Dear Dee Dee,

First of all, congratulations on your first investment property.
My wife and I have 3 properties in Perth and one in Broome.
We also live overseas.
I too am a soft touch for tenant sob stories, so with living overseas and my softness, we have no choice but to use Property Managers.

My experience of Property Managers (P.M.s) is that almost all of them are extremely bad.

They don’t give a toss about you or your investment.

They are more than happy to spend your money and then charge you for doing so.

We have experienced the following ……
* a quarterly property inspection that consisted of the PM driving past the house on the way home from work on Friday evening.
She didn’t know it but we were on holiday in Perth and had gone to visit the tenants. They told us the insection was due that afternoon and we saw the PM drive past. When we saw the PM on Monday she was adamant she did a complete Property Inspection and she showed us her report ( bedrooms tidy, backyard needs sweeping etc.). When we called in her boss and exposed her as a liar and a cheat, we initially got “well she does have 120 properties to manage, so she can’t be expected to be perfect” and when I blew up on that we were told “if you’re not happy with our service ‘bugger off’ and by the way, you’ll be breaking the PM contract so you will have to pay a cancellation fee”.

* Urgent phone calls that the water main on the house has burst and immediate action is required. This always hapens after 5 pm on Fridays and before 9 am Mondays. We’re overseas so all we can do is say “go for it”. Then on later investigation it turns out to be a leaky garden tap washer that needs changing. Cost of that tap washer was $150.
Again when exposed, the PM said “I’ve got over 120 properties to manage etc.”

* dogs in properties that you have specified ‘No Pets’ (PM said “I never noticed” – aggressive German Shepherds are so easy to miss)

* Full scale clothing factory being run from one of our houses. (PM said ” I didn’t want to ask in case I offended the tenant).

We have so many horror stories of Property Managers.

Our lessons are as follows.

Arrange a meeting with your PM and their boss.
Prepare for this meeting by:

Buy a sleeping bag.
Soak that sleeping bag in cold water.
now spend the night in it.

If you are a lady who suffers PMS, make the meeting during that time.

If you are a guy who is into golf, let your wife drive the car over your favorite club.

The idea is to go into the meeting really pi**ed off and with zero tollerance of Bulls**t.

Now tell them – DO NOT DISCUSS IT – tell them.

As far as you are concerned, they have only ONE property to manage – YOURS. Do what you like with the other 120 properties on their books but look after yours properly.

The whole idea of the investment property is to make money for you. It is not there to give them a job. If it doesn’t make money then you will get rid of it and invest in something that does make money and doesn’t use PMs.

Tell the PM that if they are not prepared to monitor the house and ensure that it is kept up to the standard you require, you will go elsewhere. – There are loads of middle aged housewives who have got the kids sorted out in school and want to earn a few bob as a PM.

Finally – 2 very big points – they are HUGE
When you eventually find a decent PM – stick with them. If they change companies – you change with them. Tell the PMs boss exactly that. He has to treat his PM right to keep your business. This means not loading the PM up with too many properties to manage properly.

Secondly – the WA government has a department called Consumer Affairs. This department produces a couple of quite large booklets, one is on your rights and responsibilities as a landlord, and the other is one for the Tenants – their rights and responsibilities. Get a copy of these books and read them.
You will be surprised at just how little PMs do actually know.

Final comment – we now have a PM who is fantastic. I lovingly nickname her “The Rottweiller”. No tenant messes with any property she manages. Even so, if we were able to live in Perth and manage our own properties, we would dump the Rottweiller in a heartbeat – they are just so expensive.

Good luck, and once again, congratulations.

Cheers