I turn down business. Not a lot of it, but enough that people ask me why I do it.
In property management the easy move is to say yes to everybody. More doors is more revenue, and the industry rewards growth. That is why so many companies onboard fast and then stop returning calls when a property turns out to be more than they signed up for.
We do it the other way. Before we take a property, we look at it, we read the lease, and we talk about what the owner actually wants. Sometimes the answer is that we are not the right fit, and it is better for everybody to find that out in week one instead of month eight.
Here is what usually makes us say no:
- The owner wants us to do something that crosses a legal or moral line. Fair housing, lead paint disclosures, local ordinances. We will never violate any of these for any reason.
- The house has deferred maintenance the owner is not willing to address. They want us to be the punching bag taking the complaints when they don’t want to maintain the housing.
- The owner wants us to take an action that isn’t reasonable or fair simply because they can.
- The expectations on rent aren’t based in reality so we can’t ever meet them.
None of those make somebody a bad person. They just mean we would be fighting each other for the whole engagement, and the tenant and the investment are what suffer.
What I want is boring and hard to find. I want owners who plan to hold the property, who will spend money on it when it needs it, who treat tenants like people, and who want the truth from me even when it is annoying. When those things line up, management works, and we keep properties for years instead of months.
That makes me a bit of a rebel in this business, and I am fine with that. A manager who says yes to everyone is not saying yes to you. They are saying yes to the volume.
If you are holding rental property in North Central Pennsylvania and you want a manager who will tell you the truth before you sign, reach out to One Focus Property Management. Worst case, we both find out early.
