Last week I had posted about my neighbors who are trying to rent out their house with one of the largest property management companies in Phoenix.  I had been seeing people come to look at the house, they weren’t able to get the lockbox open, and they would leave frustrated.  I was mystified why these people were showing up without a management representative there to show and sell the merits of the house to them.  They were given the lockbox code and could have stolen the appliances, damaged the house, or easily taken up residence.  This happens around here a lot!  I also noticed that the management company never even listed the house on the MLS like they said they would, and the only place it was advertised was on their own website.  The listing on their site was a measely one-photo 10-word poorly written ad.  The efforts were pathetic all around considering the money they were paid to service their client.

Yesterday my neighbors came to the house and so I went over and talked them about how things were going.  It turns out they had never once heard from the management company ever since they hired them.  They had placed many calls and none of them were ever returned.  Three times they drove to the management office and talked to whoever was in the office, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.  What they did manage to find out was that they do in fact give out the lockbox code to anyone who calls and asks for it.  They don’t follow up with any of these people to find out if they liked it, want to rent it, need to negotiate the rent/terms, etc.  No follow up!  And the area manager for this part of town has been put on administrative leave for poor performance and nobody was handling his accounts.

The story gets more pathetic the more I learn.  This is one of the largest firms in Phoenix.  They pay for big-spread advertising in the investment magazines.  It all looks good on paper but there is definitely more to it than meets the eye.  Buyer beware!  Can’t wait to meet my new neighbors and hear how the experience with this company was from their perspective.

This is why you need to be educated about property management even if you don’t plan to manage your properties.  You have to be able to ask the right questions, make observations, and know if you have a bad company or a good one.  www.landlordsystem.com teaches you this and more.  Armed with education, you will improve your profits, guaranteed!