Have We Been Invaded by the Body Snatchers?

When I crossed the border 9 months ago from South Carolina to Charlotte, NC, I really didn't think there would be much difference in leasing and management. I knew the laws were different, but I didn't expect what I have found.

At least 2 or 3 times per week, we get threatened in some way by the residents. It's either "I'm going to call my attorney." "I want to speak to the owner." "I'm going to sue you." "I'm going to stop paying my rent."

OMG! If they ask us for anything and we can't deliver, it's as if the world has come to an end!!

A tenant actually left a message on the emergency line and said her dishwasher wasn't working so she couldn't cook and her family couldn't eat. She needed someone to come and look at it, RIGHT NOW!

Another tenant sent 4 texts last week that her kitchen sprayer wasn't working.

This week's "The Big One" was a tenant who asked us to give him an eviction letter to try to get rent assistance due to his job loss. It's our policy not to give anyone a late letter before the 6th.

He went off on the manager so bad, she had to call the police and ban him from the office and common areas. She was scared to death!

This has actually happened before, about 4 months ago.

I don't get anything like this at my property across the state line, 15 miles away. Similar properties, too.

Is this a growing or isolated trend?

How was your week?

:ohmy:

Sandy, I am taking a wild swing in the dark here and more than likely dead wrong, but what I would look at is that somewhere in that properties management history, there was a threat made by a tenant and the management acted. The word gets around that nothing happens until you threaten and then things get done. I have seen this happen before.

I made it a point to go around and visit the people of the community and talk to them one on one. I would take their feedback and work on the easy first, so that they can see immediate results, and then I would get to the hard to do.

Email updates and follow-ups worked well and soon those threats and such turned into praise of how well they were taken care of and the property occupancy rates went up.

I am of the belief that managers need to get out and visit the residents in their areas. It does a couple of things, it lets them know the manager is concerned and it works better than town-hall meetings because town-halls is not managed right can be a feeding frenzy where the management is the main course of the day.Sure town-halls save time, but individual you can make it more personal and address specific issues.

To many managers go to their offices and only engage tenants when they come to the office and in passing. I believe a real community is where the tenants know the manager and that the manager cares about where they live and it is not just a paid position.

Always good to hear from you!

We got a phone call yesterday from someone who has a phone number close to ours. She called to tell us we needed to check our ads because she was getting so many calls, she thinks we made an error and put her phone number on some.

She said a lot of the callers don't believe her when she tells them she doesn't have anything to rent and they have called the wrong number. She's been cussed out, called a liar, etc., and she was tired of it.

She said she was from another country and has been here for about 20 years. She said people in America were "mean."

We work with a lot of international renters here in The States for the first time. I think if anyone asked them, they might also agree that Americans are mean. There seems to be so many rules and regulations they don't have in their countries.

About the similar phone number - maybe that person should develop a little speech with humor in it and then people might not get so angry. Lol