint.  Other estimates are on the way.

Lots of people here recommend other types of real estate investing, really appreciated, please give me some head starts, where and how I could start. Dealing the tenants is not fun, I didn't have any problem in the past, now it starts revealing. In the beginning, I decided not to deal with some kind of people, so I only buy into nice family oriented neighborhood, just hopefully we will not get into this, but it still. Some people decided to live in a pig style environment. My PM try to comforted me that this was 20 years she saw it the first time, which mean it won't happen a lot. Is it true? One thing I learned is that I asked PM to inspect all the units once a year.

Also, how to prevent people who are not on the lease live in the property permanently? My PM said that it was very hard to prove it is short stay or permanently. The only choice is If we start suspecting, we will not renew the lease. 

The whole story is ended with no eviction, Good, but full whole renovation, Bad.