When is it Time to Divorce Your Property Manager?

When it is time to part ways your property manager? These four tell-tale signs are all you need to know.

We’re sure you’ve heard the story of the boiling frog, which has its own Wikipedia page. If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will immediately try to jump out. But if you put a frog in a pot of nice comfy warm water, and gradually turn up the heat, the frog will be slowly but inevitably cooked to death.

We’ll borrow that metaphor to describe what can happen with a property manager who – little by little – fails to deliver. You make excuses for each misstep, or you’re too busy to deal with finding a new provider, or some combination of both. You enter into a state of learned helplessness.

But that’s a condition you need to overcome. There’s no reason to be stuck in a bad relationship with a property manager. To help you know when it’s time to ask for a divorce – as opposed to when you’re just in a rough patch – here are four signals that can’t be ignored.

Sign #1: Slow responses as a habit

Responsiveness is a core attribute for property managers. It’s essential, obviously, for emergencies, but also must be ingrained as standard operating procedure. Communication is an essential part of their job. If it takes more than 24 hours for them to respond to a request, that’s a problem.  

Lateness can also become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you let it go unchecked the first time it happens, the next time it’ll be 48 hours; the time after that, it’ll be 72. So our advice is to let your property manager know what your expectations are; if you established a response window when they were hired, remind them of it in no uncertain terms. If you don't, it's never too late.

We also believe that responsiveness – or the lack of it – is an insight into the overall professionalism and standards of a property manager. If they disappoint you in the one area where you have complete visibility, imagine what things are like when the situation’s more opaque.

Sign #2: Poor attention to detail

Property management is a business of details, and many of them are related to repairs – both expected and unexpected. Whether it’s a toilet that won’t stop running, or a furnace that barely runs, property managers are expected to arrange for maintenance, and make sure that the work is done promptly and at the highest level.

If your property manager takes a slipshod approach to that, and doesn’t follow up with your tenant – and you – to make sure that all the repairs were performed in a satisfactory way, that’s a bad sign. If it happens repeatedly – along with the other red flags identified herein – it could be grounds for divorce.

Sign #3: 'Nickel and Diming' You to Death

It could be that the agreement with your property manager entitles them to upcharge for items like first-class photography, video tours, and other necessary steps to find the right tenant.

But these charges add up fast – as do other hidden costs, like when your property manager charges you for rent when the home is vacant.

So take a good hard look at what is covered by your agreement and what isn’t. At the same time, we urge you to examine what’s involved in canceling the contract before the stated expiration date. If there are penalties for ending your relationship, that tells you a lot about the property management company’s confidence in their ability to keep landlords satisfied, without the threat of penalties.

Sign #4: Manual everything

We all know how our lives have been transformed by the move to digitization. The list of things we can now do from our phones has gone from unimaginable to expected. But what about your relationship with your property manager? Can you talk to a concierge online, 24/7? Are all your records – rent collections, repairs, the works – available electronically? 

If that’s not the case – if your property manager is still operating in a paper-and-pencil, index-card world – it’s probably time to start considering a new relationship. The amount of your valuable time that it takes to deal with the deluges of paperwork involved in owning rental property is more than you might realize; accepting an analog relationship makes you the frog in the pot!

Property management is broken. Belong instead.

If you're experiencing these problems, you don't need a property manager. You need Belong. Why?

1. It doesn't need to be an emergency to get in touch with us after hours. We have a 24/7 concierge service to respond to both you and your residents. Because every enquiry is important to us and life doesn't always happen in the 9-5.
   
   
2. The team at Belong pays rigorous attention to every detail. When it comes to repairs and maintenance, Belong doesn't outsource work to third-party contractors, with talented, quality-vetted Belong Pros who work to the highest standards, and document everything. 
   
   
3. The costs are transparent, with no charges for setup, lease renewal, video marketing, repairs. The list goes on.
   
   
4. Belong is tech-forward, always. We offer dedicated apps for homeowners and residents that are part of our residential network.

With all that – and more – as part of Belong’s offering, a break up with your current property manager may occur sooner than you realized. If you want to learn more,  the glorious details of why so many homeowners are finding Belong to be the property manager that lifts – and exceeds – their expectations, look no further than here.