Sometimes You Have To Be The Squeaky Wheel

What follows is the dirty truth about property managers...

You’ve probably heard the phrase:

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

Depending on where you’re at in life, you’re either going to grin or roll your eyes when I say that.

Now if you have a sort of romantic sense of justice (which I’m ashamed to admit I indulge far too often), this doesn’t really seem fair.

But, you know, in this life (especially in the USA) do you really have the time and energy to fret about fairness?

To the point -- don’t ask, don’t receive.

So here is what we have learned about property managers after handling 1100+ units over the last few years:

No matter how much you like them, no matter how good a gut feeling you have, no matter their track record or their ability to talk a good game, and no matter how sharp their operation is presenting each and every time you step off the plane to check up on them....

If you’re not the squeakiest wheel, you’re not getting the best management for your investor’s property.

I’m face-palming as I write this, because I really love my property mangers. 

Or do I love them because I ride them hard and they come through for us?

Does it matter to you?

Anyway, as a potential investor, here’s what you need to know:

• we’re going to have serious physical presence in the submarket before we submit an offer on a deal
• after the deal closes, we’re going to be visiting AT LEAST monthly
• we have some sneaky ways to ***approximate*** real boots on the ground... such that the property managers can’t tell the difference, and act as though we live down the road

Is this sort of paranoid and manic?

Well, I do it for the cashola (yours and mine).

Omar Khan

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