This happened very recently. The property manager from hell thread prompted me to share it with you.
A friend of my wife complained to us recently that after 4 months they had recieved no rent from the real estate agent managing their property. In addition, she had only received 1 statement over those 4 months. She asked my wife to help out as we (she
manages our own properties.So they had a rather spiteful meeting with the property manager who gave them an invoice for another $400 citing additional unpaid expenses hence why no rental had been passed to them. Problem is the invoice was not itemised so my wife asked them to itemise it and went back and read the contract her friend had signed. It turned out that she had signed a 5 year contract and didn’t even bother to read it when she signed!
Anyhow, meeting 2 comes around and they produce an itemised invoice and a cheque for $200. An audit had revealed that ‘the computer’ got it wrong (heh operated by humans!). Problem was things were now itemised but not specific. Just dates and amounts. They were unable to explain what they were actually billing for. Plus they didn’t add up to the cheque amount!
The property manager actually walked out of this meeting – “i don’t have time for this”, and the principal of the agency kept pushing the $200 cheque in our friends face which my wife advised her not to accept.
So after another fiery meeting my wife asked them to account for every charged item and they were to meet once more. By this time she had also read the t&c’s of the contract and had found a clause that gave them grounds to get out of the mess, based on the agency failing in their duties. (ie not issuing statements, etc)
This time the agent rang my wife’s friend and requested that my wife not attend the next meeting
Perhaps this was because my wife wrote down every excuse they said to her in previous meetings right in front of them! Naturally our friend insisted my wife come along and in the end they coughed up over $800 that was owed. However even this time they still hadn’t mastered basic arithmetic and my wife’s totals, calculated in front of them were still out. In this case they accepted the cheque and a contract termination because the amount was only $40.The head office of the real estate agent (this was a large, national franchise) was appalled at how our friend was treated. My wife had talked to them in between the second and third meeting and sent them her notes up until that point.
Moral of the story?
1. Read your contract! If you don’t understand something find out – don’t just sign.
2. If your invoices are not 100% clear, hassle them until it is. It should be readable by a 6 year old.
3. Document everything. My wife built up a damning case on the incompetence of this agency that enabled them to get out of the 5 year contract.
4. There are advantages to using a national agency, as they can be very sensitive to bad publicity.
5. My wife should start up a ‘real estate agent’ management company and charge 3% of rent!cheers
EZ-Rent. The free tax and cashflow simulator for Australian property investors.
http://www.ez-rent.comThat’s a great story and yes before you sign anything you must understand what you are signing for.
Thank you for sharing the story! Your wife is tough!…lol…
Warm Regards
ChanDollars
[Keep going, you’re on your way to Frolic Freedom!]Enjoyed the story! Shocked [:0] at the disorganised PM! Hope these people found a better PM now, or is your wife managing it for them now?
good story about reading the fine print
The head office of the real estate agent (this was a large, national franchise) was appalled at how our friend was treated. My wife had talked to them in between the second and third meeting and sent them her notes up until that point.
HI, ez-rent
Which AgencY? [
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Where[]Regards
Julian[
]THERE IS ALWAYS A BETTER WAY!
Hi there,
enjoyed hearing about your wife give it to ém.I ride shot gun on my real estate agent, I just cant help it, I keep tabs on him … but it seems to work when they know that you are on the ball they seem to try alot harder.
You will be thinking this defeats the purpose of an agent, but I am still to find the perfect agent…Hi Ez-rent,
We shall now all be extremely respectful of you and your comments – just in case Mrs Ez-rent enters the fray [
]Derek
ROFL! Hey Derek, that did give me quite a chuckle. My darling wife is only 5 foot 2 and very petite, but sure packs a punch!
Julian, I’m not going to publicly name the agent sorry cos I don’t want to get sued
I worked for an ISP once, and several times we had legal threats ranging from spammers to companies who were not too amused about our users saying things they didn’t like on public forums..later
EZ-Rent. The free tax and cashflow simulator for Australian property investors.
http://www.ez-rent.comHey EZ, it’s the small ones you gotta watch out for [
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LOLCheers
MelGreat story! However, after working in property management for alittle while now, I am not at all surprised. The incompetency in some PM departments is unbelievable and quite scarey.
Agencies don’t earn much on PM commissions and therefore alot just concentrate on volume to make money and frankly it can be very difficult to maintain a very large rent roll if there are problems and if the agency doesn’t have very good, streamlined systems in place.
I would suggest everyone keep a very good eye on their statements – query everything. Make sure your tenants don’t fall behind as by the time some PM’s bother to chase them up, it can be too late. Also diarise when you think inspections are due and chaseup the agency if they are late.
Re the arrears – I like the idea of giving tenants a rebate if they keep their rent in advance – this way it is much more likely they won’t fall behind.
Insist on getting a copy of all new leases – and check them for accuracy. Also a copy of the condition report whenever a new tenant goes in.
There are some good PMs out there but I’m not sure how to tell who they are to start with. Although after afew months you will soon be able to tell and if they are good, you can relax a little and rely on them.
Ciao
Shar
manages our own properties.
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