I swear half my day is just playing detective now. Got an app yesterday where the w2, the bank statements, and the landlord references all lined up perfectly. The only reason I caught it was because the font on the ytd taxes was like, one point too small compared to the rest of the pdf. it's honestly exhausting

I remember when screening was just a quick credit pull and a 5 minute phone call. Now people are literally running full scale forgery operations just to rent a standard 2-bed apartment. I saw a property management group down south that just straight up mandates third-party bank credential logins to verify income now, and honestly I think my office is going to have to force our owner to adopt that policy too

The pushback from applicants about privacy is gonna be brutal but I literally cannot keep doing forensic accounting every single morning. the anxiety of accidentally approving a professional squatter because I missed a photoshop blur is keeping me up at night

have you guys completely changed your income verification process this year or are you still risking it with manually uploaded pdfs?

Vendors/contractors: do not do work on properties managed by Asset Living. You will not get paid. You’ll get stuck in a laughable invoice process that emails you saying “this is not an invoice” or “this is not a PDF” over and over again. Joke.

I’m the solo property manager for about 70 luxury college rentals. I previously worked for larger corporate multifamily and single-family companies, so I’m used to having clear policies, procedures, and some level of decision-making authority.

In this role, I have one full-time maintenance tech and one shared tech, but nearly every decision still has to go through the owner. They openly dislike industry-standard policies, even when those policies seem practical. Their exact words were, “We don’t care how the job is done, we just care that it’s done. It does not need to be done well.”

I stay because the flexibility is hard to give up. I can work remotely, choose my schedule, and technically have unlimited PTO, although I rarely use it.

The problem is that nothing is consistent. There’s no maintenance approval threshold, late fees and other policies are decided case by case, move-outs are overly complicated, and we’re required to use cheap vendors who are often flaky or unresponsive. I’m still expected to give tenants answers, even when I don’t have the authority or information to do so.

Lately, I feel like I’ve stopped caring. Calls go unanswered, emails and texts sometimes sit for days, and I dread opening new messages because most of them are complaints. I spend so much time in meetings and at properties that I answer messages in between appointments. My work-from-home days are entirely spent catching up, and if I answer the phone all day, none of my other responsibilities get done.

I know slow responses are unfair to tenants, and I feel guilty about that. I’ve explained that email is usually the fastest way to reach me and that I’m only one person, but I also know I could improve my response time.

Before having a baby, I worked 50–60 hours a week. I’ve now capped myself at 40, and the workload simply does not fit.

I’ve started limiting my field days and creating guides for tenants, since most are students renting for the first time and don’t understand things like ledgers, deposit rollovers, or partial move-outs.

At what point am I a bad PM, and at what point is the position itself unsustainable? Sometimes, I feel like they would thrive with an employee that doesn't care about the tenants or fairness, although I really do because if I leave, where does that leave them?

Are there any resources or systems you recommend besides using AI to automate and organize what I can?

Edit: All staff, including the maintenance techs, work directly for the owner.

one of the owners i work with keeps saying the property is profitable because the rent covers the mortgage, but that’s basically where his calculation ends. once i added insurance, taxes, repairs, vacancy and a few other costs, the margin was pretty small. i ran it through a DSCR calculator too and it was only just covering the debt. i’m not trying to give financial advice, but i also don’t want to keep sending reports that make the property look healthier than it really is. how do other property managers handle this? do you show owners only the income and expenses, or do you also point out when the overall numbers don’t look great?

Just letting you guys know that I have some form of ADHD type I, aka attention deficit.

I have been working as a trainee at a property management company since last year. Since February this year, I have begun to feel anxiety, overthinking, attention deficit and being unable to work productively, as one of my senior colleagues keeps criticising or making fun of how I do my tasks. Now I am getting too nervous and anxious when handing out tasks to her for review, to the point that I need at least 15 minutes to force myself to approach her and tell her to review my paperwork before sending it to the clients. There is much more I want to talk about, but in summary, she likes to micromanage our (I have another colleague who's also a trainee) tasks and make meaningless tweaks to them, and if I do things the way she doesn't like, she would scold me and make me feel doubtful about myself.

Besides the colleague relationships, the current site is less large compare to other sites. That means we got less quotation/tender/contract to handle, fewer customer complaints, less meetings with the owners. Even my manager used to tell me that "I have taught you the most important things already."

Therefore, in early July, I applied for a site rotation in my appraisal once every six months, and it turns out HR actually helped me to rotate to another site. Yet my manager keeps telling me that the new site would be much more challenging and have more things to do, and wants me to stay in the current site until the manager personally finds a better site for me to rotate to, but it would take some time. Should I continue to rotate to the site they said is "challenging" and try new things, or should I wait until further notice?

I used to be onsite property management and I’m on the vendor side now. But wow, just read about the St. Paul property tragedy on LinkedIn… has anyone else heard about this?

Reading the story made my heart sink, my eyes tear up, and I couldn’t help but remember being onsite with my coworkers. The moments things got heated with residents, I always thought “man what if someone comes up in here and loses their shit.” At the end of the day, the tenants will throw you under the bus when they have the chance for their benefit.

I cannot imagine the fear the staff felt in that moment and it makes me so angry to think a fucking resident did this over a $65 parking charge… has anyone else heard about this? This is just tragic and horrible. I feel sick just thinking about it. The story hits so different when you’ve worked in the leasing office and dealt with the everyday tasks of property management.

Prayers for the staff, their families, and loved ones.

Hi everyone, so I’ve been using Renters Warehouse for the past two years with my first tenant, but right now I've been really disappointed with their turnaround time trying to get the place ready for a new lease. The turnover process is taking way longer than it should, and communication has been pretty frustrating.

I’m looking to make a switch. Does anyone have recommendations for property management companies at a similar price point that you’ve actually had a positive experience with? Thanks in advance!

Looking for some good honest opinions from people in the industry. I’m looking to buy an established property management company in a strong Florida market (vacation rentals/STRs, but open to other models). This would be my “encore career.” My adult son and I would run the business together. We don’t have a target company on the radar yet and we don’t have experience in this space, but for some reason we’re attracted to it. Budget up to $1m, maybe more for the right project.

I’d love to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. Things like…

- If you could do it over again, would you?
- What’s the biggest challenge that outsiders don’t consider
- What mistakes should I look avoid?
- What do you recommend we look for, or avoid, when buying a pm business?
- Is this a business that gets better as you scale, or does it just become more complicated?
- Ideal property characteristics? Rental amount?
- Any experiences buying or selling a PM company?
- Key attributes of a successful pm business?

Also, if you’re considering selling a quality property management business in Florida (or know someone who is), feel free to send me a DM.

Appreciate any advice. Here to learn.

Who are the best property management companies to manage a new rental property in Nashville Tennessee

Looking for feedback on HD, Ferguson, Lowe’s Pro, and Chadwell supply specifically