I seem to tell this story often, so I thought I would write it down here. After the mistake with my first rental property, here’s my second mistake. Now I’m stationed in lovely Tucson Arizona having a blast. It’s 2010 and the housing market crashes. If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll observe this is a GREAT time to buy real estate, during market depreciation. I have a realtor friend of mine all lined up. I see a house I want to buy around where I used to live in Phoenix. I drive two hours there, look at it with my realtor, put an offer on it, and drive two hours back to Tuscon. I don’t get it. The next time my realtor has 7 properties for me to look at. It’s a Saturday, I drive two hours out there, look at all 7 properties, place an offer on one and drive back to Tuscon. I get it! It’s a short sale so it takes six months to close. The title company sends someone to my house in Tuscon to sign the paperwork. My realtor hooks me up with a property manager. I drive out there one more time right before closing just to make sure nothing has changed with the property. Nothing has changed and the property is mine. My realtor hands the keys to the property manager. Did I ever mention what a great realtor I have in Phoenix? If anyone’s interested in a realtor in Phoenix, pm me and I will give you her contact info. She’s the best! Back to the story. My property manager does a walk-through, gets a handyman to fix a couple of things, and within a month I have a renter. Simple…right?
Let’s do it again. The housing market is still depreciated. I place an offer on another home in Phoenix. This one has 25 beautiful pictures from the listing agent. I buy it. My realtor once again gives the keys to the property manager. The property manager has me do a little more work this time, including new carpet and interior paint. As a reminder, I already know how much it will rent for and how long it will take to get a renter before I ever place the offer on the house. In this case I should have a renter no later than 30 days from when I close. Because the housing market has crashed, everyone is losing their homes, so everyone is now renting. My what a couple of years make. 43 days after closing my realtor contacts me and asks me how it’s going. I say horrible, I can’t find a renter. She can’t believe it. She looks up my rental listing that my property manager placed on the MLS. Remember when I said there were 25 beautiful pictures of the property when I bought it? My property manager now has 4 pictures to rent out the exact same home and they’re awful. One is a picture of the community pool looking through the bars of the fence around the pool and the other is picture with the old carpet after the furniture is removed! Needless to say I’m not happy. I ask my realtor if she knows any other property managers. Remember when I said a good realtor is vital because they know EVERYONE. She does. I call the new property manager and set everything up. Now I call the current property manager and I say this is ridiculous, you’re no longer needed, and here’s the name and number of the new property manager. The two property managers worked the transfer out. Notice there wasn’t any feedback, there wasn’t a second chance, there wasn’t a list of documentation…nothing, just You’re Fired! Now, I’m not saying this is how every situation should be handled, but in this case it was necessary. If you’ve read any books on leadership including Urban Meyer’s Above the Line, you will know that it’s important to get rid of the bottom 10% to keep any organization healthy. In this case my property manager was in the bottom 10% and needed to be replaced immediately.
-Vincent Cyran