All Forum Posts by: Paul Zofsak

The PM has notified the tenant and placed a "notice to vacate", that has gotten additional fees paid; however not all of them.  The tenant is aware of how the late fees work as I managed the property the first year until I no longer had time; they paid late fees in the past.  At the end of the day its a gray area in the contract, like said, fool me once...

There are many other PMs in the area; I will have something else to ask up front next time when interviewing a prospective new PM.

Wow, I never expected that many responses.  The contract states that the PM as the right to collect late fees and keep them; however it doesn't make mention of how they do that, pretty gray area if you ask me.  Secondly, I have questioned my PM on the matter and got two responses.  The first time I questioned the certified property manager (the one that is up on all the housing codes and laws), she told me that they do that to protect the owner so that if it comes down to it they could proceed with an eviction since technically not all the rent has been paid.  The second time, I questioned one of the owners, he stated verbatim what the contract says, the contract doesn't make mention of how they will apply the rent in the case the tenant pays late, just that they have the right to collect late fees and keep them.  Either way, I will not be using this company in the future, and will be leaving online reviews about their practices as well.

The contract states that they have the right to collect the late fees and keep them, that's fine by me, but I agree its time to put them on notice.

So, if I have a one year contract on what basis can I legally get out of it without paying a bunch of penalties?

I am dealing with this local property management company for the first time; everything looked great until my tenant stated paying rent five to ten days late every month.  The tenant then pays the rent but nothing extra to cover late fees.  The property management company deducts the late fees from the rent and counts what is left over as my income and takes their standard 10% from that.  For example, rent is $1200, the tenant pays $1200 five days late, the management company deducts $65 from the rent and tells me that my income is $1135, then takes $113.50 from that for management fees.  They keep the late fees per the contract but are doing nothing to collect the uncollected rent; when I pressed the matter they asked if I wanted to proceed with eviction.  The tenant is a good tenant other than paying a little late; that combined with the expenses of re-leasing and carrying costs, it makes no sense to move forward with eviction.  Is it just me or am I paying my property management company to NOT do their job or is this an industry standard?

Thanks for all your responses; I do feel I need to clear the air a bit however.  First off, I am not tied to my price, I started with an appropriate price and have since lowered it.  Showings started off at 3-4 a week and have fallen off to about one a week.  Days on the market for this area are about five weeks, I have been listed for about six; I am not going into panic mode, just being proactive.  As a frame of reference the realtor I dealt with three years ago to buy my personal residence answered his phone or text the majority of the time right away or would return your call within the hour; that is what I have come to expect as the norm until now.

The snot nosed kid in the backseat comment was way out of line considering the lack of information the poster had beforehand; on average I contact my agent about once a week to exchange information, not cry about not having showings/buyers.

I expected going in that this house would take longer to sell, I didn't go overboard with updates or expenditures, and I have it currently listed about 10K above my break even point.  A lot of the things mentioned I was expecting, but this being my first sell, I wanted to poll the BP community to find out more about what can be done on the realtors end and I have gotten a variety of answers.  Some say there is much more marketing that can be done to the opposite side of the spectrum with others saying to drop the price and run.  I am comfortable where things currently are but don't want to be caught sitting on my hands when the time for action or decisions comes; I prefer to do my homework in advance.

Thank you all

Its also priced below comps in the area per square foot.  With what little feedback I have been getting back from the realtors that show the property is that it is priced well for the area.

Once again, the question is what else can my realtor be doing besides just an MLS listing?

What are the conditions surrounding an open house, how, what, when, why, etc?  Is that something we should be considering?

The house is listed below its appraised value.  Most of the houses in the area are three bedroom, this is four and has been updated recently, paint, carpet, appliances, countertops, etc. 

I have been getting feedback and most of it is positive, only one realtor mentioned why their clients didn't move forward; the rest just leave a general five question survey.

I dropped the price several thousand over a week ago in hopes of drawing attention, there has been one showing since. I understand about the largest house in a market, etc. What I am asking is there more I should expect of my realtor than just a standard MLS listing; her commission is going to be about $4k after all.

The showings have been marginal, about three to four a week at best.  One area of concern for me is that whenever I call my agent's cell, she answers about 10% of the time so I leave a voicemail.  It is then another few hours that go by before I get a text, not a call, back.

So basically I should expect more than just an MLS listing. The listing she put together is great. The houston market right now is really hot and the average DOM for that area is about five weeks. One thing also to take into consideration is that the house is about 900 sqft bigger and about $20K higher than the average house in that area; it is priced according to comps/sq/ft however.

So I would be justified in going to my realtor and asking her what else she is doing or planning on doing then, correct?

I am 6 weeks into my first listing and am wondering what should,or could, my realtor be doing besides just putting my house on the MLS and centralized showing? I understand it can be a waiting game but as a sales person what else can she be doing to earn her 3% commission?

I think you guys are goth right but coming at it from different angles.  After judgment is given in the landlords favor there is a six say waiting period before a writ can be issued.  Once the writ is issued, and signed by the judge, it is delivered withing 24 hours.

I filed for my writ of possession today and I guess my county is a little backed up; they told me it is now 48 hours until they post notice and could be up to two weeks before the constable executes the writ because he has to wait on a "truck and the storage facility" WTF. I am so fed up with this process, I had my realtor setup to go over to the house in two days to get it listed on the MLS. Now it may be up to two weeks before I can get over there. And in the meantime the tenant has the nerve to ask for more time to pay.

I will be using property management on all future properties...