Finding a good property manager is so vitally important to the ease and on some level, the growth, of your investment property.
You will hear me mention this time and again but your investment property is a business. You need to treat it like one. So finding yourself a good property manager is a good investment.
You have sunk a massive amount of money, time and to a degree risk into this investment.
For a case study, let’s assume instead of a house it is a cafe.
That cafe is a 3-hour drive from home so you enlist the services of someone to manage things for you. Hire staff, ensure it is maintained, clean and prices are increased when appropriate.
If the customers of employees have complaints they are looked after…or managed appropriately.
If there are maintenance issues you want to ensure they are actioned. Your manager should get quotes plus share photos so you can see the damage, concerns and why trades were required.
Managing a cafe is a big deal. If that cafe cost you $500k and you make $48,000 a year from it with $39,000 worth of costs you wouldn’t want to have too much grief from the business.
You want to sleep at night and see the takings in your account fortnightly or monthly. You want to be sure your obligations to a finance company are met. You would also like to have a report at the end of the financial year so you can see the real numbers.
If your manager hired bad staff the cafe would get a poor reputation. It wouldn’t be run well. It would not be maintained. There would external complaints to also deal with.
At this point you would probably fire your manager and look for someone to trust, someone who can alleviate your financial situation. Ensures you get peace of mind, reduce stress and the time that you are dedicating to your business.
Which brings me to this point if you would be quick to fire a bad manager in a business scenario. Why is it so many investors hold onto lazy, unreliable, non- communicative property managers?
We hear the worst of stories from investors, some recent highlights – being told after 3 months there has been no rent received (true story), being charged for pool cleaning (no pool), properties left damaged, maintenance not reported. So a small leak becomes a big expensive damp issue and tenants not paying market value so the owner has been out of pocket potentially thousands of dollars.
I have had a mostly good run with managements. I have had my PM’s put up new curtains for me in an interstate property. They have over delivered on sourcing quotes and secured a rental return on one property $20 above the advertised weekly price.
Some property managers are bloody awesome. It is a tough job so I salute the industry heroes out there. PM’s have many people to report to and no one calls them for anything particularly positive. It is also a job with no standard hours so it can be draining mentally with plumbing issues that happen at 7am on Sunday mornings.
If you have a good property manager, maybe thank them, send them a Xmas card, let them know they are appreciated. They are looking after one of your biggest assets so you want to know their name!
If you need to fire the one you have because they are out of luck and out of excuses then do it fast!
Property Women has secured an awesome deal with Little Real Estate so if your properties are in QLD, NSW or Victoria. You can connect with Little today and get a dedicated account manager.
Just for mentioning that you are a member of our community they will waiver re- leasing fee’s, knock off 1% from their standard fee’s, price match any existing management fee’s plus you will pay NO MANAGEMENT FEES for 6 months – even on an existing lease.
You are a business owner, expect to have your team work for you, deliver a good service, secure you the best tenant and jump in when things go wrong.
Jo Vadillo
Jo Vadillo is a seasoned property investor and long time advocate for having the best team around you when it comes to investing. She often preaches that you get what you pay for. Cheapest is not always the best, but neither is expensive. Interview your team, hire slow, fire fast and expect the service you deserve.
