no work on weekends for PM?

[veebeeseewee]

Hi everyone who's using PM!

Just wonder if your PM works during weekend? Mine said their management team only works weekdays 9am-5pm. Because of that, they don't open for inspection during weekend, which effectively I'm losing lots of potential tenants to look at the house. Do you guys think this will be an issue?

Hmmm... not very happy!

 

[Sez]

I work weekends as required and I can honestly say that I have never worked for an agency that doesn't have either a leasing team or PM's to do open for inspections over the weekend.

If I don't have any properties that require an open over the weekend then I don't work on a Saturday and being that I am the only property manager and I do have a family at home I am also careful about my hours to ensure I'm not ALWAYS at work over the weekends!!

As to whether it will be an issue, how many times are they opening the property during the week? what times are they opening it? I find that if you do two opens in a week, one at around lunch time and one later in the afternoon (approx. 4.30 before it gets too dark) it means a lot of people can come. They can duck out in their lunch break or they don't have to leave work as early to get there. If you don't get any bites from the first weekly opens then yes, in my opinion a weekend open is required.

 

[Ed Barton]

Hi everyone who's using PM!

Just wonder if your PM works during weekend? Mine said their management team only works weekdays 9am-5pm. Because of that, they don't open for inspection during weekend, which effectively I'm losing lots of potential tenants to look at the house. Do you guys think this will be an issue?

Hmmm... not very happy!

i would expect a pm to do lease work on the weekend. the rest of the pm work i would only expect them to work 9-5

 

[INVSTOR]

One of my PM's works Sundays - so seven days a week.

 

[Goofy]

I (& my office) is only open on saturdays by appointment. I have been a PM for 15 years and i have found that inspections after work (eg 5-6:30pm) are far more successful than weekend inspections. So many agents open so many properties on the weekends that there is a lot more competition and i grab the tenants during the week before they get a chance to look at more properties on the weekends A lot of people would rather look at a property on their way home from work and keep their weekends free for the fun stuff!

But that being said, each area would be different. I am happy to do a saturday inspection or catch up on work if i need to, but after working 100+ hour weeks last year (and that is an understatement rather than an overstatement unfortunately) i made the decision to try to keep the weekends to myself. I work longer hours during the week and am still contactable by phone on the weekends, but despite what most people think.. PMs should not be available 24/7 (and trust me most people do...a lot of people have no hesitation ringing up at 10pm on a saturday night to enquire about a rental property on the internet!!) we need our down time too!

Ask your agent why they don't open on a saturday.. perhaps like me they believe in their area it isn't worth it, that they are more successful during the week? Ask your agent what time they will open properties until during the week.. if they aren't prepared to do evening inspections during the week or work saturdays then you will definitely be missing out on a LOT of tenants who cant view your property due to work commitments.

 

[ACTInvestor]

All my PMs work on Saturdays as it is the biggest time for open viewings. My Canberra/NSW PM has someone on call on Sundays too - probably a rotating shift that takes the mobile.

 

[RumpledElf]

I had this problem when I was looking for a rental in Elizabeth, but not in any other area.

I think they work on the assumption that noone with a job will be looking for a rental in that area so they don't need to go out of their way at all. Once I worked out which agencies did that I just didn't even bother looking at any listings through those agencies, it wasn't worth it.

The rental I eventually found was with an out-of-area agent that actually treated me like a human being not third class scum. Like, you know, I was allowed to see the house after work, before I signed the lease. Wow.

This was 2003 though, maybe times have changed.

 

[Sez]

Wow Goofy - You do need to scale back a bit! I do both after hours and Saturdays opens when required because there is nothing worse for me than having a rental property vacant.... I really don't like it! And they do work well in the area if the weekday opens aren't working.

I agree with regards to people learning when to call. I had a call at 11pm last week from someone enquiring about a property, it went like this;

"Hello, how can I help you"
"I want to enquire about a rental property I'm looking at online right now"
"which property is that and what would you like to know?"
" (property address) when it is open and how much per week"
"Are you looking at this properties advertisement on realestate.com right now?"
"Yeah, I f***in said that, don't you listen?"
"where did you get my number"
"I'm looking at it now online, are you stupid?"
"Did you fail to see the advertised open for inspection time, price per week of the property and all details regarding your enquiry on that same page"
"oh, yeah but I thought since all real estate agents are lieing pieces of ***** I should call and ask"
"You have obviously failed to notice the clock in the bottom right hand corner of your screen too. I am happy to help you with your enquiries after hours but 11pm is not an acceptable time to be calling me"
"You're in a service industry, deal with it"
"True, I also have opposable thumbs to hang up with. Please call tomorrow with any further queries"

I hung up and never heard from him again!

I guess the point of this is I am happy to do after hours appointments, I have been known to do a Sunday appointment on occassion and early morning appointments if need be to accommodate people. As I am so willing to be flexible with my appointment times the only thing I ask is that people can be a little polite and not call me after 9pm - ish unless it is an emergency!

 

[DaveM]

My agents are open a mix

Agent 1 (handles 3 properties) - Office based Property Mgmt is Mon-Fri, leasing agent 6 days a week

Agent 2 (handles 1 property) - Property Mgmt is 6 days a week, open houses any of those 6 days (mostly on sat)

 

[veebeeseewee]

Thanks for everyone's inputs.. I've talked to the team and obviously it said on the ad that inspect by appointment, so depending on the tenants' requests (or maybe their own schedule, who knows), and depending on the crowd during the week. If it's not enough tenants over two inspections let's say, then they only try weekends (as my available date will be a Friday, I'm losing the weekends almost instantly!

Not sure if I should do my own opening or not...

 

[veebeeseewee]

I had this problem when I was looking for a rental in Elizabeth, but not in any other area.

I think they work on the assumption that noone with a job will be looking for a rental in that area so they don't need to go out of their way at all. Once I worked out which agencies did that I just didn't even bother looking at any listings through those agencies, it wasn't worth it.

The rental I eventually found was with an out-of-area agent that actually treated me like a human being not third class scum. Like, you know, I was allowed to see the house after work, before I signed the lease. Wow.

This was 2003 though, maybe times have changed.

I've talked to my PM about your experience and make sure they will treat all my potential tenants well, not like a third class scum like you said. She took my feedback and also said if any one who requests to have viewing after hour, she'll try to accommodate that. I hope PMs down that side have improved their attitude/service since 2003 too.

 

[Beau Miller]

As a Property Manager, I think to have the best chance of finding good tenants you need to be flexible and work with the prospective tenants to make a time to suit them. I would hate to have turned a good tenant away because I couldn't have shown them the property after work or on the weekend.

It's so common to find real estate agents that have PM's that just 'work' in the business and their wage doesn't have a direct connection to the income generated by finding tenants. On top of that, many agencies I have worked with (as a consultant) employ people that have never owned their own rental property so it isn't obvious to them that every day the property is vacant the owner is loosing money. PM's can be educated on this but in so many cases they are left to do the basics with no coaching or mentoring.

veebeeseewee sounds like you have spoken with the right people at the office and if your happy with their answers I am sure you will have minimal vacancies. If your still concerned it might be worth finding out who owns the business and have a chat. Good luck

 

[Lil Skater]

I'm actually the only one in our office who will conduct private inspections. My opinion is, if a tenant handed in their NTV and the property 28 days later is still available, either the property is over priced or the PM's aren't getting on their enquiries like they should.

If I meet someone, and feel comfortable enough to be alone in a property with them I have absolutely no problem taking them on a private. Two week ago our rental list was 9 pages long, it is now 2. I had 4 properties, all leased and a further 5 of other PM's properties were leased by me too - all by private inspections. Everyone in the office calls me the leasing queen!

In saying this though, in our office we work Monday - Friday 9-5:30 and we rotate Saturday's and also have a 24/7 emergency contact number (which I've been lucky enough to be stuck with and get calls from people at 10pm at night for a leaking tap!!!!!) if we work the Saturday we have a half day off during the week. Works for me!

Our office also forbids us (yes, that's right, forbids) to do any inspections or appointments after 5:30pm.

 

[Goofy]

Our office also forbids us (yes, that's right, forbids) to do any inspections or appointments after 5:30pm.

I can certainly understand why some agents would forbid inspections after 5:30pm. when you actually sit down and think about it.. PM's are putting their safety at risk every time they meet with a client at a property. Especially considering that the vast majority of PM's are female and a lot of them are young they can easily be attacked when they are alone with a client in a property. there are a lot of nut jobs out there!! At least when a PM is out doing appointments during the day there are people in the office who will know they are missing. The receptionist or someone else in the office should ALWAYS know where each staff member is and what time they are expected back and if they are 15 minutes over that time then they should be calling them to check they are ok. Appointments after 5:30 can be dangerous giving that they are often conducted on the way home from work and therefore nobody has any idea that there maybe a problem and partners/family/friends wouldn't know where they are and who they are meeting. But it is why i always make sure that any new staff member that comes on board goes through a training process regarding how to show clients through properties ie making the client walk into a room first, always leave the front door open and always make sure that you are the person closest to the front door so you are not blocked into the property plus a few other safety strategies to minimise the risk.

Sorry deviated a little from the original topic sorry.. but more just saying it so that owners on here can understand why at times some agencies may say no to after hours inspections. So i will tend to do the after hours inspections (i know kickboxing, self defence and have been doing this long enough to trust my gut and ensure i don't put myself in a dangerous predicament) and the other girls in the office will do them before work which works great for me because i HATE morning appointments and quite a few tenants want them and the girls hate after work inspections so it all works out

 

[kathryn d]

I understand about the safety factor.
Do female REA agents also refuse to show houses for sale after 5:30?

If I was the owner of a PM rental agency, I may be more inclined to employ men...at least for showings.

 

[AlmostBob]

so why put the ads in the Saturday paper?

ring ring ; Real estate agent good morning:: sorry call back monday to see the place, when you are at work and can't see the place
'dierdre add another $25 answering call charge to that owner's account'

 

[BuildingBlocks]

Do female REA agents also refuse to show houses for sale after 5:30?

haha spot on!

 

[Goofy]

I understand about the safety factor.
Do female REA agents also refuse to show houses for sale after 5:30?

If I was the owner of a PM rental agency, I may be more inclined to employ men...at least for showings.

female sales agents faces the same risks (i cant remember which state it was in but there was a female RE Sales agent who was murdered showing a client through a property not that long ago) all i was saying is that i can understand why some employers take the stance of no appointments after hours... they are putting the safety of their staff first, however MOST agents teach their staff ways to protect themselves (or should be teaching them) to mitigate the risks so that after hours appointments can be catered for.

It should also be noted that while men are stronger and therefore the risk of harm is lower, they are also at risk....

 

[RumpledElf]

so why put the ads in the Saturday paper?

ring ring ; Real estate agent good morning:: sorry call back monday to see the place, when you are at work and can't see the place'

Yeah, and that stupid 'only during work hours' thing is great if you are looking for a rental 5 minutes from work and can nip out in your lunch break, if you're looking a hour's drive from work you really can't do it during the day - check the location of DSTO in Adelaide, it is right in the middle of a low socioeconomic area (Elizabeth/Salisbury/where the OP has her house) and virtually noone working there lives within a 30 minute radius because of it.

In some areas I imagine a 9-5 monday-friday rule could mean the difference between finding tenants and not finding tenants at all, its a strange rule. At the very least having an open on saturday morning would suffice.

 

[Sez]

There are several cases of people being attacked in properties after hours but there was recently a murder in VIC. I think this is what Goofy may have been talking about?

There are always things to do to minimise risk. My employers always know where I am, who I am meeting and approx. how long my appointment will take. If I attend an after hours appointment they know where I am and I always contact them when I get home to let them know there were no problems. If my appointment runs long and they haven't heard from me they will call me to check in and make sure everything is ok. Obviously safety is something which all agents must think about but people can accomodate after hours appointments maintain a good level of safety while doing so.