Direct Debit

We just do it ourselves and have tennets direct debited from their account.
We have each coded so we can trace payments.
Works fine (we have 8 tennent)and we check once a week.
Can see those who need a visit very quickly.
As our response time is like a Swat Team if there is non payment 99% of the time they toe the line.

All is explained upon taking out a contract to rent.
We have only one added condition.

“We will give you a great place to live and attend to anything that needs attention promptly—in return YOU pay your rent on time EVERY time.”.

Saves around 10K a year.

Hi Kevin

This sounds like a lot of trouble to save a few dollars per week. Sometimes ahving an agent is good to put some distance between landlord and tenant. eg. it is hard to tell someone that their rent is going up, but much easier to do if you go thru an agent. So you could be ‘squeezing’ out a few more dollars if you actually used an agent.

Terryw
Discover Home Loans
North Sydney
[email protected]

My father self managed all his own IP’s. What a nightmare! I must admit he probably didn’t go about it the smartest possible way but it was truly a pain for the whole family.

Also a solicitor I did business with a few years ago warned about self-managing down at Sydney’s northern beaches. He said that some tenants who have trouble renting through the normal channels target self-managers. He also went on to say that these people would move into a not so ideal property and drive the landlord nuts with requests to fix everything. In the meantime they don’t pay rent and threaten tribunal action to get things fixed. Meanwhile the poor old landlord spends forever trying to evict them!

As collector j says it’s smooth sailing collecting rent but what would YOU do with situations such as rent arrears, midnight flips, damage, tribunal hearings etc, etc, etc.

If you have trouble getting on with your fellow man and / or a nervous, stressful disposition leave the property management to someone else.

Well, we manage one ourslef and the others are through agents and find both are the same amount of work.

We find we often have to keep on the PM’s back about things they should be doing. So it doens’t always save time. The benefit though is advising that rent is going up, I find it easier for osmeone else to tell them, although having to remind the PM 3 or 4 times to do it is annoying, at least if I’d done it it would have been done first time.

I don’t know how many properties you have but if more thatn one, why not just try managing one first. We don’t direct debit out tenant, we have then direct deposit. So far he has never missed a payment and direct depositing doesn’t cost a cent. If they don’t put it in then you have the legal timeframes to wwait anyway for you can issue a brech for rent. Gives you time to sort the paperwork yourself and you can buy these forms form the newsagent as well.

I’d say Try one and see how that goes first, befor eyou do the whole lot.

Regards
PK

Most of the time I don’t even KNOW I’ve got buy and holds until the rent comes in. The agent takes care of everything. Makes my life much easier!

Keep smiling
Felicity