I'm asking because I want to know what MOST people really do. I had an issue with my property management company and complained for 11 months before I switched gears. I'm wondering if I'm slow or if it just takes enough harassment to push most people over the edge OR if most people just comply and move on.
OK - so I have around $1,000 set aside to market this thing. $500 for Reddit ads, $500 for Google. Instead of giving it to them, I'd rather spend it running cases through the tool for free. Better for both of us. Here's the story.
Last year, after my Dad passed away I renovated his Chicago condo (with my kids and a great guy named Joel that is a master at tiling - you can see the work on my linked TT account). I put it into an LLC and got everything together to rent it out.
I sent emails to the board asking for the rule book (now I know it's the 'Bylaws') and got nothing back.
Contacted the property managers asking for the same thing, as well as what I could expect as fees for doing all this.
The CAM told me that it would be $200 to get new tenants in.
That was it.
Got new tenants in, sent in a $200 payment, and emailed the CAM asking that the tenants be added to the Butterfly system (the company we have that does the door buzzer system).
Got a response with a link to a google sheet that i fill out myself with the tenants' info. Done.
The next day I get an automated email saying that I owed $450. Two hours later I get another email saying that I was being billed another $325. So I was being billed $775, and I still owed $575 because I already paid $200.
This was for 4 different charges: Lease Registration Fee, Lease/Move Fee, Move-In/Out Fee (which they labeled 'RE: Ownership Transfer' in the ledger - basically a death tax on my Dad. I'm not joking, that's what it was), and HOA Transfer Fee.
Keep in mind that I did everything myself: unit photos, contract creation, showing the apartment, tenant screening, etc - literally everything.
I even filled out the google sheet they sent me.
So my PMC was charging me literally $575 for them to exist.
I understand a $200 fee for any incidentals caused by my tenants moving in (which were ZERO btw) and whatever minute amount of admin work the PMC might have to do - but the additional $575 for them being "the fastest growing property management company in the midwest" - they could go fuck themselves.
So I sent them an email.
Auto-response.
Another email. Same thing.
9 more emails - nada.
I brought it up at the board meeting: "we'll look into it."
Nothing from that either.
11 months later, countless phone calls, 3 different CAMs (because the company is shit and they understaff, under resource, outsource, and automate like ass), and a lot of 'sharply worded' emails - I decided that I was going to build the biggest bazooka I could (without spending $5k on a lawyer).
At that point, it was more about 'they can take these fees and shove 'em up their asses' rather than the ass pain of paying the $575.
So I spent the last few months building a tool that I could use - and others could use too - to push back.
About a month ago I finished building it, ran my case through it (300+ emails and 400+ documents including screenshots, pdfs, etc).
The first thing it popped out was the assessment pointing out where I stood, where the PMC stood, and what docs supported my position.
The second thing it popped out was a demand letter.
I sent that in, and 9 days later $475 of the $575 were dropped. The $100 remaining is honestly unimportant.
What matters is, that I got them to drop most of the charges with a single letter.
After ~10 days I checked my ledger and there was still $250 remaining of the $475 they promised. I uploaded that to the system and it generated another email - it's the 2nd photo attached to this post.
They followed up immediately (no auto response) and it's still being worked - but once again all in all I'm happy with the results.
My neighbor is using it for a case she's dealing with (same PMC, different problem) and so far she's very happy too.
So here's the offer.
Instead of giving Reddit and Google $1,000 between them, I'd rather spend it running your Illinois HOA or condo disputes through the tool for free.
Drop a comment below if you want yours run. I'll take them as they come in. I review every output myself before it goes back to you, so whatever you get, I've seen first. If I get slammed I'll close the offer in this post."