Julie contacted the tenants in the basement and explained that their lease stated that there was to be no smoking in the unit and that we'd received complaints. They were polite to Julie. However, they didn't like getting scolded and - according to the main floor tenant - started taunting her teenage son when he would come home from school. They called him a tattle tale and made him feel threatened.

It's a long story. It dragged out for weeks, but the issues escalated. Soon the two tenants were at war and Julie was receiving 20--25 calls a day. The police were called to the scene twice by the tenants on the main floor. It was a disaster. 

And as luck would have it, this was happening during Julie's final exams! Julie was pretty close to breaking down and couldn't just tell the tenants to wait a week until her tests were done--she had to deal with it!
 
Julie pretty much lost it. She's really a no nonsense kind of person and she hated dealing with other people's problems. Failing an exam would mean she'd have to repeat a course and that could mean an extension of her degree--which would be time consuming and expensive.

She was fit to be fried. And looking back, it should have been obvious to both of us that Julie was not well suited for the job. She is organized, efficient and focused. Sounds perfect for property management doesn't it? Well, not exactly. Anything that throws her off what she is working on at the present moment is an annoyance for her. She also doesn't like talking on the phone. She'd prefer never to pick up the phone at all if she could avoid it. She likes people and she likes problem solving, but she doesn't really tolerate people who are lazy or rude. Really, she has a lot of traits that make her well suited to HIRE a property manager!

To tell if you could handle the pressures and challenges of property management you'll want to do a little bit of a self assessment. We've created 8 simple questions to ask yourself to see if you think you could handle property management.

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