Common issues when working with property managers are the fees associated with repairs, a replacement might be better than a fix. What do you do if your property manager makes a decision that costs you more money? In this episode, both Michael and Emil share recent stories where this happened to them and what they did to address the situation.  

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Transcript

Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.

 

Emil:

Hey, everyone, welcome back for another episode of the Remote Real Estate Investor. My name is Emil Shour and today I'm joined by…

 

Michael:

Michael Albaum.

 

Emil:

And on this episode, Michael and I are going to be talking about something that's very common to new and seasoned investors, which is, what do you do when you get a charge on your property management statement that looks a little too high? What are the steps you should take? How should you handle it with your property manager to make sure you're not getting ripped off? So let's hop into this episode.

 

Alright, Michael, you've been at this for a while and I feel like this by still happens to you, right? You see some charges on your property management statement and you're like, hmm, this seems a little more than either I'm used to or that I know this should cost, so I'm curious. What do you do, when you see one of those charges? How do you handle it?

 

Michael:

Yeah, so I see it. Not all the time, thankfully, because if I did, I might be with the wrong property manager. But I've seen it enough times to get frustrated by it and so it's as simple as sending an email with a copy of the invoice that I'm questioning or that I have an issue with, or picking up the phone or having a phone call with the property management saying, hey, this seems too high, this seems excessive, you know, whatever, whatever the words are that you're feeling, send that to the property manager and see what they say. I had an instance where I sent that to a property manager and I said, hey, these plumbing charges seem really high. What's going on? They said, oh, it was an emergency call. There was someone else that could do it, this that the other thing. So it was in this instance justified.

 

But that was all details that I don't have looking at the at the portal, right. So it's all kind of supporting evidence, supporting details that you get from the property manager, because they are there physically, locally doing the stuff and so I think it's important not to get all up in arms and not to get accusatory, but just say, hey, this doesn't look quite right to me wanted to get find out a little bit more about it, then you can take it to the next level. Just recently, I had a property manager get a quote for to replace a furnace. It was like 3800 bucks to replace it and I was like, whoa, that seems really high. Can you please go get another quote and I had them get a quote from a company that's doing a bunch of work for me up the road, and they were like, we're too busy to quote it. But at that price seems totally reasonable and like, sweet, thanks for doing that. It seemed high to me, but that's just kind of the going rate in the area, we found a cheaper rate from another, another vendor, but they're known for not doing the best work. So it's like, you know, in this instance, yeah, the cost is high, it sucks. But that's just what it costs and especially now because things just goods and services tend to cost a little bit more prior to doing business. So again, find out the details, find out what's going on, and then have a conversation around it. But I mean