There are a number of reasons why we used licensed and insured vendors.
And here is one of them:
When Specialist Michael Sharkey was deployed to Afghanistan he left a home in Florida and asked a friend, Lisa Pettus, to keep an eye on the property.
The home needed some touch up work and Lisa hired a guy (a “friend of a friend”) to fix the place up.
Lisa bought the supplies to do the work and supervised the worker, one Julio Ortiz.
So things worked out great, right?
Well, two months later Lisa visited the home and found that Ortiz and his girlfriend broke into the property, changed the locks and began living in the home rent free!
Read the whole story here:
or here:
http://www.wfla.com/story/25297909/soldier-says-strangers-broke-into-his-home-and-wont-leave
As a professional Property Manager there are half a dozen red flags that I instantly recognized: Unlicensed vendor (and probably doesn’t have his insurance in place either to cover neglect or damage). The fact that this individual has a history of larceny AND drug abuse. And then there is the fact that the worker couldn’t procure the supplies?
Okay, lets get past the issue of using professionals to do repair work because there are some valuable resources available to Real Property Management affiliated property managers that can address other issues.
For an owner living away from a home for a number of years, these empty homes make GREAT rental homes, and we have the tools and training to find good tenants.
Further if this squatter had been approached by me and the Sheriff I promise you the occupants would have been arrested immediately, because as a professional property manager I don’t lease homes verbally! I would have pointed that out to the Sheriff and demanded to see the written lease.
Also as a licensed Real Estate agent for the state of Florida, I could have educated the Sheriff’s deputy on what is required to establish residency (and a verbal contract is not sufficient!)
This is all after the fact, but I know of a couple of good RPM franchises that could have helped Specialist Sharkey and his wife not just to professionally deal with this headache, but would have avoided this problem altogether!
RPM South Orlando is ready to fulfill your Property Management needs in Orlando as professional Property Managers so that our clients can avoid nightmares like this.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
