Changing Property Manager to someone out of locality ??

[Cherry Pro]

I'm considering changing my Melton property manager to someone who's at Bacchus Marsh. The new PM has many years of experience and appears
most professional and knowledgeable. The current PM is just not responsive and it seems like I have to manage her more than she manages the property.

Can you think of any downsides with this move ?

Bachhus Marsh is about 15 minutes away from Melton ... will it be harder to obtain tenants as the shop window which displays this property will now be out of the suburb ?

Would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks.

 

[jaycee]

Depends if you think the tenants mostly come from ads in the r/e agent's window, or fro ad's in the paper/interent ? I know my tenants saw it in the newspaper, so in that case, the r/e agent being 15 inutes away made no difference

 

[Cherry Pro]

Thanks Jaycee .. you have a point... would think most people would look
at the local newspaper and the internet, so maybe the move is okay.

Would appreciate feedback from IP owners who live around the Melton area.

Regards

 

[Katlin]

Hi Cherry Pro,

I dont keep a constant eye on this forum, and only just read your posts.

I live in Melton and also have an IP here, so here's my two cents worth (copied from a post i made on the Melton thread earlier this year):

Ned from Barry Plant was quite casual and offered his services at 6.6% - gave us no paperwork at all. new REA to Melton

Candice from Sweeneys a little more professional but not very forthcoming and i had to squeeze information from her, but she came down to 5.5% when pushed - also only been doing the job for some months and has 130 IP's to manage - makes appts with propsective tenants and takes them singly to view proprerties - only REA who advertises rentals in the local paper and after watching these regularly i've seen these houses for weeks on end

Roxana from Stockdale & Leggo - a whole new ballgame - she won our vote with a thoroughly professional presentation and package (although the $$$ at 7%) she manages 600+ IPs and has experience in the area (9 yrs). she had a tenant for us within 2 days and they shifted in the day after settlement. she outlined her strategies for getting tenants and managing them. makes open days and gets lots of tenants - ensures motivation and competition and encourages rent bidding

once we had seen Roxana the others didnt meet the grade. She actually got our tenant from a walk in and matched them to our IP - didnt even need to advertise but also has a list of applicants most times. its early days yet to comment on her ongoing service, but so far so good. Anyway, IMHO she's the goods.
Update: S&L have been advertising recently for another PM to join the team, due to demand - i suspect they are the most popular in town.

Talking to local renters, i dont think any of them would consider looking in BM for a vacant rental in Melton. BM is a different market, a bit more rural, and doesnt have as many amenities, also less train services. Melton residents overwhelmingly commute so this counts.

BTW the local rental market is very, very tight, and vacancies are competetively sought. Ideal for the investor!!! Not so good for the hapless parent with children returning to the nest.....

cheers,
Katlin

 

[Cherry Pro]

Thanks Kaitlin

Appreciate your post but a little late ... cos I moved PMs last week. We were
with Sweeney's Melton and moved to Sweeney's BM. Sharyn is our new PM
and I'm pretty confident she will do a good job. If not, at least now I know of Roxana and hopefully, she'll deliver as promised.

Cheers
Amelia