What a loaded question... There are a lot of "fakers" in the real estate sales and property management industries, so, doing your due diligence is absolutely vital. Also, your PM is the most vital person on your team when it comes to managing a successful portfolio. Here are just a few flags:
- Working Part Time. They will be unable to provide the proper customer service to you and your tenants.
- Has little experience. They won't be able to handle situations properly and you will be the experiment.
- Doesn't own investment properties. Zig Ziggler always talked about owning the product you are selling. If you don't believe in it enough to own it than you are a "faker"
- Poor or low amount of reviews. Getting poor reviews in property management is very easy as it is just the nature of the business when evicting tenants or putting them in collections. Getting good reviews shows to counter those is very difficult and really shows the true nature of the PM.
- Not being able to provide a thorough explanations of ANY portion of the business processes - evictions, maintenance, collections. If they can't explain it then there isn't a systems and there will be failures.
- Hidden fees. There are so many hidden fees that can be charged. Know what they are and when they are charged as it helps to compare Apple to Apples
- If they are willing to drop their commissions without hesitation. This shows desperation. It is ok to negotiate and for a PM to value a portfolio but be weary of PM's that drop their draws too quickly and without real reason.
- The list goes on and on...