I’m trying to avoid analysis-paralysis so I figured the first step was to start communicating with the real-estate community!

Those small costs add up and they do not follow though with holding security, or communicating with tenant as I would like but play God rather in deciding how to apply the law.

They typically communicate that they will be late and do end up paying the full rent plus the late fee by the end of each month.Unfortunately, we've reached a point this month where they submitted a partial payment at the beginning of the month and have now become unresponsive and have not paid the monthly balance.

Will the case worker share whatever I communicate with tenant therefore making a difficult relationship potentially worse?

This new structure has come with many many headaches for me, the prime one being there was absolutely zero communication with owners like me about the change.

As you can see your failure to manage and communicate and also making assumptions to get out of doing the work to deal with the changing situation causes you a lot of hassle in the end.

It's pretty much a war zone there and I've had to communicate mostly by e-mail and text as cell service is about non-existent, and all the roads are closed so there's no driving over there and no gas even if you did get there. 

If you have a long standing tenant, good communication, and rent is paid on time this shouldn't be an issue. 

They generally have large portfolios allowing for in house maintenance and management staff along with a point person who is communicating with the local housing authority on a regular basis and has the ability to streamline operations. 

The most important thing to keep in mind is that fast, quality maintenance and good communication are by far the best forms of customer service a property manager can provide.