I manage all my IP's

[seank]

Hi Guys,

Just looking at all the horror stories here on PM issues, I have 5 IP's all I manage myself, some are even duel let. I know it may seem daunting to some however I started with one, then eventually got rid of all my Pm's and do it myself. The benefits are immense not to mention the money you save.

 

[redwing]

Hi Seank

I think JoeD does similar

How do you source and check on your tenants?
How about managing the paperwork side of things?
Are these all local properties, or some interstate?

 

[seank]

Hi Seank

I think JoeD does similar

How do you source and check on your tenants?
How about managing the paperwork side of things?
Are these all local properties, or some interstate?

Through realestate.com or gumtree
All the required paperwork is available online through the RTA
All my properties are local.

 

[chilliblue]

Hi Seank

I think JoeD does similar

How do you source and check on your tenants?
How about managing the paperwork side of things?
Are these all local properties, or some interstate?

Add have you had to attend a tribunal

 

[Nattl3s]

Do you have problems with insurance? Insurance co specifically asked me if I had PM's - do they just put premiums up if you say no. Spose the savings more than make up for extra insurance costs. Cheers, nat

 

[property_girl]

Rentals are easy to manage yourself if you have good tenants. One nightmare tenant can give you so much grief that a good pm can be worth his/her weight in gold.

 

[Jamie M]

Hi seank

I'm with you - my wife self manages three properties and doesn't find it too difficult. It wasn't to save cash - just had issues with previous PMs so self managing became a better option.

Now all issues are addressed quickly and vacancy rates are lower.

Having said that - it's not for everyone. You need to treat it like a business, document everything and follow all the processes.

Cheers

Jamie

 

[wylie]

I have also always managed our IPs. We've only ever had three at any one time, but now I also manage a few that our parents left to us.

I bought my first IP before I was 20, so now at 54, I've been doing this for well over 30 years. In all that time, I have only had issues with one tenant leaving rubbish and damaging the house, and my mother had two issues with bad tenants. One went to tribunal. Mum represented herself and I went for support. Tenants made jackasses of themselves and got $12 of their bond back .

For many years we sourced tenants from the newspaper. That was the only way until the internet came along. Then we used the sites we could get on before re.com was able to be sourced via different paid sites.

We have used agents, both successfully and not so successfully. In all that time we have never done a check and have used gut instinct, which has rarely let us down. Perhaps part of that is that our IPs are in better areas and the risk of having feral tenants applying is a little lower...?

I cannot begin to count the thousands we have saved over those years but I think the difference is that I learned "at the knee" how to manage tenants, how to paint, renovate and maintain houses. My parents are gone now, but I owe them both a lot for the valuable lessons learned.

 

[k88k]

I tried to manage only 1 IP once and needless to say this was the one bad tenant.

They paid rent on time, but they often made too much noise at night disturbing the neighbors and having the neighbors constantly calling me due to the noise.
They never cleaned their dog, which was attracting flees and also not cleaning up their faeces.

Learnt my lesson and agree wit some of the posters above that having a good reliable PM is worth the money saved!

PS: IMHO you must develop a good relationship with your neighbors if your self managing.

 

[wylie]

We had a good relationship with the IP neighbours when we had some noisy young men move in. The neighbour would ask them to turn the music down, and they did. The neighbour let us know that the police had been called and neighbourhood watch were made aware of some issues with dangerous driving by one in particular. The reality though is that the neighbour shouldn't be calling you, but calling the police for these issues.

 

[seank]

Add have you had to attend a tribunal

not yet, touch wood.

I have a good relationship with my tenants, they can contact me anytime and vice versa, so the chances it would ever come down that path are minimal. With proper communication and reasoning most issues can be solved. At the end of the day, we as property investors are here to make money, however tenants are real people as well so if you treat them with respect, they will do the same back.

 

[seank]

Do you have problems with insurance? Insurance co specifically asked me if I had PM's - do they just put premiums up if you say no. Spose the savings more than make up for extra insurance costs. Cheers, nat

never had a problem with insurance.

 

[Perp]

never had a problem with insurance.

Building insurance is usually fine, but landlord insurance - covering loss of rent in default, damage by tenant, etc. - is usually problematic with self-managing.

Do you have landlord insurance, or were you referring to your building insurance?

 

[seank]

Rentals are easy to manage yourself if you have good tenants. One nightmare tenant can give you so much grief that a good pm can be worth his/her weight in gold.

Agree, however if you find a good tenant with good references you won't have that issue. I've never had a good PM, most said they did inspections when rarely they did, I specifically said no pets, then they put in tenants with pets. Most take the hard line with tenants, thinking it's the best way to go, when all it does is rub them up the wrong way and creates a bad cycle. Having said that I'm sure there are plenty of good ones out there.

 

[wylie]

never had a problem with insurance.

Building insurance is usually fine, but landlord insurance - covering loss of rent in default, damage by tenant, etc. - is usually problematic with self-managing.

Do you have landlord insurance, or were you referring to your building insurance?

Interesting to hear two sides of this. We've never had any issues with landlord insurance, but I know Terri Sheer would not cover us as self-managers (but they do now).

We've been insured as self-managers with QBE, Westpac, Comminsure and other big companies that I won't quote as I would have to go digging to find out which companies we have been with over the years. We've now moved everything to Youi. I have no idea how we will go claiming. We did claim on QBE once and they were fantastic. Touch wood, we don't have to find out how Youi will be if we have to claim.

 

[seank]

Building insurance is usually fine, but landlord insurance - covering loss of rent in default, damage by tenant, etc. - is usually problematic with self-managing.

Do you have landlord insurance, or were you referring to your building insurance?

I have both building, and Landlord insurance with Commonwealth, and never had any issues obtaining.

 

[Perp]

I have both building, and Landlord insurance with Commonwealth, and never had any issues obtaining.

Good to know, thanks.

 

[seank]

PS: IMHO you must develop a good relationship with your neighbors if your self managing.

Neighbors? more so tenants.

 

[seank]

. The reality though is that the neighbour shouldn't be calling you, but calling the police for these issues.

Exactly .

 

[Jamie M]

never had a problem with insurance.

Forgot to mention this in my last post.

We haven't had issues either - having said that, some insurers won't provide cover so you need to make sure that you're dealing with one that allows for self managing.

We've made a few claims too.

Cheers

Jamie