Property Management Hell

You thought we were done with home improvements.

I haven't written about this but @ the end of July I got bad news from my friend Christine. She had been renting my condo, loved it & was going to sign another year lease however she just found out that she got a new job up north & was not going to be able to renew because she needed to find a place closer to work.

It was bad news on 2 fronts- 1. we were losing a reliable renter & 2. she would be moving out @ the end of August. This was bad because it was not long before my due date & there were things that would need to be done to clean up the condo. I had just contacted our property management in August about the new rent, the condo clean-up & how I wanted the ad to run when Christine called me & asked if she could stay another month (I had previously offered her month to month until she found a new place). The townhouse she wanted to rent in Lynnwood would not be ready until mid-September. I don't know about you guys, but as far as I know apartments are always rented by the month not week. Aren't those motels? Anyway, I said that would be great because that would give us some breathing room time wise due to the baby's impending arrival.

Now, since I haven't written about the condo I also have not written about the property management company that is supposed to be "managing" my property. There has been an ongoing battle with them re: communication & managing my property in my best interest. There have been several terse emails sent in the 10 months they have been our management company and things never seem to get better- we just keep getting new staff.

Well in early September I called Christine (after I left a message with our property manager the previous week) because we had not received our rent check. That was odd because Christine always paid her rent early. I wasn't sure if there was an issue w/the Labor Day holiday, if Christine paid it later than normal or if she was still living there even. I had not heard back from Christine nor the property management co. if she was going to stay in September. The phone call was very enlightening with Christine. She did clear up that her rent check was mailed & cashed (we actually received it the next day). That was good news. The bad news was Christine had also called the management company & still had not received her call back. This made me pretty mad. I also found out that Christine pro-rated her rent because she was moving out on the 18th!! Hmmmm I did not authorize this. I was a bit confused but Christine had been a good tenant so I figured what is done is done & I will have a word with property management. I felt had they been doing their job they could have cleared this up & let Christine know that this is not how apartment rental goes.

That week I wrote a very angry email to our property manager but I really didn't want to deal with any of this. I was very close to my due date, already disappointed we had not had the baby & knew we were going to have to do something to get this condo ready for rental. How? When? Who? Well Christine moved out the day after my due date, what an awful time. This gave us no breathing room & had I known I would not have OK'd her staying longer because we could have used that time in early September to get the condo in shape. After my angry email, property management wrote back, apologized, assured me they would make an appt w/Christine to do the final walk through etc. Well Christine called me on the 18th, wanted to drop off the keys to me because she called property management on Monday & they still had not called her back & guess who told Christine to prorate her rent...the property management company I hired!!!! Unbelievable. A very emotional, very pregnant woman does not to be dealing with this!! I told Christine to mail the keys to property management & I would call them. So now she's out.

We went by the condo last night because we have to get going on this so the condo will be available for renting in October. The place didn't look bad- we are repainting the bedroom (I let Christine paint it) & putting new carpet in. Little clean up & the place will be back to it's shining glory. We went to Home Depot, got paint, primer & ordered carpet last night. I had to change the carpet selection because if I did not get the stuff on special we would have to wait 3 weeks!!!! That would really not work w/the early October timeline. Ok that was all done. Mike went to the condo this morning to prime the walls & ceiling. I got a call from Mike a couple hours later & he was having problems primeing the ceiling & he broke the paintbrush (thus resulting in a skunk stripe on the back of his head). He wanted to buy a sprayer.

I'll end this story here. I will say Mike has not bought a sprayer, the condo is still not primed @ this time & my husband will be spending his free time primeing & painting.

I'm sure to go into labor now, right?