All Forum Posts by: Steve Rozenberg

You have to look at your rentals as a business and the PM as your operations of your business, I can certainly understand you wanting to make sure that your PM is handling your business operations correctly. But if you did a good job vetting the company then you should trust what they are doing.

In the end there can only be one PM either it should be the company you hire or you yourself, not both. Getting involved can very quickly muddy the waters and create communication issues where the tenant starts to go to the owner directly when there is an issue. And sometimes it can be a where the owner is thinking they are doing the right thing stepping in and helping out the tenant but could unknowingly be violating a fair housing or discrimination law.

I just feel that if you feel you did the right job hiring the company and there are no red flags then I would not upset their system of operation.

Depends on your state law, I have family that have rentals in your state of California  and not only did the tenant get to live in the property rent free for 9 months but to make it worse they had to pay their moving expenses. It was a horrible deal, the attorney suggested next time as soon as that word "mold" is spoken get a reputable company that does mold remediation and have them do an inspection. Then you file on them before they file a lawsuit against you.

This may be a one off scenario but I can tell you if they would have spent the money on an inspection it would have saved thousands of dollars. Then the tenant sued them in civil court and that is still going on.

I agree with @Joe Villeneuve , I am an investor and also own a property management company. You want to make sure the document you signed with them clearly spells out their job duties and responsibilities. If you think that they are doing something illegal or unscrupulous I would recommend going to the state real estate commission and filing a complaint. 

But ultimately it is your property and your rental business, they are hired to do a job and your job as CEO of your rental property business is verify it is being done.... I always tell owners that hire me, you need to trust but verify... Sticking your head in the sand and hoping we are doing the right thing is a surefire way to get sued or go bankrupt.

we use a company called Night Tenders. They do a very good job. The owner was a property manager, they can go into your software and create the service tickets , contact your vendors of needed etc.

Thanks for all the info.. We have seen our best success by being just a little below average and also always making sure the property is in show ready condition and never before

Best company in San Antonio is Libertry Property management, tell him Steve Rozenberg from Empire in Houston sent you, Kevin Knight is the owner and very good guy. Very professional

Do you rent top of the market , middle , or below average rents?

It all starts with your screening process, putting the right person in your property will take care of 90% of your potential problems. I know this lesson personally and very hard earned. We used to have over a 30% eviction rate mainly because we were putting the wrong people in the properties and not having the right policies and procedures in place to handle those clients.

Once we started being strict on who we put in our properties we went down to a less then 2% eviction rate and one of the highest rated and reviewed property management companies on Google for Houston market, this is by both Tenants as well as owners. 

Be strict who you allow in and make sure you postion them in the beginning and your life will be a lot easier.

It is a definite possibility.  We recently went to an event in West Houston Chamber of Commerce and they addressed this issue in detail. Basically  the people that were speaking felt that the shedding of jobs is cyclical and the fact that the housing market is still 10 years behind in demand it may cool the market down it won't slow it down. It will show a negative growth from the projected growth but it will still continue to grow and they estimate adding 40,000 jobs overall in 2015.

Also as sad as it sounds when people lose their jobs and have to sell that is when true investors buy and the people that sell downsize and become renters and that actually drives rent prices up. The worst time scenario for investors is when the economy is great because the tenants leave to buy homes. 

Just another view point to look at it

Sorry @Hasan Hamdan 

In Houston here we are seeing a lot of investors from not only other states but a lot from other countries buying in our local area.