Questions To Ask a Property Manager

When looking for a property management company for your investment property, make sure you meet up with the team face to face.  Personal instinct will go a long way towards picking people you trust to look after your investment.

Face to face is also the best way to ask questions.  To follow are some basic questions which will help you to make your decision, while covering all the important bases.

1.  Monthly Cost:   Most managers charge a monthly fee to maintain, watch and care for your property.  Fee’s can vary widely, and you shouldn't base your decision solely on the answer to this question, however it is imperative to know as a component to your ROI.
2. Vacancies and Leasing Fee:  Most managers charge a fee for procuring a tenant for a vacant property.  This fee offsets the managers costs for advertising, showing the property and the time spent with paperwork.  

Timing is Everything When Marketing Your Property

When is the best time to commence marketing a property that’s becoming available to rent?

Many property managers get stuck into it straight away – when a tenant gives notice that they’re going to vacate or when they receive a completed Authority to manage a new property.

But are these the most effective times?

A large number of prospective tenants looking for a property to rent have their favourite websites set up so that they are alerted when a new property that fits into their criteria of the property they are looking for hits the site. They want action now and want to view that property.

Melbourne: Where Have All the Good Trades Gone?

Where have all of the good trades gone?  With a booming building industry in Melbourne it’s really hard to find trades to attend to anything but basic maintenance.

The Herald Sun published the following article in April resulting in heated comments on solving the above problem.  Do we make it easier for immigrants to enter the country or do we allocate resources toward educating and encouraging today's youth to learn a trade?

Article: 

We Think Melbourne Tenancy Laws are Tough

Having been involved with property management in the United States for over 15 years, I believed that although their tenancy legislation was primarily ‘landlord friendly ‘in most States, there were problems with lead-based paints. The following article was posted on Boston real Estate Now on 15 June 2011 by Rona Fischman.

"Earlier this year, the Attorney General sued a Metro-Boston landlord for evicting or threatened to evict tenants with young children, renting apartments containing lead paint to tenants with young children, failing to abate lead hazards in those apartments, failing to provide proper notice of lead hazards to his tenants, and making misrepresentations regarding the presence of lead paint in his apartments. The complaint further alleges that the landlord retaliated against tenants when they reported him for violations of the law.  

Buying Opportunities Increase as Australian Housing Market Slows

Investors on the hunt for properties around the country might now have the chance they dreamed of for the past few years. 

It's well and truly a buyers' market out there, with the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) releasing figures for the March quarter that show declines in property values across most cities.

President David Airey says the housing market has slowed slightly, due to cyclical changes.

"Both house and other dwelling median prices decreased by 2.5 per cent to $532,695 and 1.8 per cent to $422,947 respectively," Airey says.

"This represents a deceleration in property prices after a period of solid growth in previous quarters. We're witnessing the impact on prices of increases in cash rates during the second half of last year, rises in the cost of living have restrained household spending and the natural disasters in Queensland have also significantly affected the property market.”

Property Managers = Equal Partnerships?

I never have been able to figure out whether the Lone Ranger and Tonto were equal partners in the business of fighting against man’s inhumanity to man. There was the Lone Ranger riding Silver merrily along the trail with Tonto doing the bush-basing through the long grass of the prairie.Was that an equal partnership? And any time a ravishingly beautiful blonde damsel in distress popped into the drama, poor old Tonto never got a look in. Was that fair?

For whatever obscure reason, the Lone Ranger and Tonto always make me think of real estate principals and their property managers. Damned good question you ask….why?

You never get to hear when, why and how this mysterious partnership was formed so I’ll let you into a secret. When Tonto was just another troubled Comanche youth, his village was raided by the Mohawks and he was left to die alone on the prairie. A young Lone Ranger happened by and nursed him back to health and for ever after, Tonto was deeply indebted to the masked hero.

Still can’t see the connection?

How many property managers do you know who, fresh out of school, are employed by some Flash Freddie estate agent as a receptionist and as the business grew, was promoted to the heady heights of property manager? How grateful is that young property manager to the kindly principal who provided the opportunity for a ‘career’ in real estate ‘managing ’a property portfolio worth millions of dollars? Eternally!

Yesterday's Rent Collectors are Today's Property Managers

I have the distinct feeling that the business of property management is regressing.…going back in time to the dark ages, that is pre-computer. Now there are some who may be reading this post who do not know of a time when there was no email or the Internet or even Facebook.

A little bit of history….

When I started in real estate it wasn’t property management per se, it was ‘rent collecting’ and you were the rent collector. At that time, properties were advertised in the newspaper and prospective tenants would call by the office, leave a deposit and collect a key to view a property. ‘Rent collectors’ worked a 5-day week and properties were never open for inspection at set times. Property owners or tenants could not contact you after hours as mobile phones had not been invented (imagine that) and you certainly didn’t give anyone your home telephone number. You were paid a pittance but you had no involvement with the business outside your allocated 40 hour working week.

With the introduction of mobile phones, email and the Internet things began to change. In the early 90’s ‘Communication’ became the catch-phrase of the day and rent collectors became property managers with some even reaching the dizzy heights of ‘Asset Managers’, whatever that meant. Properties were marketed on various websites and the response from prospective tenants to this 24/7 availability of information was astounding.

We then progressed to on-line tenancy applications and maintenance requests. Some companies even provided on-line access to their property owners and tenants to view controlled areas of information regarding their property or tenancy.