“A funny thing happened…”
My phone rang the other day, and a pleasant guy greeted me by name and told me that he needed our bank account details. He explained that he was in the bank and about to pay his bond and four weeks rent in advance to our trust account. Now this happens regularly. It didn’t seem unusual, so I dug the information he needed from my portfolio (I was in the car at the time) and read him the details over the phone.
When I asked him which property this bond and rent was for, he gave me an address I didn’t recognize. I asked him if he was sure the address was correct, and he said yes. He even told me that he had my card and that I was the property manager for that address.
Surprising
Well, that was a surprise as I’m not the manager of that property, and I told him he must be mistaken. He apologized, said that he had a couple of other property manager cards with him and that he would try them instead…..!!
Gasp! What a way to operate. That little encounter tells me yet again that there are property managers and landlords out there signing up tenants but failing to communicate clearly with them. This leaves the tenant having to guess what to do next. More importantly, some poor owner has entrusted their freshly signed up tenant to hand over a substantial sum of money without giving them enough information to pay it to the right person!
Definitely a strong case for have someone manage your property who actually knows what they’re doing!!
