Hello! Newbie here. I have two properties in Fayetteville, NC that I have had managed since 2005. Unfortunately, I have had the worst luck with property managers. One had worked for me for over 10 years and bled me dry of money.
I am an Active Duty Soldier and have had to manage them from out of state in the middle of deployments, field exercises, etc. I was young, naive and just assumed this was part of the pain as I had many friends who I commiserated with going through the same thing. In the end, I was simply happy to get renters in the properties to pay the majority of my mortgage. I figured I was doing something right when I was simply able to break even with my mortgage and paying my property manager.
I would put aside money for minor repairs, and then end up having to use up the whole fund on larger repairs as my property manager was looking for work for her handyman friends on random things ie. $300 to change the handle on a microwave, $5000 for an air conditioning unit that only needed $100 worth of work.
Let me vent for two seconds (As if I haven’t been already) - My previous Property Manager has had tenants who literally had no jobs and paid using their school money because it was out of their price range. She’s had a pastor in my single family home who had run out and did not pay rent but gave every excuse as to why it wasn’t worth pursuing him and better to just eat the cost.
She’s put people in my properties who never should have met the income qualification to rent these properties as it was over their heads. She had a couple who paid 3 months of rent at a time, just to fall behind 4 months again and pay 5 months to get caught up and fall behind again. I later had no choice but to kick them out during Christmas time while deployed in another part of the country paying double mortgages. Of course, I was made to be the bad guy even after letting it slide for over a year.
Long story short, she has been fired and replaced by another property management team. In the past two years, life has been better with this team - but turnover with them has been high. Within the past year, I’ve gone through 4 property managers, and currently trying to find out who’s managing it now. They’ve cycled through people and are unable to keep me up to date with everything going on.
I’m having to manage every detail of what I need done with my property and am the one who is providing continuity with the never ending rotation of new property managers. I had asked numerous friends for their recommendations on property managers, but they tend to struggle with them like I do.
It’s these experiences that have always left a bad taste for real estate in my mouth and have kept me from trying to learn more. I remember the excitement of buying these properties in my mid 20’s and figured this was the steps necessary to adulting. I was hating the entire process and tempted to sell them all out of rage and frustration for a loss.
I am barely a month into Bigger Pockets and loving the networking aspect of it all! It’s reigniting a fire to understand this better and turn these negatives into positives. But I am scared, as I have had consistently ****** experiences with property management and now looking to purchase more properties!
Rather than word of mouth recommendations for property managers from my friends who are as lost as I am in the real estate game - I’m now reaching out to all of you the Real Estate experts, on good recommendations for property managers and strategies for finding them and managing them from out of state. I’m looking for property managers who take into account my needs as an owner and an investor first, instead of just collecting a rent check to shut me up from complaining.
Can ANYONE help? I’m looking for a property manager that can cover two properties in Fayetteville, NC. One is a single family home, and the other is a condo. Both are located near the “Center of the Universe”, Fort Bragg, NC!
Any assistance or advice would be much appreciated!
