Property management - a thankless job -
I've been doing this since 2003, and at this point, I honestly feel like I've seen just about everything. Unfortunately, instead of things getting easier with experience, it seems like they're getting worse. I know tenant issues have always been part of property management, but the level of entitlement, disrespect, and outright hostility we're dealing with these days is becoming exhausting. In my experience, suburban tenants generally aren't as difficult as urban or city tenants, but even that distinction seems to be becoming less and less meaningful. The attitudes, the confrontations, and the sheer audacity of some people are reaching a point where even I am struggling to deal with it.
We've received offers to purchase the company in the past, and I've consistently turned them down because I've invested so many years into building this business. Walking away has never been something I've seriously wanted to do. However, I'm beginning to question whether holding on is still the right decision. When you've spent more than two decades in an industry, you expect challenges, difficult situations, and the occasional unreasonable tenant. What you don't expect is to reach a point where the constant nonsense starts making you question whether it's all worth it. Every property manager, myself included, is becoming increasingly fed up with the games, the confrontations, and the unnecessary complications that certain tenants create on a regular basis.
Take access to apartments, for example. We schedule appointments to complete necessary inspections, repairs, and maintenance, only to have tenants refuse access when we arrive. In some cases, the buildings we manage have received violations from the city, and we need to address those issues within the required timeframes. Yet tenants still refuse to let our workers in. We end up having to involve attorneys and, in certain situations, the police just to gain access and get the work done. Something that should be a routine maintenance issue turns into a legal and administrative nightmare, all because someone decides they don't want to cooperate.
Then you have tenants who suddenly become legal experts whenever it suits them. They'll tell us things like, "I just spoke to my attorney, and until you fix this, I don't have to pay rent." The irony is that we have our own in-house attorney, and we're well aware of the legal procedures that need to be followed. Rather than getting drawn into an argument, we'll simply explain that if the rent is unpaid, we'll proceed with the appropriate nonpayment notice and whatever legal steps are warranted. Suddenly, the tone changes, and the tenant becomes a little more reasonable. It's amazing how quickly some people change their approach when they realize that making threats doesn't automatically put them in the right.
Another example involved a roof leak that was allowing water to enter apartments. This wasn't a cosmetic issue or something that could simply wait until the following week. It was an active problem that needed to be addressed before it caused even more damage. Yet the tenant told our worker that he wasn't permitted to work past 4 p.m. on a Friday. According to my understanding of the applicable rules, that restriction was not correct; work may be permitted during much broader hours, depending on the circumstances and applicable regulations, with different considerations for emergencies. Meanwhile, we're trying to stop a leak, protect the property, and prevent further damage, and we're being met with arbitrary demands from someone who seems more interested in dictating terms than resolving the problem.
Then there are the situations that go far beyond ordinary tenant disputes. We recently had a tenant whose apartment had sustained extensive damage, requiring a substantial amount of repair work. Given that she's in New York, removing a tenant can be an extremely difficult, lengthy, and expensive process, depending on the circumstances. It often feels as though even when a situation becomes completely unreasonable, there are very few practical options for resolving it quickly.
In this particular case, we arrived with the police, and when the tenant answered the door, she was completely naked and began screaming at everyone. The situation escalated to the point where officers restrained her in handcuffs while they waited for her to calm down. This is the kind of incident that makes you stop and wonder how property management has reached this point. We're supposed to be managing buildings, coordinating repairs, maintaining safe living conditions, and protecting the owners' investments. Instead, we're finding ourselves dealing with confrontations and situations that have absolutely nothing to do with the ordinary responsibilities of the job.
And just when you think you've heard it all, something else happens. We recently had a prospective tenant who is an attorney rewrite a legal memorandum. The landlord, desperate to secure a tenant and generate rental income because he still has a mortgage to pay, accepted the revised terms. Think about that for a moment. The landlord is under financial pressure, the prospective tenant knows the law, and the entire situation becomes another example of how difficult it can be to maintain a fair and straightforward relationship between landlords and tenants. It's hard not to feel that some people take advantage of a landlord's financial circumstances simply because they know they have the leverage to do so.
After more than 20 years in this business, I understand that not every tenant is going to be easy to deal with, and I certainly don't expect everyone to agree with every decision we make. Property management has always involved conflict, compromise, and problem-solving. That's part of the job, and I've accepted that from the beginning.
But there's a difference between dealing with legitimate concerns and constantly having to manage hostility, unreasonable demands, refusal to cooperate, threats of legal action, property damage, and confrontations that escalate completely out of proportion to the issue at hand.
The amount of time, energy, and emotional stress these situations consume is becoming difficult to justify. It's not just about the individual incidents anymore; it's the cumulative effect of dealing with one problem after another, day after day, while still being expected to keep everything running smoothly for the owners, the buildings, and the tenants who genuinely do want to do the right thing.
I've spent years building this business, and I've always taken pride in what I do. But when every property manager is reaching the same breaking point, and even someone like me, who's been doing this since 2003, is starting to question whether it's worth continuing, something is seriously wrong.
We've turned down offers to buy the company because I wasn't ready to walk away. Now, for the first time, I'm seriously reconsidering that decision. At some point, you have to ask yourself whether the business is still worth the constant stress, frustration, and aggravation, or whether it's time to step away and let someone else deal with it.
I never thought I'd reach a point where I'd seriously consider selling after putting so many years into this industry. But here we are.
Rant over.