Yes, all of them, and that is most of the point of hiring one. Under full-service management the tenant deals with the manager for rent, repairs, questions, complaints, notices and renewals, and they should not have your phone number at all. You hear about the handful of items that need your decision; everything else is handled and reported.
Owners who are hiring a manager to escape the ten o'clock text about a garbage disposal should know how the handoff works, what still reaches them, and what to do when a tenant finds their number anyway.
How the handoff of contact happens on day one
If the house already has a tenant, the manager sends a written notice introducing themselves as the new point of contact, with the phone number, email and portal login the tenant will use from now on, and instructions on where rent is paid. You send a short note confirming the change. From that day, you stop answering tenant messages and forward any that arrive to the manager.
If the house is vacant, the tenant never learns your number at all. The lease lists the manager as the landlord's agent for notices, and the move-in packet gives the tenant the maintenance line and the portal. The full guide to a Fort Worth manager who takes every repair and tenant call walks through this transition in more detail.
What the tenant gets instead of your number
A tenant who cannot call the owner needs something better, not just a different number. Under a well-run arrangement they get:
- An online portal for rent payments, maintenance requests with photos, and documents.
- A maintenance line answered during business hours and an after-hours line for genuine emergencies.
- Clear written guidance on what counts as an emergency and what to do before calling, such as where the water shutoff is.
- A named contact for lease questions, notices and renewals.
The maintenance service describes how a request moves from the tenant's phone to a vendor's calendar. A tenant who has a fast, predictable channel stops looking for a back door to the owner.
What you hear about, and what you do not
You hear about items that need your money or your decision: a repair above your approval threshold, a renewal recommendation, a request to break the lease, a rent problem that has reached the notice stage, or anything that could become a legal matter. These arrive as a summary with a recommendation, not as a forwarded text thread.
You do not hear about the garage remote, the trash day question, the dripping faucet handled under the threshold, or the complaint about a neighbor's dog that the manager resolved with a phone call. Those appear on the monthly statement or in the owner portal if they generated a cost or a record. If you want more visibility, say so at signing and the manager can copy you on more; most owners ask for less within a few months.
When a tenant contacts you anyway
It happens: a tenant finds the owner's name on the county records, or a long-standing tenant still has your number from before. The right response is polite and short: thank them, tell them the manager handles everything about the house, give them the manager's contact, and forward the message to the manager the same day. Do not answer the question, approve the repair or discuss the rent, even if it seems harmless.
The reason is not rudeness. A casual promise from the owner, such as agreeing to a pet or waiving a late fee, becomes a term the manager must then honor, and a direct conversation about an applicant or a renewal can create inconsistency that matters under fair housing law. One channel means one record, and one record is what protects you.
Why one channel protects the owner
Every tenant message handled by the manager is logged: the request, the response, the vendor, the dates and the outcome. If a dispute ever arises over a repair that was reported, a notice that was delivered or a deposit deduction, that log is the evidence. Messages on your personal phone, half-remembered calls and promises made at the mailbox are not.
Consistency is the second protection. A manager applies the same screening criteria, the same late-fee policy and the same repair standards to every tenant in every house, which is what fair housing compliance looks like in practice. An owner who talks to tenants directly, with good intentions, inevitably treats one differently from another. The guide to professional tenant communication explains the boundaries that keep owners out of trouble.
An example: the owner who kept answering
Picture an owner in Fort Worth who hired a manager for a house with an existing tenant but kept replying when the tenant texted, because she felt it was rude not to. Within two months the tenant was asking her about repairs that the manager had already scheduled, she had agreed to a second dog by text, and a late payment she had quietly excused was now a precedent the manager could not enforce against. The manager's log said one thing; the owner's phone said another.
The fix was a single text from the owner: everything about the house goes through the manager from today, here is the number. The tenant adjusted within a week. The owner's phone went quiet, the second dog was documented with a pet addendum and a deposit, and the late-fee policy was back in force. None of that required a confrontation, only a boundary.
How Perpetual handles this
Perpetual Property Management is broker-owned and local to Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth, and taking every tenant call is the core of the service. On day one the tenant receives written notice that we are the point of contact, with the portal, the maintenance line and the after-hours emergency line. Repairs go to vetted vendors under your approval threshold, with the invoice and photos in your owner portal, and anything above the threshold reaches you as a short summary with an estimate and a recommendation.
Every tenant interaction is logged, screening criteria and lease policies are applied consistently, and leases are Texas-compliant, so the record stands up if it is ever needed. You see the month in one statement rather than in thirty messages. Every fee is listed in a written quote before you sign. The full-service management page covers everything else we take off your phone.
The takeaway: A manager takes every tenant call and message, and the arrangement only works if the owner stops answering too, because one channel means one record and one standard for every tenant.
Questions owners ask
Should I give my tenant my phone number as a backup?
No. A backup number becomes the primary number the first time the tenant prefers your answer to the manager's. The manager's after-hours emergency line is the backup. If you want to be reachable for a true catastrophe, give your number to the manager, not the tenant, and let the manager decide when to use it.
What if my tenant complains that the property manager is not responding?
Forward the complaint to the manager in writing and ask for the log of the request and the response. A good manager will show you the timeline and either demonstrate the request was handled or fix the gap. If the pattern repeats and the log does not support the manager, that is a service problem to raise directly with the company, not a reason to start answering the tenant yourself.
Will I be told when my tenant submits a maintenance request?
Only when it needs your decision, unless you ask for more. Requests below your approval threshold are handled and appear on the monthly statement with the invoice. Requests above it come to you with an estimate before work starts. Owners can usually see all open and completed requests in the owner portal at any time.
Can I still visit my rental or talk to the tenant if I want to?
You own the house, so you can, but visits should be arranged through the manager with the notice the lease requires, and conversations should stay social rather than about rent, repairs or lease terms. Anything substantive belongs in the manager's channel so it is documented and consistent. Most owners find that once the manager is in place they have no reason to visit except at turnover.
Property management in Keller, North Richland Hills and Fort Worth. How full-service management works in Tarrant County →
