Parker Buyer Advocate’s Guide to Selecting a Property Manager
So you’ve purchased an investment property (or perhaps you’re upgrading and planning on renting out your current abode), congratulations! The hard part is over, now to select a Property Manager to help you on your landlord journey. Whilst this may seem like a fairly simple task, ensuring you get it right is pivotal to the success of your tenancies to come.
Becoming a landlord is a larger task than one often considers. Unless you’re awfully charitable, chances are your desire is to make money; to create wealth for you and your family, and ensure a healthy retirement. But what many don’t consider, are the responsibilities that come with being a landlord and the importance that meeting them can have on the well-being of your respective tenants, as well as the financial bottom line of your investment. Below is our 7 step introduction to ensure you get things right every step of the way.
Step 1 – Choosing the right Property Manager
This may seem like a simple task; after all, your wife’s, sister’s cousin is a Property Manager and she’s offered you a cheap deal, right? Wrong. While selecting a Property Manager is easy in practice, ensuring you have chosen somebody that is not only competent, but diligent in their practices is essential. It’s also great if you can find a Property Manager that you genuinely get along with; remember, you’ll be interacting with them regularly.
Here’s some bullet proof questions that you need to be asking when making your selection:
1. How long have they been working as a Property Manager?
Over 3 years is desirable.
2. How long have they been working for that particular company?
The longer the better, staff turnover in Property Management averages 9 months.
3. What is their average “time on the market”?
Anything over 15 days in a strong market is too long to source a quality tenant.
4. Why do they feel your property is worth X rent?
A competent Property Manager will pinpoint your properties strengths and weaknesses, which will help them arrive at their rental estimate.
5. How is their office set up? Who will you be dealing with on a day to day basis?
You want to have a direct connection to your Property Manager wherever possible.
6. Do they have administration assistance? If so, will you be liaising with them?
7. What does their tenant selection criteria entail?
Some Property Managers check tenancy references and have a complete due diligence process they follow when recommending a tenant. You want to avoid property managers who just go by their intuition or are slap happy and recommend anybody who fills out an application.
An experienced Property Manager should be able to answer all of those questions without batting an eyelid. If they’re stumbling through their answers or unclear, you know to give them a miss.
It is also important to focus on the person you are hiring, rather than the fees they charge. The agency with the cheapest fees are often times the worst choice, as their budget only allows them to hire inexperienced Property Managers. This can lead to costly mistakes and things getting missed. As they say – “Pay peanuts, Get monkeys”
Time to talk to the experts?
As experienced Buyers Advocates we connect with many Property Managers across Melbourne. We dedicate time to thoroughly interview and vet Property Managers for our clients using a 4 page interview process. Only a small handful of property managers pass our rigorous interview process. If you work with our Melbourne Buyer’s Agency to secure your next investment property, we will ensure your property purchase runs smoothly, right up to handing the keys to our selected Property Manager.
