RentWise for managing own IP?

[s050399b]

Hi,

I was thinking of managing my own IP. How/what does RentWise fit into this picture?

I got "RentWise" from this forum; http://www.rentwise.com.au

Has anyone use it?

 

[wobbycarly]

There is some discussion here...

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61377

Also try...
http://www.google.com.au/#num=20&hl...=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=76fc9e29693a5f50

 

[redwing]

And here Clicky 1 and Clicky 2 both have some good questions and feedback regarding features

 

[Phoebe77]

Why have an agent manage your IP? At around 8% agent commission plus all those extra sundries it may be better to make it your own little business and do it yourself, if you have the time.

 

[redwing]

Why have an agent manage your IP? At around 8% agent commission plus all those extra sundries it may be better to make it your own little business and do it yourself, if you have the time.

Hi Phoebe,

Great to see a new member join up and jump on board straight away

Do you self manage all of your properties?

I find it easier to have Property Managers in place, they are required to keep up with the ever evolving legilslative requirements and day to day dealings of any tenant issues; all for a tax deductible fee

They are my buffer

Here's a couple of pertinent posts by Kierank & SimonJulie below on this matter

To me, it is simple economics.

Assuming rent $300pw for 52 weeks per year and pay PM 8% - that equals $1,248 in PM fees. I value my time at $200ph - so this equates to a little over 6 hours. For rent of $250pw and PM 7%, the PM fees equate to 4 hours of my time.

I understand that, on average, PMs manage around 200 properties each. Assuming that they work 44 weeks/per year (allowing 4 weeks annual leave, 2 weeks sick leave and 2 weeks public holidays) and 40 hour/week, they are expecting to spend 9 hours per IP.

So by using a PM (and I do on all of my properties, even the one 10 mins away), I am saving myself time and money. Either I expect to spend 9 hours per year managing each IP or I pay someone equivalent to 4 to 6 hours of my time to do it.

I use the same principle in my business (I pay someone to sell our products, I pay someone to deliver our services, I pay someone to do our bookwork, etc) and at home (I pay someone to do the gardening, I pay someone to do the housework, etc). I do this because they can do it better and cheaper than if I did it myself. That does not mean that I don't supervise and manage them. Of course I do or I pay someone to do it.

Same with PMs - they can do it better and cheaper than if I did it myself but I still have supervise and manage them - if fact, I pay one of my staff to do that (because they can do it better and cheaper ).

I understand that all wealthy people employ this principle - I am not wealthy but am trying to get there.

Does this mean that I don't get a bad PM? Hell no!! When I do, I do the same thing when I get a bad/poor member on my team - you fire them!!!

With over 7 years of self-management and more than 20 rentals I hardly consider myself an expert but I think this is an interesting post and worth contributing to.

Before you know whether or not you want to hire a PM or self-manage you need to ask yourself some questions. How much do you know about the Residential Tenancy Acts in the state(s) where you hold property? Are you a people person, prepared to communicate as regularly as necessary with tenants? Prepared to be both flexible and firm and know when to be which? Willing to build a rapport with your tenants so you can enjoy a good relationship with them and communicate with them at their level and on your terms? Develop and follow a system that makes decision making easier. Keep clear and concise records so that if you need to present yourself to an insurance company or a tribunal you can present a professional case.

If you choose to hire a PM are you prepared to accept them as being an expert and how will you know if they are if you don’t understand the game very well yourself. Are you prepared to accept the high staff turnover that is characteristic of property management agencies knowing that your tenant(s) may not get a lot of continuity and may be treated like a faceless stranger.

For anyone who has read my post entitled “evicting non-tenant” it may be worth noting that the first sign of trouble came when my tenant approached me to get out of her lease. She asked if “housemate” could go on the lease instead of her. This rang warning bells and I said that I would have to approve the housemate before I would enter into a lease with her. But on further questioning I decided that housemate would not be suitable. If I had had a PM in place how would they have handled this? They may have phoned me and told me that one tenant wanted to leave and another wanted to take her place. I could have simply said yes and could have ended up with a bigger problem. My view is that PMs generally want to get a quick result with the least amount of fuss. PMs aren’t all bad. I have a few really good ones interstate with whom I have regular contact. But my bottom line is I really like dealing with my tenants directly. No PM will ever care about my properties as much as I do and they can never offer the same fast efficient service I can offer my tenants directly. I personally manage 15 of my rentals and this does not take up a lot of my time. I follow a system that makes the job easy but when I have a problem I want to fix it quickly and not be at the mercy of someone possibly less competent than myself. I do enjoy PM because 90+% of the time my tenants are nice people and easy to deal with.

If you don’t like dealing with people, property management may not be for you. Even if you don’t deal directly with tenants you still have to have a relationship with your PM.

Good luck to you either way you choose and I hope this post helps shed some light.

Regards
Julie

 

[AlmostBob]

PM required to keep up with legislation... so is the landlord.,
Do pms keep up, they seem NOT
all the other threads on somersoft about pms, not a positive thought in the bunch,
allowing for the propensity to complain, there are a heck of a lot of poor quality pms
at least if I lose, its for something I did
find a good pm, is a ****load harder than finding a pm
we use a rental software, not appropriate to Aus it supports very different tax legislation, very easy to see where the money is at any point




Fun with asterisks

 

[Xenia]

The optimum word here is "time"

Outsourcing property management is trading time value for money.
You can save the money if you have the time as Phoebe said and you can save the time if you have the money.

Also think of all the fun times you guys have bashing property managers on this forum we provide hours of entertainment too

what would you do without us

 

[Luv2Travel]

Also think of all the fun times you guys have bashing property managers on this forum we provide hours of entertainment too

My PM is boring, I have no entertainment to provide to this forum. I've just taken on my second one, I hope they also remain boring, in that my rent comes in and I barely hear from them.

There is lots of criticism of property managers on here, true, and there are a number of bad ones out there, true. But there are also some high maintenance landlords who think their property is a castle that the property manager should drop everything for and attend to everything (no matter how small and non urgent it is) right away. If you want that kind of service, it requires the PM to have a smaller port folio, which would result in higher fees, but then the landlords would be complaining about that.

 

[wobbycarly]

I'm with Biggles. 4 PMs and pretty much only ever hear from them once a month when they post or email their statement. Just the way I like it.

 

[redwing]

The optimum word here is "time"

Outsourcing property management is trading time value for money.
You can save the money if you have the time as Phoebe said and you can save the time if you have the money.

Also think of all the fun times you guys have bashing property managers on this forum we provide hours of entertainment too

what would you do without us

Weren't you self managing your IP's from Canada though