Real Property Management

I had two properties managed by RPM for up to three years before switching to a different property manager (PM). In my opinion, their service was fair to poor. I?ll detail the good things and the bad things I encountered during this time. When you place a property under management with RPM, they require four copies of each key. When I moved my properties to the new PM, for one unit I received a single door key and no mail box key, while I received no keys at all for the other unit. This leads me to believe they must be very disorganized. I inquired how they did the maintenance and inspections I was charged for, and I was told that they don?t allow their maintenance personnel to enter the property When a tenant calls for maintenance the person answering the phone, does not appear to troubleshoot any property issues. I have paid trip charges and service call costs for items including: No hot water to washer, only to have the technician have to instruct the tenant that they need to leave the water on long enough so the hot water can reach the washer from the tank. Other calls included odors from the disposal, I know my disposal has an odor, and I periodically grind up a lemon or lime to address. Perhaps I was mistaken, but I had hoped that there would be a discussion to try and diagnose issues before dispatching service personnel. Over time, it appeared that RPM?s on-staff maintenance personnel had become a profit center, there were always offers to perform added cost services. Then both of my units, within a month ?required? grout replacement, I didn?t see any pictures, so I don?t really know the condition before they replaced the grout, but it seems funny that both were in need in such close proximity. Initially, there fee structure was favorable. Over time that changed, besides the industry standard 10% charge, they wanted an additional $199 to sign a lease renewal. Additionally, they charge the tenant a $75 fee to renew the lease as well. Every other property manager I have worked with includes lease renewals as part of the industry standard 10% fee, so this fee structure left me less than satisfied. There was no common originator of email addresses, half the time I would miss communications from them as they went in my junk mail, I could add staff member after staff member to my safe list, but it seemed that each communication came from another member of their staff. The best interaction I had was when the furnace in one started blowing CO2, RPM had space heaters at the property for the tenant, they had an estimate for the furnace replacement and their firm was able to replace the furnace the next day. The price was a bit high, but they were able to get the work done within 24 hours of notification of the issue. For reference, I had replaced a furnace and central air in a similar sized unit for only $500 more not 6 months earlier. The one RPM had installed was on an emergency basis, so I cut them some slack on the price. I had ask to have the bill expedited so I could have the charge in the current year, furnace failed mid December, but the billing didn?t occur until after the first of the year. I did switch property managers, and I am glad I did. I would use an RPM affiliate if I found myself in a situation where I quickly needed a property manager, and didn?t have time or contacts to locate one. At least with RPM, they do seem to have a functioning business model, that should be reproducible.