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Comment by dd36 | Hacker News Reader

https://www.yardi.com/products/rentcafe-connect/

https://www.appfolio.com/blog/2015/01/appfolio-contact-cente...

This type of service has existed for a while with the larger vendors. What differentiates your service?

Licensed property managers are on the hook for the decisions you make. How do you and they manage that liability? Is it even legal to have an unlicensed third party field a call and assign a contractor? I know states where it is not.

If you've been small, you may have flown under the radar but getting attention could change that. The difference between Appfolio/Yardi and what you're doing seems to be the assigning your own contractors bit. That's legally questionable IMO. Maybe less so for first-party but definitely for third-party managers - it technically makes you an unlicensed property manager.

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A lot of our customers switch from the existing providers because we provide over the phone troubleshooting services and the others are just dispatching.

We've taken out a large professional liability insurance to cover ourselves and our customers. We also document decision making process throughout the coordination process, which is helpful for determining what went wrong and why.

As far as the legality of taking calls, third party call centers that take calls and dispatch contractors are an extremely common service even offered by Appfolio and other providers.

Now regarding new contractors from our network, that is an opt-in service for customers. Many opt out entirely and we can turn that off for any customer. For instance, some customers require liability insurance policies much larger than we can guarantee with our network, so they opt-out of using Latchel contractors.

There are several states that don't require a license to be a property manager. Massachusetts is one example.

That’s incorrect.

https://www.mass.gov/service-details/re42r05-property-manage...

Cant' they just do it "on behalf of" the property owner?

Yes, but that makes them an agent of the owner, which requires a license.

Basically, they can only do "dumb" things - follow instructions. If they make a decision, they have to be licensed. Choosing who to give work to is a decision.

Our customers tell us who to dispatch through their vendor priority list. We call down their vendor list in the order they specify.

Right. If it's pre-designated then you're fine as you're not making a decision. The other grey area is making decisions about what work that vendor will perform. Often there are many solutions to a work order.

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