How Property Management is Depicted in TV and Literature…..
I’ve just finished Sue Grafton’s T is for Trespass ….heroine Kinsey Millhone, sometime CA PI/process server/insurance investigator does some work for a landlord serving 3-pay or quit notices and after serving some delinquent tenants, she gets a call from the landlord advising her that the neighbor of the deadbeats has reported the residents appear to be leaving and he has to go to San Francisco. He asks Kinsey to arrange to do the CA mandated check-out inspection ….Kinsey responds “Look, Richard, I’m happy to help you out, but I’m not in the property management business. You should really hire a professional to handle things like this.”
Landlord Richard responds “I could, kiddo, but you’re much cheaper. A management company would take ten percent of the gross”.
I won’t spoil the rest of the story, suffice it to say, 10% is CHEAP for what the landlord has to ultimately lay out.
On The Real Housewives of Orange County this week, Jeanna and Vicki will argue about the delinquent tenant Jeanna put into Vicki’s rental property. Both of these women are successful business women * Vicki has made millions in the insurance business and Jeanna is a Re/Max Top Producer and owner of several rental homes in upscale Coto in the OC.
While these storylines make good TV DRAMA and ENTERTAINING READING, they send the wrong message to the public regarding our profession. When the emphasis is on the COST of professional property management and not the VALUE ADDED aspects that a professional property manager bring to their clients and residents in the equation, we all loose in the depiction…..and in this economy, many absentee-landlords as well as investor rental property owners need professional property managers with the skills, tools and expertise to aid them in managing their investments.
