First time looking for a property manager.

[Paterson00]

Hi all,

What questions should I be asking a property manager?

How do you know a good one when you see one?

Is it true that you can simply instruct a new property manager if you are not happy with your current one and the new one will tell the current one that they are fired?

Do I have to sign up to a term period or notice period with them?

Our initial plan of kennels has fallen over so now I am looking into buying a rental property instead.

Many thanks for your help.

Paul

 

[Scott No Mates]

How do you know a good one when you see one?

He's the one wearing a fedora

 

[Paterson00]

Well that ought to cut it down a bit, unless you are at a Madness concert of course..... one step beyond............................

 

[MichaelGilbert]

Hi all,

What questions should I be asking a property manager?

How do you know a good one when you see one?

Is it true that you can simply instruct a new property manager if you are not happy with your current one and the new one will tell the current one that they are fired?

Do I have to sign up to a term period or notice period with them?

Our initial plan of kennels has fallen over so now I am looking into buying a rental property instead.

Many thanks for your help.

Paul

1.
How many properties do you manage? (more than 150 per senior property manager is probably too many - basically speaking)
How long have they been in PM for? (3 years min for me).

2. Not sure what they look like. Haha Typically they have a steely personality, but also able to show real empathy.

3. Yes you can. Once you sign the agreement with the new agent they should be able to handle it all for you.

4. Every agreement is different with the period you sign up for. You'll have to ask them that.

Hope this helps.

 

[J_aco]

http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103186

you can check out a great post from knightm from a month ago

 

[S.T]

Are you a property investor yourself?
What's your process for handling rental arrears?
What rent will my property get?
Can you show me comparable rentals for the area?
Any ideas to improve my property to compete with local rentals?
What are your fees?

 

[Chooke]

Hi all,

What questions should I be asking a property manager?

How do you know a good one when you see one?

Is it true that you can simply instruct a new property manager if you are not happy with your current one and the new one will tell the current one that they are fired?

Do I have to sign up to a term period or notice period with them?

Our initial plan of kennels has fallen over so now I am looking into buying a rental property instead.

Many thanks for your help.

Paul

1. Who will be my actual property manager (ie which person), how long has he/she been with your company and the industry? Do a google search on the company and individual.

I noticed you are from WA - it is important to ask for all their fees and what you get for them.

2. Often you can't. It really gets down to the individual managing your property. Look for someone who is stable and been doing the job for some time. Watch out for PMs that do marketing speak rather than dealing with you professionally. Things like, "the fees are all tax deductable" etc are signs of a shonk.

3. Often you can't. It really gets down to the individual managing your property. Look for someone who is stable and been doing the job for some time. Watch out for PMs that do marketing speak rather than dealing with you professionally. Things like, "the fees are all tax deductable" etc are signs of a shonk.

4. Depends on the contract - see 5.

5. Again being from WA be careful. Most require 30 days notice (acceptable) but some have one or more years (unacceptable) meaning if you turf them, you are liable to pay all the fees for the balance of the contract period, even though the PM has not made an investment on your part to recoup. If the PM only offers contracts with longer than 30 days notice, take it as a marker they are shonky.

 

[D.T.]

Are you a property investor yourself?
What's your process for handling rental arrears?
What rent will my property get?
Can you show me comparable rentals for the area?
Any ideas to improve my property to compete with local rentals?
What are your fees?

^ These are all good and reasonable questions.

Asking them how many properties they have isn't really a fair question. One could struggle with 5 properties and another could excel with 1000. You don't really know how efficient they are, what their company structure is, how many support staff they have. You can ask these things of course, but it's a long way from saying Company A has 125 per person and Company B has 175 per person and drawing any usable conclusions from that.

Interesting things to ask would be
- How they manage / monitor their KPIs such as vacancy periods, arrears periods, etc.
- What their after-hours contact process is, eg dealing with tenant emergencies, etc
- Fees has already been mentioned, but more specifically, any hidden regular or once off fees you might incur
- What guarantees they have to promise their service is the best
- Why they think they're better than the next office down the street

 

[jerodwg]

Hi am also first time looking for a property manager and the above ideas were helpful for me. These are things I try to ask at first interaction:

1) How is the property management team organised - are there specialists for advertising/showing tenants through/leasing? Are there specialists for ongoing property management? Any administrative/assistants? The better organised and more support they get, the more time/ability they have to sort out actual issues on our behalf.

2) Who will my property manager be? How much experience do they have? In my area? I expect to be able to meet with them prior to signing any dotted lines to ensure we get along - better to avoid any issues than be locked in and have to second guess all the time.

3) What is the complete schedule of fees? So that I can work out the effective fee rate for my property. Is there a term period or contract? Is this negotiable? Shorter term / NO contract means they need to work to earn their cut.

4) What resources are used/what is the process for rental price determination? Although really I think as prospective landlords theres homework we can do: attending home opens for rentals nearby and comparing quality to price and keeping an eye on if they lease successfully.

5) What strategies will be used to find a tenant? Any specialist software that canvasses potential tenants well? Are those showing the tenants through flexible in time/ability to do so?

6) Who will they turn to if maintenance issues arise - emergency vs non-urgent. Are they reputable? Likely to be a rip off? Am I able to have any input in who to go with? Basically ideally if any emergency issue comes up, the manager would sort it out and I would just sign on the dotted line with piece of mind that I would not be getting ripped off

7) How are arrears handled? In my experience very specific policies on this - either breach warning then termination, or termination directly

8) Walk me through the property condition report pre-lease. Is it comprehensive? How many photos are taken - professionally or ad hoc? My understanding is this is the ONLY legal evidence we would have if the condition of the house changes, to prove that the change occurred under tenancy - therefore the more thorough and precise this is, the better equipped we would be. I ask to see a sample.

9) Walk me through a routine property inspection. Is there a proforma? If so can I have one to see. Again this is the ONLY evidence we would have to show any changes occurring under tenancy.

10) What resources does the tenant receive from you? Can I have a copy of the tenant welcome pack. Are there any online means of communication with the property manager? Is there 24h emergency contact if required? How easy is it for them to pay?

Hope this helps - also if you can let me know if these sound reasonable, unreasonable or if I'm missing anything, would help me heaps!

Cheers

 

[ChrisA1]

These are all great comments and great comments by knightm in the link provided.

When I was looking for a new PM in SW Sydney, I interviewed 4 PMs for one IP (I moved PMs when I purchased the tenanted property and after interviewing a few); I found after the first one or two interviews, I started to understand what each was saying and found a (sort of) benchmark for the area. My IPs are 4 hours away from me and I find this quite important as I can't duck round the corner if it all goes weird. I would dare say this becomes even more important if the IPs are interstate.

I suppose it comes down to how many PMs are available for the area (interview as many as you can) and it is preferable for me that they are located in the area (ie understand the area and tenants and their needs etc)

 

[Xenia IM]

I agree that number of properties managed is not a good indicator of effectiveness. Different agencies are set out differently and a good team with a senior pm can easily handle 300 properties. Smaller startup companies without proper systems struggle with 50 properties!

Also 50 crap properties in low socioeconomic suburbs are more difficult to manage than 150 newer properties in more affluent suburbs.

The structure of the agency may not directly affect you. I would be asking questions that have a more direct impact!

How quickly can you find me a tenant.

What happens when things break.

What if you can't get hold of me - how do you handle maintenance, renewals, evictions, arrears, if you are not able to communicate with me? - look for an agent that can make a firm decision in your absence and be able to handle the consequences even if it was the wrong one! You of not want a pm that sits there allowing a vacancy or some vital maintenance not done because you have been too busy that month to get back to them.

What happens when **** hits the fan?
Do you handle clean ups, evictions, insurance claims? What is my involvement in the matter?

Do you offer a guarantee on service?

 

[thatbum]

Its difficult to assess how good a PM is without knowing much about how to PM yourself. Its fine to ask a PM what they would do if there are rent arrears, but how do you know whether the answer is a good one if you don't know the answer yourself?

So I would encourage everyone to learn as much as they can about being a landlord themselves.

...it makes me want to start a service that helps landlords find good PMs!

 

[z611143]

Its difficult to assess how good a PM is without knowing much about how to PM yourself. Its fine to ask a PM what they would do if there are rent arrears, but how do you know whether the answer is a good one if you don't know the answer yourself?

So I would encourage everyone to learn as much as they can about being a landlord themselves.

...it makes me want to start a service that helps landlords find good PMs!

its great saying that but what/where are some places to start to learn about being a PM? SS?

 

[thatbum]

its great saying that but what/where are some places to start to learn about being a PM? SS?

As a a complete novice? Probably to read everything on the consumer protection website about renting - especially the lessor's guide and the prescribed lease.

https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumer-protection/renting-home

After that, I would be reading tenant factsheets, and then get a feel for the legislation. Tenancy WA are about to release a wave of new factsheets in the new year actually.