All Forum Posts by: Sharon Cohen

Can anyone recommend a good property manager in PG County?

@Carson Sweezy thanks for the referral-- I'll reach out to you via PM to follow up!

@Joe Spitrock, thanks for the advice, it's clear you've been doing this for a long time. I did ask the property manager to start documenting the tenant's requests and our follow up. Another lesson learned from this experience is to list some specific conditions in my lease, like that pest control is the tenant's responsibility if it's not HOA-related and that service calls for issues that are revealed to be the tenant's fault will be charged to the tenant's account. I'll take it on faith that not every rental experience is like this one!

Got it-- sounds like the consensus on this thread is to discuss with a lawyer the legality of simply terminating the lease when it expires in 6 months.  My PM recommended raising the rent instead because he thought the former could be challenged as discriminatory, but collective wisdom here suggests otherwise.  So I'll just see if I can consult with a lawyer who practices in the area.  Anyone have any guidance on how to find a real estate lawyer?

Thanks again for all the helpful advice!

@Account Closed appreciate your thoughts. I bought this property to learn "on the job" about being a landlord and I knew I wouldn't get it all right the first time.   Will see if these next steps succeed in resetting expectations, but even if that doesn't work, the lease is up in 6 months and we can start over with a new tenant.

 Thank you all for the outstanding feedback.  I understand the imperative to be manage the tenant more firmly, but PG County is very tenant-friendly and I'm trying to be very conscientious about "defensive landlording," since I don't want to expose myself to legal action.  @JR T., you hit the nail on the head: the PM advocated for this lady because she had a predictable income (social security) and good credit, which is hard to come by in this area.  She was living with her (now deceased) husband before moving into this unit, so I'm not sure what due diligence would have surfaced.

I don't have friends or family in PG County, but I live close by and this is one of the few areas in the DMV that it makes sense to invest in, from a cash-flow perspective.

I love the suggestion to get a GV number and screen maintenance requests.  As a prior renter, I would have appreciated much more frequent responsiveness, but I was also (I now know) a fantastic renter and deserved that kind of responsiveness.  This line resonates: "There is no award for most responsive landlord, but there's a reward for managing your time and resources properly with this type tenant." (@JR T.)   Also, "my job is to provide clean safe housing at a reasonable price." (thanks @Ralph R.) I definitely need to do better about managing my time and resources properly.  I clearly need to manage the PM better as well.

I will respond that the tenant needs to show proof of pests and will instruct her on proper use of dishwasher (don't overload the machine, remove food particles).  I'll notify her that if she continues to insist that I send a repair person and they find that the machine is not working properly because she's not using it properly, then I will charge her for the visit.

We definitely plan on raising the rent when the lease is up.  I'm not sure I want to get more involved than being the point person for all maintenance requests for this property (e.g. handling communications with the daughter), and I don't relish the thought of replacing my PM, so hopefully this works out.  Thanks again for all the great responses. 

Hi, this is my first time posting on BP, though I've been a longtime podcast listener and forum browser.  I bought my first rental property, a 2 bd 1 ba condo in Prince George's County, MD, about 8 months ago.  My property manager rented the place to an elderly lady who appears to be suffering from dementia but is assisted by her daughter.  Since renting the property to her, we've been responding to complaints on a nearly weekly basis.  I've had the carpets cleaned twice, replaced the washing machine, rewired the dryer, replaced light fixtures, hired pest control services, replaced blinds, realigned door frames, and had multiple calls out to plumbers (some of them frivolous).  I don't have time to investigate all of these issues personally, so I rely on my property manager to triage these issues and advise me on how to remediate them.  He's been very frustrated with the tenant-- several of the service people he uses won't go back to the unit because the tenant is unresponsive and/or difficult to deal with-- so he's asked me to reach out to my own networks.  Currently, I'm asked to help find someone who can repair a dishwasher that is not "rinsing properly" and can address a possible mice problem.  My property manager says the pest control company made three visits in the past two months, and they can't find anything, but she says she still hears them at night.

I want to be a responsive landlord of a thoroughly functional apartment, but I'm afraid I'm spending money on frivolous complaints.  My property manager is doing the best he can, but at this point he's being managed by her more than the other way around.  The tenant doesn't want to move out, though we've offered to let her break her lease with no penalty.

Any advice on how to reset expectations? One idea I'm toying with right now is to ask the tenant to retain her own pest control services and to send me the bill if they find evidence of a rodent problem, but I'm not sure if that's legally defensible. Also, since this is a condo, I'm not sure at what point a rodent problem becomes the HOA's responsibility. Regarding the dishwasher, the easiest thing to do may be to just replace it, but I'll gladly consider any other creative ideas.

Thanks for any advice, I'm scratching my head here and this experience is definitely dampening my enthusiasm for diving deeper into real estate investing.