Property Management, Indeed

Had to let my property management company go. I won't mention names, as I don't think it was their fault; it's just the nature of the beast. I hired them a month ago, when I had 3 vacancies and was over 1500 miles away from them. I NEEDED a PM to make it happen.

Well... a month later.... nothing. And no tenants in sight, either. I've been posting my own ads, screening tenants, and referring them to the PM. I realized yesterday why NOTHING has been happening.

This is how they (and many PMs) work things:
A potential tenant calls. The PM tells them to come to the office to pick up a key. The tenant gives a deposit and a copy of their driver's license in exchange for the key.

THEN.... the potential tenant (aka Your Money, Your Bread and Butter, Your Life Line) goes into your house.................... ALONE!

Ok, we'll get to the liability issues on that in a moment.

But the real issue is that it's NOT going to get rented under these circumstances.

A good tenant will have questions about the property. A good tenant will need someone to help them close the deal! Excited about your new home? Sorry! You'll have to wait for the excitement to wear off before you do anything about it. And, OH! I am SOOO sorry. We're closed for the day. Come back and sign tomorrow!

As far as "good business" goes, if I was a property manager (whose money source depends on filling vacancies) I would want to be RIGHT there in the action, hearing comments like, "If only the bathroom was a different color I would rent it...." or "I really need something bigger than this."

Comments that can be referred to the Owner in order to make necessary repairs and upgrades; AND comments that the PM can use to move a tenant into the RIGHT house!!

Amazing.

[Liability issue that I promised I would get back to: Potential tenant enters house, turns on all the lights, and the heat, and the water... Oh, that explains THAT bill!... forgets to lock the door... someone else comes in and walks off with the appliances.... and that's the end of getting that place rented.]

So, I posted some ads on Craigslist yesterday; got a bunch of phone calls. Showed two of three vacancies. Got one application faxed in. And have one family ready to go as soon as the references check out. A tenant a day? Not bad!

Further--we found out why it's taken so long to get one of the houses rented. Rent price is $1200. Anything above $1200 right now is NEW construction, big, etc. Anything below $1200 is slummy, scary, small, smelly, etc.

This particular house doesn't fit into either category. It's old with all new upgrades. It's small, but well planned. A+ in character and "cool." So, we may have gotten more views if we put the price at $1250, and then offered utility incentives to put it at a more realistic price.

Would not have learned this important tip about the rental market if we had not SHOWN the house ourselves. Yes, it took 30 minutes to show the house; but I don't mind getting paid $1200 for 30 minutes of work. Do you!?