grrrr my PM

[TMNT]

This is my rant, no names

ive got a few properties managed by this one agency,

competency wise, the PM is fine, does all reports, finding tenants, maintenance requests are reasoanble,

BUT, communication is terrible, to the point that I think Im getting ignored,

sometimes 10 emails are all ignored, call backs are not done, PM is rarelt avaialbe to talk to me (im not a difficult customer). I am aware that they are being read because one of these 10 emails was quite important, which I basically said, please ackowneldege receipt, and I got a 'received ' email

the problem is that its a hard area to rent, other agencies either wont do it, or cant find a tenant,

I questioned a tradie invoice recommended by them which was ridiculous 6 months ago, PM claims they sent an email asking to explain themselves

ive followed it up a few times but either ignoring my emails or wont return my calls,

my latest one is that my council rates for some reason didnt arrive at my address, and were taken out of my rent, I emailed thorugh, and got a response that didnt make much sense so I replied to an explanation, ignored
phone msg ignored

call council and they said that there was a request to fwd council rates to their office which I didnt do, so I redirected it to myself

What would you do?
I would change if there was heaps of options, but I dont want to shoot myself in the foot either

I find the behaviour to be unacceptable

 

[D.T.]

Sounds unacceptable to me. In both my PM and IT backgrounds there was always SLA times on responding to people. Eg 30 minutes for critical stuff, a few hours for normal stuff or a day for casual stuff.

You could try CC'ing in their boss if you know who it is and also calling to ensure they've received it. This usually kicks them into action.

 

[Salvatore1]

Are you close by to them? Pay them a visit and sit in the foyer until they see you!

 

[Hulkster]

This is my rant, no names


sometimes 10 emails are all ignored, call backs are not done, PM is rarelt avaialbe to talk to me (im not a difficult customer).

I lol'd a little. Sounds like a lot of contact, maybe they perceive you to be a difficult customer by virtue of the amount of contact ;-)

 

[EN710]

Sounds like my previous PM. They're ok when there are no issues, but when there are issues I need to keep following up.

I lol'd a little. Sounds like a lot of contact, maybe they perceive you to be a difficult customer by virtue of the amount of contact ;-)

Guilty of this
The problem is, if the PM does not set expectation on when they can reply, then I assume they haven't receive it if I haven't heard back in 48 hours. In my profession, I actually replies within 24 hours. So I have expectation that they will be the same!

 

[onetwothreefour]

My previous PM was worse. So incompetence, never replied my emails, returned phone calls, chase tenants, organised repairs or clean up.

She was so bad............................I will post my experience with her in other post.

 

[TMNT]

I lol'd a little. Sounds like a lot of contact, maybe they perceive you to be a difficult customer by virtue of the amount of contact ;-)

I dont bombard people or busiensses with multiple unecessary emails,

however, I do take offence when an email clearly asking for a response such 'can you please give me an update of when the tenant is moving in' is ignored

 

[Allgood]

A mob that manage one of our IPs in Canberra are shocking at the finer details. Every time I ring I get someone new so emails rarely get addressed. It does my head in and everytime it happens I think I'll change agencies when the tenant moves out - It's been 8 years and they're still there!

Maybe a high turnover of PMs in the agency is your issue here? I feel your pain

Allgood

 

[TMNT]

A mob that manage one of our IPs in Canberra are shocking at the finer details. Every time I ring I get someone new so emails rarely get addressed. It does my head in and everytime it happens I think I'll change agencies when the tenant moves out - It's been 8 years and they're still there!

Maybe a high turnover of PMs in the agency is your issue here? I feel your pain

Allgood

heya, its not a an agency issue, its the actual same person that im dealing with, they ignored my last email about rates address change, I left a msg with the receptionist friday, and still no call back

 

[JameZ]

heya, its not a an agency issue, its the actual same person that im dealing with, they ignored my last email about rates address change, I left a msg with the receptionist friday, and still no call back

Like the previous poster said, find out who runs the joint and give them some feedback on how the PM is wrecking the reputation of his agency.

 

[TMNT]

Like the previous poster said, find out who runs the joint and give them some feedback on how the PM is wrecking the reputation of his agency.

yes I might do that, good idea,

I am pretty sure they arent the owner or partner, but one thing for sure is that they are very experienced

Im pretty sure im going to get some justification for their behaviour.

 

[JameZ]

yes I might do that, good idea,

I am pretty sure they arent the owner or partner, but one thing for sure is that they are very experienced

Im pretty sure im going to get some justification for their behaviour.

Just speculating, but I reckon it could be the PM is overloaded with clients, he may have upwards of 300-400 properties to look after, and probably has a backlog of issues to sort though.

Either that or he is on a beach in Mexico somewhere and just forgot to tell you

 

[Rudugger]

Hi All,

PM overload in residential agency is a major problem. From my experience Pm's tend to be expected to take 200 tenancies as a norm. Even more if it's just one or two buildings ie. apartment towers etc.

If you break it down time wise that's 200 tenancies over 250 working days of the year, which is really only 8 hrs per day or 2000 hrs per year and the property manager can provide each tenancy 10 hours of time per year!

If they do their job properly each inspection should be approximately 1 hr depending on travel times and size of premises.
That leaves 8 hrs for the remainder of the year.

The above notwithstanding, TMNT, the PM you have engaged is probably avoiding you, call the office and ask to speak to the principle agent or officer in effective control and brief them on your issues.

 

[D.T.]

Rudugger

I dont think your maths on hours per property is fair, for 3 reasons

1) You're dividing it up into 40hr work week but many have to attend to tenant issues or hold home opens etc after hours or on weekends. Higher ups in the business likely work on the business itself (processes/systems) after hours and on weekends which benefits all their properties equally.

2) You're using a properties per PM figure which is meaningless without context to that figure eg efficiency, skills, admin / assistant staff. One PM could manage 40 properties and be bad and another could manage 300 if appropriate systems/processes and assistance was in place.

3) You're including travel time to and from inspections in your formula but if you were half organised you'd line up close by properties to be on the same day.