Do you manage your own property?

M

mandimoo

We just bought our first investment property with intentions of managing it ourselves. My mother has owned investment properties and self managed before and my dad was an RE and my stepmother owned a RE company, the 2 former tell me not to self manage.
My husband really wants us to do it ourselves basically to save money and he also thinks that regardless of who manages it we could get screwed by a tenant anyway. Neither of us are stupid, he is an engineer and I was in marketing. I am prepared to do a property manager course so that I can learn about the contractual side of things. What advice would you give about this and do you have any tips for selecting good tenants?
I have already advertised for interest in the property and have had 9 enquiries since Saturday. The house is a 2/3 bedroom unit in a small complex, low maintenance and will only really suit a couple or VERY small family. We paid $305,000 for it and will be renting it out for $320 per week.
I have also facebook stalked some of the enquirers and the ones who seem to use foul language and cannot spell to save their lives I feel like eliminating. Is there a formula for a good tenant? One of the enquiries was by a mother and her 19 year old daughter both working full time... that sounded okay to me.
 
Yes I manage my own properties. It's good if you live relatively close by and know a few good tradesmen to repair anything urgently etc.
 
We live 10 mins away and my husband is good at fixing things. Are there rules as to who can fix things? Are you allowed to fix them yourself? My father in law is an electrician so if any of that needed doing we would probably ask him if it were something simple. Say if a toilet wasn't working properly do we have to call a plumber or could my husband have a go first?
 
mandimoo said:
We live 10 mins away and my husband is good at fixing things. Are there rules as to who can fix things? Are you allowed to fix them yourself?
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No way...you can't do that...!!!
That's only allowed in free living democratic countries......nah only pulling your leg (of course):D Sorry....

We manage our own IPs (4) and 3 are 300klms away on the coast but all within 5 mins of each other. We have trades at the ready 24/7 that we can trust. Something you will need to work on as well as the contractual details and having the confidence to go it alone.

It takes time and each experience is a revellation but valuable for building confidence and knowledge.

You also have experience with those family members who have been in the game, so a head start.

Learn your relevant Residential Tenancy Act and know it backwards and quote it each time you liase with tenants informing them of their rights and yours each time an issue arises. Play fair but firm and don't say too much else....(that's my downfall, can't you tell...LOL!)

Good luck you'll be right by the sounds of it you are motivated and accepting of the challenge.
Once a couple years go by it's easy and just part of every day and no biggie...to us anyway as nothing fazes us anymore, business as usual.;)
 
I'm going to manage one of my properties soon as the tenant is the previous owner and takes good care of the apartment, is on the strata committee now and cares for the grounds etc. She also let's me leave my car there when i travel along with using the basement for my storage. We are like friends and I plan to get organized soon and write out a contract. I will leave my other properties though for now as I'm not sure what my future plans are with them....
 
We self manage 15 properties, with a total of 40 units.
As mentioned, learn the rules inside out.
If you make a mistake, and we all do, figure out where you went wrong, and try to make it a positive experience, and learn from it.

Good luck.

For 8 months of the year, we are managing from Australia.
 
My wife manages the properties that are closer to home. The main reason for the switch was due to the poor performance of the PM - took ages to find a tenant (where vacancy rates were close to zero and the price was in line with others on the market), didn't return calls and was just generally cr*p.

Since then, there's hasn't been a vacant period. If one tenant leaves, we advertise and fill the property on the day they move out. Maintenance issues are also attended to straight away.

We also save a few dollars which is a bonus - but to be honest, wasn't the primary reason for going at it alone.

We've experienced the bad and the good with the tenants - it's important to be up to speed with the tenancy laws in your state and always follow the processes.

Cheers

Jamie
 
Thanks for the replies guys, it's good to know there are people out there more confident about self managing than my father :) I am sure I will be back on here to ask for opinions when it comes to selecting my tenant out of the pool. :confused:
 
I have self-managed one, two or three properties of our own for more than 30 years (first one bought before I was 20 with my dad). I have also helped manage the properties owned by my parents since I was 15, so there always was something to do, a new tenant to find every six or twelve months.

My dad and my hubby and brother have always been first port of call for maintenance (except electrical and plumbing) but basic things can be done if you are handy (or have a handy hubby).

Example... with a house just vacated the toilet cistern would not stop running. If we had a PM he/she would call a plumber and we would pay $100 or more to have the plumber take off the lid of the cistern and jiggle the float or whatever it is. Instead, because we live within ten minutes from the various houses we own or are looking after, hubby pops over and does it in five minutes for no cost.

I have just spent a day re-painting the front and back doors, front and back steps and railings where we would have paid a painter hundreds of dollars.

If I hated doing this stuff we would organise tradies. I don't wish to paint another whole house again, having helped paint and/or renovate (larger, but mostly small renovations - new bathrooms, new kitchens, removing walls etc) more than 35 times over 36 years, some houses having been "touched up" more than once. But "back in the day" we couldn't afford a painter, and once I'm a little way in, I quite enjoy the painting, seeing something transformed into a fresh space. But I'm not going to tackle a while house again. Next big paint job will be with a painter.

Some of my favourite memories are my Mum and Dad, hubby, brother and various of our kids sitting around on paint tins enjoying a sandwich and a cuppa, chatting to our pest man and whatever tradesman happened to be there at the time.

Two years ago my mother passed away, my dad is in a nursing home with alzheimers. The week of the funeral we had three empty houses. We handed them all over to a local agent to deal with finding a tenant. We used never to do any checks, and went on gut feeling, which never let us down. The few times we slipped up were times when our "gut" said no, but our bank balance said "get ANYBODY in". We have rented to hundreds of people on gut instinct with less than five problems over all those rentals.

I don't recommend anybody else doing that unless they are happy to take the risk and wear the consequences if they get it wrong. Since that time we got the agent to do it, we have decided that for one week's rent plus GST, we will give the job of finding a tenant to them. They do proper checks and all the paperwork, it is tax deductible and we still get to choose who we will accept. The trick is finding an agent who will look for a good tenant even though they will not be managing the place. In the past when we tried this "let only" idea, we were handed some "borderline" tenants from agents who knew they would not be mopping up the inevitable mess.
 
If I may comment, as an agent, I have chosen to let the office look after things. I do think that how you "value" your time should be of consideration. I looked at the time, that I am likely to be needed to attend to things, and on balance for me, they would have been at inconvenient times, so the cost to me was then high. Yes, at the end of the year as we are doing our tax, and I look at the bills that we paid, with the office attending to things on my bahalf and I think ..... should I have ... etc. I dont have a family network that I can rely on, so I think for each it is "horsers". Over the years, I have had quite a few self managing landlords arive and ask ... can you fix this problem. A tenancy in trouble. Yes we usually end up fixing them, and the landlord has commented, he can sleep better knowing that he can kick some one elses ... rather that his own.
We dont do "let only's" for self managing landlords. There are a number of reasons for that, and probably, putting in "complete" energy into our landlords is the primary reason. While I shudder reading Wylies comment, hoping its not true, but I cannot comment about others.
We have supported many self managing landlords with advice and paperwork etc over the years, and appreciate that every one will walk their own path, the only thing I will say, and I have observed others have done the same, do it for the right reasons, not the wrong ones. To save a dollar, may be the wrong reason.
 
You can do it if it's one.

Bulk of my portfolio is not self-managed. Problem with self-managing is your life has 0 flexibility. Imagine having 20 properties that are self-managed. You wouldn't even be able to go on a holiday as it'd be like a full time job. You can do it if you only have 2 or 3. But for me to manage all our buildings, apartments, flats, houses, buildings, offices etc I would never be able to leave this city for more than 2 weeks.
 
Peterw said:
Over the years, I have had quite a few self managing landlords arive and ask ... can you fix this problem. A tenancy in trouble. Yes we usually end up fixing them, and the landlord has commented, he can sleep better knowing that he can kick some one elses ... rather that his own.
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Might be true Pete but it also goes the other way. We had only "problem managers" who didn't like their ....being kicked.
So we kick our own....but never had to because we know the job is being done properly.



Peterw;838187T said:
save a dollar, may be the wrong reason.
Click to expand...

We fixed all our property manager woes by doing it ourselves AND save many many dollars in the process, around $100/week let alone the letting fees on tenant changeovers etc.

Being organised and having set up a great trades book to call on for maint. issues results in us spending no more time each week than an hour tops, all accessible online via email or text message.

This is over 4 IP's of which 3 are 300klms away from where we live.

What people need to decide is are you willing to take it on, learn the rules, and walk the talk with tenants.
 
Yep I self manage. I do so for a lot of reasons.
1. I am a control freak and like to know exactly what's going on
2. I have time to do so.
3. No one cares more about my properties than I do
3. Money saver
4. I can claim more expenses

Have made many mistakes but very minimal. The residential tenancies legislation is my bible and the Wa dept commerce are on speed dial. I run it as a business and can't worry about making people homeless rent is not optional!

Do it if u are committed and have the time. Otherwise dont
 
Fence,
That is a great attitude to have.
We do a similar thing, but from 16,000 kms away. We spend 8 months in Australia, while our 15 properties (40 units) are in Canada.
We have tradies that we can call on. We have 2 sets of superintendants for our properties. One set in each town. We pay them a set monthly rate. It is not dependant on vacancies, or how much work they need to do.
I am in constant email contact with them..once in the morning, and again in the evening, as this works around the time difference.
When we return to Canada for the 4 months of the year, Rob prepares the report and gathers the receipts for our tax preparer. We have most of our leases expire during this time. We do not permit them to lapse to a month to month lease.It is not in our best interest.I have a month within to fill the vacancies, if there are any. Any tenants we need to take to court for rental arrears are also taken care of during this time. Any maintenance or repair issues that were not urgent are taken care of then, as Rob does the majority of it himself.
Our supers are not property managers. They keep us informed of all issues by email. If they are not sure how we want to handle a situation, they ask.
If you had someone you could trust to be your eyes and ears when you cannot be physically there, a property manager is not required.
 
i self managed a few at one stage. had a tenant who i used to go out with which coincidentally was looking for an apartment when i needed to let out.

after that - a pretty big mistaken, late payments, multiple requests for B.S repairs , accusations that maybe someone entered her apartment at night. major nightmare. after that i just gave an agent to manage.
 
There are now companies that offer a no frills property management service which could be a safer first step than jumping into managing privately from the outset.
If you are prepared to conduct the routine inspections, prepare the condition report and coordinate the maintenance, these companies will prepare the lease, collect rent, chase arrears, provide statements, provide bond lodgment forms, send rental increase notices, provide access to agent only insurance products, handle the money in a trust account and most significantly advertise your investment property on the dominant industry sites like www.realestate.com.au so that you know you are getting the best marketing and can subsequently choose from the largest pool of potential tenants. $600 Inc GST pa for up to two leasing pa and all advertising costs. No more to pay.
 
Michael A said:
There are now companies that offer a no frills property management service which could be a safer first step than jumping into managing privately from the outset.
If you are prepared to conduct the routine inspections, prepare the condition report and coordinate the maintenance, these companies will prepare the lease, collect rent, chase arrears, provide statements, provide bond lodgment forms, send rental increase notices, provide access to agent only insurance products, handle the money in a trust account and most significantly advertise your investment property on the dominant industry sites like www.realestate.com.au so that you know you are getting the best marketing and can subsequently choose from the largest pool of potential tenants. $600 Inc GST pa for up to two leasing pa and all advertising costs. No more to pay.
Click to expand...

That sounds pretty good to me, and a good price.
 
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