Choosing a Property Management Company and Its Maintenance Services Policy, Part III

Have you ever heard commercials on the radio where a heating and air conditioning company is offering to…

Have you ever heard commercials on the radio where a heating and air conditioning company is offering to install one air conditioning system for regular price, and install a second one for free? How can they do that? Wouldn’t it be a really bad business decision if they could not make a profit on such an arrangement? After all, they are not running a charity! Could it be that tremendous profits reside in the retail price—installed? Instead of charging you $6,000 for the unit, couldn’t they have just charged you $3,000. The answer is, probably yes.

In many cases, the corporate installer has no choice but to charge outlandish fees for their services in order to offset a tremendous business overhead. On the other hand, the small mom-and-pop operation can minimize its overhead while still providing competent service, and can, contrary to popular belief, even afford to warrant their work. While it is risky to call just any old mom-and-pop in the yellow pages, in the case of a professional property management company, such smaller dealers have earned a reputation with it, and will likely honor warranty work to maintain that valuable relationship.

So take a close look at your management statements. Observe who the property manager has been hiring to do work. If the names are well known corporate names, you might want to have a conversation with your property manager. It may well be that they have worked a special arrangement with the company—one that is truly in your best interests. But if not, and if you are really paying full market rates, you might question the benefit you are driving from the maintenance aspect of your relationship with that property manager. It may be time to make some demands on that company or look for another.

Daniel R. Wilhelm
Managing Broker
3 Options Realty, LLC.
http://www.3optionsrealty.com
678-397-1282

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