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The property management business is a really good idea for someone who wants to make a decent income without taking too many risks.

My foray into property management was purely by chance. I had about 15 flats in Dundee and employed a full time handy man to collect rents and sort out any minor repairs.

My friend Chris knew that my properties were well managed and he asked if I would look after his mother’s flats. I knew that she was not well and because of her health, in the last year half her flats had lain empty. I reluctantly agreed and started renting out her properties.

I managed to get her occupancy up to over 90%. My charging structure was very simple as I kept 10% of her rent and she also paid all costs. She was delighted with my service and told her friends who approached me to do the same for them. Being busy but not wanting to say no straight away I offered to provide the same service but at 15% of the monthly rent. To my surprise they agreed.

Word of mouth got around and soon I had to start turning people away as I was far too busy managing my packaging company to do property management full time! Had this business not been doing well I could easily have started managing properties full time.

I even managed to buy a couple of apartments at knock down prices when one of my clients wanted a quick sale after his tenants left. They offered me the properties for the same price they had bought them for a couple of years ago.

I knew the market had risen substantially since then and bought them straight away. I spent a couple of weeks doing them up and had them rented out in no time. When property prices started rising strongly I sold both of them, making decent money only to miss out on the real boom in prices!

If you have time on your hands why not consider managing other people’s properties? Be warned though that you are on call 24/7 if an emergency happens at any of the properties.

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Can I take my property management to court for negligence?
My property management placed a lockbox on my rental property to have her "maintenace" vendor go in to touch up paint & repair an area. She calls to tell me that my appliances have been stolen & the "maintenance" guy is denying anything. No forced entry. After about a week or so, she says that her vendor is willing to pay a certain amount for replacement of the appliances. Meantime, I have purchased them, & I have still lost about $600 due to her negligence. I am asking her to pay the rest. If she refuses, can I take her to court? I am from out of state & I expect her to take care of my property. Just last month, she cost me additional monies from repair issue. I also want to fire her, but her agreement shows that should I terminate services, I have to pay all remaining monthly fees until leases on the properties end. But, because of this case – negligence, can I get out of it without her charging me? Thanks for any advise.
Thanks for the response. I did not know the property management places lock boxes for when she has them repair or fix issues. It is common sense to be onsite to allow maintenance person in the home, whether it's the tenant or property manager & give a "key to the candy store". I had to purchase the appliances ASAP because a tenant just moved-in!
I was not aware nor signed anything about lock boxes for repairs being done to the properties WITHOUT the property management being present. Hence, why I feel her "vendor" is responsible; she said he was the only one with the code to the lock box & if doesn't pay for all, then she is reponsible. It's been a week & she wasn't even going to file a police report…I had to tell her to go do it & haven't even received copies of it! It just seems that I do a lot of work. What gets me is that she is a broker/realtor, it's her business, & she seems clueless with her job.
Ms. V.- to answer your question..she said she received a call from the "maintenance" guy saying they were gone. She DID NOT do a walk-through with the last tenant. We went to check out the place to make sure it was left OK & it was filthy! I had to call her & she had not even been to the property! I insisted on making sure all the cleaning, carpet cleaning & fixing the wall had to be fixed & taken out of the deposit of the previous tenant. I did sign for lock box to be placed on my properties.
Correction. I did NOT sign authorization for a lock box.