Working on rentals

[DanaMac]

How many of you do repair work for rental properties? Not apartments, but single family homes that are are rented out. Either through a rental agency or a private party who may have a few properties. I HATE THESE!! They give me nothing but headaches. I just refunded a person $70 for a repair that my tech or I have been to 3 times for. Tenants either have no clue or want it perfect and most the systems at rental properties were not installed great to begin with. I just want them out of my hair. Told them to find someone else.

I use to take care of appx. 100 homes for Century 21. Try getting 100 tenants to take time off work to meet you when it is not their house. And of course they won't take care of turning it off when it gets cold, so I had to wait as long as possible to turn on and then turn off early. Then they would cry about My lawn is dead!! And the systems were generally ****. I found one that would meet my standards. And I gave them a reduced rate due to high number of homes. The last straw was one fall they called and said the heating and air company would turn off the systems for $30 less per than I would. I asked if they were blowing out also. "umm, I don't know". Well I wouldn't budge. Lost the homes but gained some peace. Then early November the company calls, " Can I grovel Dana? We have systems frozen and water spraying all over." I basically told them to go to Hell. I wouldn't have gone back for double the $$$.

Sorry I had to vent.

[gusbuster]

This type of service can be profitable. Between my uncle's company and my self, we take care of over 10 different property management companies.

I do agree with you that the tenants can be you know what. I refuse to deal with tenants; I only deal with the managers or their associates. Same with my uncle. It stops the BS of working on a tenant’s time rather than standard business hours

I think you need to make this clear with the property management companies. Second, what the heck is a tenant paying you instead of the property management.

John

[DanaMac]

Tenant didn't pay me. It is run by the private owner and she paid me.

[SprinklerGuy]

Dana

We work or quite a few PM companies also. We do the same though, either the manager meets us or we go without anyone meeting us. But....that being said, all the timers in Arizona are outside. Backflows are too!!! Don't know how I would handle your situation, sounds like you did what I would have. I just hate to let work disappear if I can help it.


Is it possible to insist that the PM company meet you in person?

[JR LeGer]

We do a lot of work for management companies as well. I don't deal with tenants at all. Never. The ladies at the management company are a headache and very rude so we make sure they never get any type of discount whatsover.

I also happen to know that they need us a lot more than we need them. There are a lot of people around here who do shoddy work to say the least. I can tell that they have used a lot of unknowledgable people because almost evry home I have ever seen managed by this company has more problems and bad work than any other places we have come across. The problem with these types of management comapneis that only do homes is that they are usually disorganized and work on a small budget. they usually have a small amount they can spend on behalf of the owner for troubleshooting or maintenance or whatever. I have learned that if you give them an inch they will take about 100 miles and that is why we don't budge.