Monthly Archives: May 2013

Yes!  Yes!  Yes!

I’m going to say it again and again and again until people start listening.  In the state of Missouri your property manager is supposed to have a real estate license…it’s required.

Once again I know of a situation because someone was crying on my shoulder about how their property manager took their money and now they cannot find them.  Shockingly, this Missouri property manager was not licensed and so they didn’t have their checking account registered with the State of Missouri.  The truly sad thing is that tenants don’t know to ask and seldom to even rental property owners ask.  Even sadder is that a great many of the property managers operating in Missouri don’t even know the truth and argue in earnest that they do not need a real estate license!!!

I guess ignorance must be bliss.  Well, until someone loses big.

I the State of Missouri to be a legal property manager you must have a real estate license and operate under a broker.  See here and here.  Don’t want to read through all the rules but want to verify?  Just call the Missouri Real Estate Commission at 573.751.2628.

Note:  In Kansas a property manager for residential property need not be licensed.

I got a call today from the former tenant of a property we just took over from another property manager.  Seems the property manager had been getting slower and slower on paying the property owner and was now two months behind paying the property owner his proceeds.  The former tenant (when we took the rental house over it was in good repair and clean) had just vacated the property when we acquired the house to manage.

She was calling to say how frustrated she was because she had super cleaned the home (and I would agree) in hopes of receiving her deposit back.  She had even had a final walk thru with the property manager and he promised her the money but “didn’t have his check book” at that time.

It’s a couple weeks later and now the manager isn’t returning her calls.  Neither is their leasing agent.  And now she hears me telling her that they weren’t legal managers anyway because they were not licensed real estate agents and that is a requirement in Missouri.

Checking to see if the property is something you like is important.  But knowing who and where your money will be held is equally important.  My guess is she’ll not see that money again.  And neither will the owner of that property.

Maintenance of a home that is occupied by people that do not have a vested interested in the long term care of the home (renters) is something that must be kept up on or the value of the rental property (and the neighborhood?) will soon deteriorate to a very expensive proposition down the road.  Is it easier to fix a little wood rot and keep the place painted now or tons of wood rot and paint later?

Some deferred maintenance is acceptable.  If the windows work but they leak a little, fine.  You can replace those when it’s time to sell.  A furnace that is inefficient can also be deferred…until it becomes a safety issue and then it needs to be replaced immediately.

Keep up on the property’s maintenance.  You’ll be glad you did 6-8 years later.