Chaging Property Manager: From agent to self-managed

[goblin5566]

Currently I have my unit managed by agent. The tenants inital 6 month lease expired.
Now they are on month by month lease. I was going to give notice (60 days) to agent.
Just wondering what are the handover documents I need to request or things to do.
In 30 days, I'll let the Tenant know and sign a 6 month lease.

* Current contract with Tenant
* Transfer of Bond (do you know if I can transfer that to any family member name? That way they can represent me if required)
* Condition Report

What else?

Also, in terms of major things it seems I will miss out on convinience of contacts of good suppliers for maintenance issue (eg. plumber, handyman, electrician). How would one go about finding one who is good at competitve price?

 

[D.T.]

Any copies of keys (and garage remotes etc)
Any receipts for things they've paid on your behalf
Up to date financial statement of where things are at

 

[goblin5566]

Thanks. Anything else? Good point about keys and statements

 

[goblin5566]

Bonds?

Actually does anyone know if I can transfer the Bond into my dad's name (he is not listed on property title).
I dont know what is requirement for changing bond details from agent into yourself

 

[MichaelGilbert]

Hey goblin5566

So you'll need this stuff from the agent when you take over.

- Current Lease agreement (with the current tenants)
- Current Tenants Application Form
- Current Tenants Contact Details
- Current Tenants Full Rent Payment Ledger (also showing what they are currently paid upto)
- Ingoing Condition Report (for current tenants including photos)
- All the keys and any remotes
- A signed copy of the Change of Managing Agent/Owner bond form.
http://www.smallbusiness.nsw.gov.au...le/0020/22628/change_managing_agent_owner.pdf
(They will need to sign it to put it into your name. I'm not sure of the benefit by putting it into someone else name - Just means your Dad would have to sign off on the bond when they move out). I"m not actually aware if this is legal or not but I would not advise it.


By going through your statements and invoices you should see the names and contact details of their plumbers and handyman etc.

Good luck.

 

[goblin5566]

Hey goblin5566

So you'll need this stuff from the agent when you take over.

- Current Lease agreement (with the current tenants)
- Current Tenants Application Form
- Current Tenants Contact Details
- Current Tenants Full Rent Payment Ledger (also showing what they are currently paid upto)
- Ingoing Condition Report (for current tenants including photos)
- All the keys and any remotes
- A signed copy of the Change of Managing Agent/Owner bond form.
http://www.smallbusiness.nsw.gov.au...le/0020/22628/change_managing_agent_owner.pdf
(They will need to sign it to put it into your name. I'm not sure of the benefit by putting it into someone else name - Just means your Dad would have to sign off on the bond when they move out). I"m not actually aware if this is legal or not but I would not advise it.


By going through your statements and invoices you should see the names and contact details of their plumbers and handyman etc.

Good luck.

Thanks a lot Michael. I see you a property agent. Eventhough I had great relationship and no complaint from my existing agent. I didn't get much info. They said they haven't had anyone switch over to manage themselves. Although I am sure they would have handled lots of handover to-from people switching between agents.

Thanks for advice on bond. My point was mainly coz I dont have to go represent to tribunal if required. However, from your point it seem this is just an official registration. He would still not have problem representing.

Thanks again. Appreciate it. Just trialling out managing property myself and see how it goes for short period. I can always switch back.

I wonder if there are any publich stats available on people managing themselves. All of people I know manage via agent except one friend.

Also, I see you are cofounder for rentmyestate. Would that site be useful for me? My apartment is already rented. So, I am more managing it.
Also, question regarding sellmyestate. I assume you cant list for private listing on realestate.com.au? it seems only PropertyNow recently got the order as per one of threads. I wonder why realestate.com.au are so agent private listings.

 

[SeafordSunshine]

representation at tribunal..

Dear Goblin,

please let us know how you go?
Also could I suggest you ask Fair Trading about the bond Name transfer.
As you will be self managing you will need to know this

I hope this helps

 

[goblin5566]

Also, I was curious where can you get offical legal information like:

a. What notice tenants require?
b. How often I can request inspection from tenant?
c. ... etc

 

[goblin5566]

Dear Goblin,

please let us know how you go?
Also could I suggest you ask Fair Trading about the bond Name transfer.
As you will be self managing you will need to know this

I hope this helps

ah.. I was just about to send out termination notice to agent. I am confused about the bond now.
Couldnt find any infomration on Fair Trading.

Question if someone could confirm be great:
a. Can I transfer in my name? I dont see it being problem as people manange property themselves.
b. Does the agent do the transfer or I need to do the paper work to get it transferred from him.

 

[thatbum]

Also, I was curious where can you get offical legal information like:

a. What notice tenants require?
b. How often I can request inspection from tenant?
c. ... etc

Can I ask why you are switching to self management if you aren't so confident with the basic legal information?

To answer your question, there is the legislation available online, as well as many factsheets from government and non-profit organisations on rights and obligations of both landlords and tenants.

 

[goblin5566]

Can I ask why you are switching to self management if you aren't so confident with the basic legal information?

To answer your question, there is the legislation available online, as well as many factsheets from government and non-profit organisations on rights and obligations of both landlords and tenants.

Are you able to send to website? Is it on fairtrading website?

There are two reasons:
a. I think Bond is the only pending question pending for me to get information. I dont think answer to that question is worth $2500 premium a year.
b. I am preparing a guide on how to manage property based on my experience. It will help others to see whats the hurdle. Its annoying the questions I have to find out would be been resolved by literally thousands of people. Yet its not obvious and readily available.

Worse comes to worse eventual conclusion would be that I need to switch back to agent. However, I do feel that for managing a single property, you should be able to do it yourself. Let me know if you disagree.

 

[goblin5566]

ok. called fairtrading found following useful info:

a. Resource on being landlord:
http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/Tenants_and_home_owners/Being_a_landlord.page?

b. They confirmed with michael said earlier about filling following form:
http://www.smallbusiness.nsw.gov.au...le/0020/22628/change_managing_agent_owner.pdf

 

[MichaelGilbert]

I wonder if there are any publich stats available on people managing themselves. All of people I know manage via agent except one friend.

Also, I see you are cofounder for rentmyestate. Would that site be useful for me? My apartment is already rented. So, I am more managing it.
Also, question regarding sellmyestate. I assume you cant list for private listing on realestate.com.au? it seems only PropertyNow recently got the order as per one of threads. I wonder why realestate.com.au are so agent private listings.

No worries happy to help.

The census 2011 data showed 23% of people self managed their property. But unsure what it is now. Probably more or thereabouts.

Rent My Estate is built for finding tenants (advertising on realestate.com.au etc etc) and currently 'being built' for managing your property. We are currently working on Rent Collection which will be awesome. If you sign up to Rent My Estate or to the weekly blogs I write you'll get updated on this progress.

Re: Sell My Estate
Yes you can use Sell My Estate to list your property for sale on realestate.com.au amongst various other sites. This cost $500 which includes a unlimited RP Data reports and a Sign board. No commissions. Advertised until sold.
That is untrue about PropertyNow. There are actually various sites that you can use to privately list on realestate.com.au. Although I think they were one of the first ones.


By the way, if your the owner of the property (on the lease) you will be the one that will have to front up to Tribunal. Managing 150 properties, I think I would go to Tribunal twice a year (if that). So its not that likely. Just need to be able to negotiate and reason (and do the right thing) with tenants to avoid tribunal.

 

[goblin5566]

No worries happy to help.

The census 2011 data showed 23% of people self managed their property. But unsure what it is now. Probably more or thereabouts.

Rent My Estate is built for finding tenants (advertising on realestate.com.au etc etc) and currently 'being built' for managing your property. We are currently working on Rent Collection which will be awesome. If you sign up to Rent My Estate or to the weekly blogs I write you'll get updated on this progress.

Re: Sell My Estate
Yes you can use Sell My Estate to list your property for sale on realestate.com.au amongst various other sites. This cost $500 which includes a unlimited RP Data reports and a Sign board. No commissions. Advertised until sold.
That is untrue about PropertyNow. There are actually various sites that you can use to privately list on realestate.com.au. Although I think they were one of the first ones.


By the way, if your the owner of the property (on the lease) you will be the one that will have to front up to Tribunal. Managing 150 properties, I think I would go to Tribunal twice a year (if that). So its not that likely. Just need to be able to negotiate and reason (and do the right thing) with tenants to avoid tribunal.

Thanks for that. I am actually trialling an already established property management platform. The owner offered me extended free trial period as I am writing about it in my blog for July edition.
Since I have 60 day till I switch over I am writing two things:
a. How to migrate from agent to yourself i.e. the transition. (Working on it now)
b. Then experience with managing it via a management platform (obviously starts in around 30 days as I'm going to use it for forms, etc to sign new lease as currently tenant are month to month)


Let me know when you are ready. I'll subscribe to your link you mentioned. I would be more than happy to try it and give you feedback.

 

[thatbum]

Worse comes to worse eventual conclusion would be that I need to switch back to agent. However, I do feel that for managing a single property, you should be able to do it yourself. Let me know if you disagree.

Well actually agree that most people are able to self manage without too many hassles. But I think the base level of required knowledge would be a pretty good working knowledge of the tenancy laws and procedures.

That said, its not very hard to learn this if you put some time into doing some research - same as learning about tax or financing.

Another good idea is easy access to someone who does know the tenancy laws in case something tricky comes up.

I'm curious about an "established property management platform" does, because apart from the above, its mostly just keeping an eye on the rental account to make sure the rent is still being paid.

 

[MichaelGilbert]

a. How to migrate from agent to yourself i.e. the transition. (Working on it now)
b. Then experience with managing it via a management platform (obviously starts in around 30 days as I'm going to use it for forms, etc to sign new lease as currently tenant are month to month)

Hey Goblin5566

Sounds good. Good luck with it all.

In terms of transferring from using an agent to us:
You don't sign a 'management agreement' with us (but you do give us the authority to advertise your property), because you're simply using us to help manage your own property. So it would be the same way as if you were changing from an agent to managing your own property.

Private message me if you want to know more info.