Cash flow looked fine until I actually read the property-level P&Ls side by side
Had a 14-unit in Lakeland and a 22-unit in Kissimmee running under the same third-party manager, same agreement, fee was 6% on collected rents at both. I got one consolidated report every month that showed combined NOI and I watched it for about eight months before I pulled the individual statements and put them next to each other. The Kissimmee property was bleeding. Vacancy ran 19% for six of those eight months and the report never flagged it because the Lakeland numbers were carrying the average. Manager had no financial reason to push on the underperforming asset because the fee structure rewarded collection, not occupancy. I replaced that manager in March 2023, negotiated a 90-day out with 30 days written notice, which I had in the original agreement and had never planned to use. New operator came in, walked every unit, found three that were being held off market for what they called "pending maintenance" with no work order trail and no completion date on any of them. Two of those units were rentable within three weeks of turnover. Occupancy at Kissimmee was at 94% by July. I had not changed base rents, had not done any capital work beyond what was already deferred, and NOI on that property alone moved about $18,400 annualized once those units were producing. The lesson I carry from that one is that a consolidated report across multiple properties is a way to hide a problem property inside a performing one, and I will not accept consolidated-only reporting on anything I own again.
