All Forum Posts by: Rob Jones

@Garrett Pearson

That's a really good idea.  Thanks for that!

@Alan Grobmeier

I used to manage the properties myself and it got to be too much to handle with a full time job. I had 4 at that point and I was living in Seattle. These properties are in NC. I’m back in NC now and currently have 8 properties. Still working full time and now have a baby. My hourly pay in my day job is much higher than what I’d get in return from my rentals so it’s much more efficient for me to focus my time and efforts on my day job than to manage my rentals right now. All this being said, I do live in NC now so having my wife and I manage them like we used to is absolutely an option. No one will ever take care of your properties like you will!

@Caleb Heimsoth

Yep I am in the red on this one and others he manages. He’ll be making more on the portion of the portfolio he manages this year than I will.

@Stephen Akindona

I had hoped that I wouldn’t really have to worry about much with this PM company. They seemed to operate really well and have processes in place to prevent something like this from happening. I understand we’re all humans and things happen but I was just hoping for him to take responsibility and ownership when his company dropped the ball.

I will add that he has told me he’ll refund me the money. Although I appreciate him doing that he got an attitude with me when I justified my ask. If he feels I’m in the wrong on this and there was something in our agreement that would back him up, I’d lick my wounds and take it on the chin and pay for the bill.

@Mike Dymski

I agree. Thanks for the input!

@Travis Lloyd

Completely agree with you. Thanks for the perspective

@Caleb Heimsoth

The bill was in the PM companies name. Not mine.

I like to think that every dollar is important. I don’t come from money and I work very hard for the money I do have. I take my business seriously and that means taking my money seriously as well. If I scoffed at $200 that $200 would turn into a wasted $400, then a wasted $600, then maybe more. It would create a bad habit that I don’t want to create. It would also set the expectation with my PM that I don’t care about my business and that I’m free with my money. That could open me up to being taken advantage of and I don’t want that to happen.

@Travis Lloyd

Great points. That could be the situation but, to your point, I was left in the dark with no explanation. It wasn’t until I dig deeper that someone looked into the bill.

Right now his company manages 300 doors. I own 7 of them. In the grand scheme of things 300 isn’t a lot in a big city but, this isn’t a big city. Only about 100k population. With him managing 300 he may have other owners that are more of a priority. I just like to treat everyone the same, regardless of whether I make $10 or $10,000 off of them. It’s just the right thing to do.

@Travis Lloyd

Thanks for that perspective.  I guess the reason why I think it's right to refund the money is because I've tried my best to turn the situation around and put myself in the PM's shoes.  If I placed a tenant that moved in, never paid a dime, racked up huge utility bill(and this is truly a huge utility bill...the place is only 1k square ft), and was then evicted....all within a month, I would help ease the blow of that situation for my client by taking the fall for the utility bill since it was absolutely not the fault of the owner that it wasn't validated that the tenant had the utilities in their name prior to being given the keys to the house.  At the end of the day I would have realized that my PM company did not do our due diligence to ensure beyond the shadow of a doubt the tenant had put the utilities in their name and yet we still gave them the keys to the property.  Also, the fact that my PM made me feel like I was in the wrong for asking for my money back while they sorted things out with the utility company also made me realize that he may not be as sold on having satisfied client as I once thought he was.

@Stephen Akindona

The utility bill was in my property management company's name...not my name or my LLC's name. Does that change your perspective from your previous statement?

Also--to your second point, the reason I pay a property management company is so I can alleviate my need to have to manage my own properties.  I would consider calling my utility company and placing a cut off on my services for each and every rental property every time there is turnover as being a duty of managing my own properties.  

I've got a full time job and a family.  Paying a PM to manage my properties is a cost of doing business for me that I'm happy to pay.  If, and only if, it's done the right way.