A landlord I know hired his relative to manage his apartments for him. In addition to whatever money he paid him, he let him live in one of the apartments [free]. The arrangement worked well for a while until the man started abusing drugs. The landlord didn't take any action. How could he evict his relative even though he couldn't do the work he'd been hired to do? When the man no longer had money to buy drugs, he started working with burglars. He'd tell them which tenant wasn't in, the burglars would break in and once the stolen stuff was sold, they'd split the proceeds. The tenants [those who'd had their stuff stolen] demanded that the man be evicted since they suspected his involvement. Landlord didn't take any action. Some of tenants moved out and realizing that he'd lose a lot if he didn't evict his relative, the landlord had no option but to chuck him out. Think twice before hiring a relative to be your estate manager. Many can't be trusted.
Yeah, doing business with relatives is often a bad idea. Emotions often get in the way of sound judgement.
The mistake many people is imagine that relatives can be trusted or they won't be paid as much as a hired professional. And it turns out later that you lose more than you would have had you decided earlier to work with a professional who has been in business for a while and knows exactly how things are done. I was thinking of starting a business with a relative but I no longer think it's such a great idea.
There are such arrangements here and even without the influence of vices - drugs or alcoholism - some rental managers who are relatives really abuse the landlord, feeling that the landlord is far away and cannot do anything (no way to monitor). I am taking notes of all those situations and problems so that when it is my turn to be a landlord, I would already know how not to be problematic with tenants. And the most effective for me, as of now, is to always be diplomatic with the tenants so they will not abuse me.
Never work with relatives. It only ever leads to problems. I would have evicted this guy a long time ago, regardless of whether he was family or not. There are only so many chances you can give people.
My nephew who is based in Hongkong has arrived yesterday for a brief vacation. He has some condo units here that he rents out. And from our last conversation, he was looking for a rental manager who would oversee his properties which are located in prime areas (the rent is high). But I'm afraid that he would ask me again to handle his properties. And since I am a relative of his and that he trusts me so much, those are enough reason for me to decline. I don't see myself as overseeing his properties.
I've also experienced working with a relative and a close friend in the past, and it's not something that I'd recommend doing. If you've both got the same ideas and know what direction you ant to go in then it can work, but it can also put extra pressure on your relationship.
I always emphasize, never mix business with pleasure or leisure, something won't work out right, in this case, leisure and pleasure involves relatives and friends, its quite hard being strict with such people when they mess up, leniency takes place instead of reason and correcting the wrong that has been done.
Wow, that's unfortunate. It's always a concern when family members are employed in your business or in this case as supervisor/manager of an apartment and also a tenant. It makes it difficult for you to tell them they're not doing a good job and it's even more difficult to ask them to leave. This will make it seem as if you're not loyal to your family and prefer strangers over family. In some cases, you may even think that you are obligated to trust your family members and deal with them no matter what. It is best if you screen family and friends as best as possible, before choosing them, to prevent such occurrences.
