Today we were forced to give an owner 60 days notice to terminate. Our property management agreement gives us that ability, and it gives the owner that same ability. If the relationship isn’t working for the owner, we don’t want them stuck with our company. And if the relationship isn’t working for us, we don’t want to be stuck with a difficult owner either.
So what happened? The owner is stunned. She’s genuinely put off that we would possibly terminate her. But here’s the situation: she decided to use an attorney to engage with our property management company — and not in a friendly, cooperative way.
When Your First Move Is a Threat
The attorney came in swinging. He wanted us to produce all tenant communications — not for any specific reason, just wanted them. He wanted repeated audits. He was setting deadlines. He listed out the legal ramifications if we didn’t respond exactly the way he wanted us to respond.
The first inquiry was a threat.
If the owner had just reached out and said, “Hey, I’m working with an attorney on this property, can you get us this, this, and this?” — we would’ve responded, no problem. We manage properties for real estate attorneys, senators, and judges. I have no prejudice against attorneys as clients. We’ve never had a complaint or problem with any of them.
The problem here wasn’t the attorney. It was the aggressive, hostile, bullying approach right out of the gate — while she was still a client asking to remain a client.
Why Property Management Companies Fire Hostile Owners Fast
Two reasons a property manager is going to walk away from this kind of relationship:
1. Wear and tear on the company
Our owners love us. We have great relationships with them. Having an adversarial relationship with an owner is genuinely unusual for us — it just doesn’t happen. And no property management company owner wants to put their staff through the grinder of dealing with a hostile client. It’s exhausting, and it doesn’t make sense.
2. Liability
Property management companies are constantly, relentlessly liability-averse. We’re always working to reduce owner liability with tenants, making sure contractors are properly insured, doing everything we can to avoid exposure. That’s our job, and we’re doing it for our brokerage too.
So when an owner is this litigious while still trying to be a client — what happens the moment there’s an actual question or disagreement? At what point does she sue us? A property management company sees that hostile posture and correctly reads it as future liability.
The Industry Fires Faster Than You Think
I’m in mastermind groups with thousands of other property managers around the country. A lot of these companies proactively drop their worst 10 properties every quarter. They just look at the bottom performers and fire automatically.
We don’t do that. We won’t get rid of a decent owner just because the property happens to be a lemon. That’s not the vibe I want for our company. But I’ll tell you — most companies fire very quickly. And a lot of property managers won’t even take on attorney-owners as clients in the first place. Attorneys aren’t a protected class, so it’s legal to decline.
I still take attorneys as clients. That’s not the issue. The issue is how you engage.
What This Means for Rental Property Owners
You don’t need to walk on eggshells with your property manager. That’s not what I’m saying. A good property management relationship is a partnership, and you should absolutely be able to ask questions, request reports, and hold your manager accountable.
But think twice before you decide to have an attorney aggressively handle all your affairs with the property management company. If your first move is threats and deadlines and “here are the legal ramifications,” you’re going to burn the relationship before it starts — or in this case, get terminated from an existing one.
The owner here somehow thinks she’s going to get better service through threats and hostility. She won’t. The top-tier property management companies aren’t going to tolerate it. They’ll cut you loose and move on to the dozens of good owners who are easy to work with.
The Takeaway
If you want a strong, productive relationship with your property manager:
- Lead with a friendly, direct request — not a demand backed by legal threats
- If you need an attorney involved, have them engage professionally, not aggressively
- Understand that property managers are liability-averse by nature and design
- Remember: your property manager can fire you just as easily as you can fire them
Anyways, what do I know? I’m just a humble Philadelphia property management company owner doing my best to answer your rental property investing questions.
As always, happy rental property investing.
