Ronald just purchased a 40 unit apartment property, built in 1980 in southern Pennsylvania.

It gets so hot in this part of Pennsylvania that all units have air conditioning and of course brick clad exterior to keep it cool inside. The property features all electric utilities, cable TV, one large laundry room and a swimming pool.

Ronald had some problems:

First of all he was so concerned about vacancies that he did not screen his tenants very well. His tenants included legal and illegal tenants. Many of his tenants were cooks, working at the local restaurants, or at one of the stores in town. Many of the couples in the property both worked. These tenants moved in for 6 months and then left.

They took no personal interest in the units and let the units become filthy, because they did not own a vacuum cleaner. Yes, trash was taken out, but due to the filth, the carpets lasted two years instead of five or seven. The tenants loved fatty food and poured the grease down the drains. His bills for roto-rootering were enormous. As a matter of fact, he had his onsite manager buy a 100 foot snake to save service calls from the plumbers.

Then of course you guessed it: he did not know how to use the tool and punctured holes into the plumbing and destroyed the main sewer line, adding up to another $10,000 in bills.

The rooter was thrown out.

The next problem was air conditioners breaking down all of the time. He had a contract with the local HVAC Company. It sometimes seemed that he was their only customer.

Then the pool inspector came out. He noted that the chlorinator was broken and needed to be re-plastered. He shut down the pool.

Ronald decided to fill the pool in with sand and rocks and wood shavings and then put a play ground on top.

In the mean time the winter came and in the first rain storm created roof leaks which led to dampness and moldy conditions. The drains in the parking lot had not been cleaned and backed up, creating large ponds. Tenants complained they could not get to their cars to go shopping or go to work. Then tenants started moving out because they were tired of getting wet and having their property ruined.

In the units, the bathroom floors were suffering from dry-rot because the tenants did not install shower curtains in the bathrooms, as they were asked to do. At the same time all of the winter dampness was creating a situation that allowed the dry-rot to flourish on the decks.

Ronald was at his wits end, fifteen of his units were now uninhabitable, he did not have the cash to make the repairs and the bank was about to call in his loan.

This could have been prevented if he inspected the property and the units on a regular basis, developed a preventative maintenance program, trained his onsite manager in maintenance skills and completed a thorough inspection of the property before he bought it.

Maintenance work completed by experienced professionals

Maintenance is one of those items that many property owners think they can do by themselves. On the other hand, if maintenance is not done correctly the first time then it will create more problems in the future including redoing the work more than once. Cutting corners does not pay.

If Ronald could start over he would have inspected the property before he bought it. Developed a preventative maintenance plan (as a result of the information he obtained from his inspection). He would have screened the tenants better, and trained the onsite manager better. He may have even hired a Property Management company.

In any case, he would have inspected the units on at least an annual basis and most likely installed shower curtains or shower doors.

Clearly, he mismanaged the property. This could happen to you, take the steps to protect your investment. Otherwise you could lose everything.