Not told about PM leaving

[jennyn]

I was wondering what the experienced people on this forum think about this situation.

When I bought my first and only (so far) IP, I inherited the PM and was reasonably happy with them overall. Then, in the Christmas newsletter from the agency it mentioned that my PM was leaving and that so and so was taking her place and she had experience in lots of things but it did not mention experience as a PM.

The departing PM emailed me about something I had emailed her about and never mentioned she was leaving in a few days. I've had no official notification about the change of PM and when I emailed my old PM because I didn't know she'd left the new one just said the old one had left and she was taking over.

I find it a bit strange that I haven't received any notification from my old PM that she was leaving and introducing the new one to me via email, no official notification from the agency via email and no introductory email from the new PM just saying here is my email addy, blah blah.

One out of 3 would be fine with me!

Jenny

[geoffw]

Jenny,

I've had similar situations when dealing with my account managers in my role as a contractor.

Essentially, the manager is employed by the company, and you have a relationship with the company, not the manager. The company would be quite careful to ensure that an employee does not walk away with its customer list, and would take reasonable precautions to ensure that it keeps its customers.

I believe that is quite fair and reasonable.

My wife, as a travel agent, has been asked to take client lists with her to a new agency. She does not believe that is fair.

If there are people who want to deal with her particularly, it's not that hard for customers to find where she is. But she will not take customers from one employer to another.

I had a very good relationship with one real estate agent- I was quite disappointed to find he had moved out of the industry altogether.

[PT_Bear]

We got a letter notifying us that one of our PMs was moving on and giving us the contact details of the replacement. Shortly before Christmas we sent cards to all of our PMs, and we made a point of dropping in on the new PM to introduce ourselves.

The meeting turned into an informal chat (interview) and we got a chance to outline our goals for that property. As a result she's re-negotiated an additional 12 month lease with the tenant, which will come due during the peak letting period.

Needless to say we're delighted with the new agent and we're getting excellent service from her - most likely because we made sure she knew who we were and what we wanted. If we headn't liked her, we would have changed agencies immedialtly.

[Sim]

Originally posted by geoffw
Essentially, the manager is employed by the company, and you have a relationship with the company, not the manager. The company would be quite careful to ensure that an employee does not walk away with its customer list, and would take reasonable precautions to ensure that it keeps its customers.


I agree that this is completely reasonable - and even essential for a properly managed property management company.

However, there is one assumption here which is not always valid.

Landlords almost always develop a relationship with the property manager, NOT with the property management company ! It's very much a personal thing - you are trusting this person to manage your properties the way you expect them to be managed.

This is why departing property managers tend to take some of their clients with them when they leave - I've seen it happen many times, and would have done it myself if my previous two property managers hadn't 1) retired and 2) moved into a new career. That being said, I am always willing to work with a new property manager - the company has generally looked after us, and indeed the managers have actually got better !

Except my current manager is on maternity leave and I'm not entirely happy with her replacement *whinge* - *gripe*- *complain*. I'm just going to have to spend some more time educating him on what I expect from my property manager !

I don't think it has to be this way - but my opinion is that most property management companies don't tend to be run the way they should or could be, which makes them very dependent on their individual managers. Which is always going to cause problems when one of those managers leaves. There are ways to deal with this - but that's a rather large and largely irrelevant topic !

[geoffw]

My PM got promoted out of PM- just in time. I perceived her initially as being firm- I came to see her as a dragon lady who intimidated both the landlords and the tenants.

I agree Sim about developing a relationship with the person. That's why my wife finds it reasonable to accept old customers- but not to pursue them. It would not be hard for me to find a PM who's still in the business in Canberra, I'm sure.

[Jas]

Education and communication is really the key.

one thing I like to do is email rather than phone my PM. That way, I have written down when and what I said.

Jas