Benny wrote:

Hi all, Wouldn’t the rate charged by the agent be somewhat different depending on the rental rate charged in a given area?
e.g. If 8% were “the going rate” then an agent managing a property in Point Piper for $3000 a week would make $240 a week (for what)?Whereas the agent managing a property in Mt Druitt renting for $300 a week makes $24 a week. Is there 10 times more work for the agent in managing the Point Piper property?
Now, the examples above show two extremes – surely “in the middle of those extremes” agents in differing areas can do quite OK on 5% or 10%, depending?
Benny

This is true Benny – in the back ground most of us work to contract value. The property has to earn a particular income to be worth it for the agency. For a $3000 per week property, 3% or a flat fee may be negotiated and yes it’s all negotiated. If you look for smaller companies they may be more flexible and tailored to what you need and want as a client.

My initial post re- the 5.5% fees is a personal observation that those clients are easier to convert over to a higher fee after a few years of having experienced the cheaper agents – sometimes.
The disclaimer here off course is that the ones where everything was going perfectly would not source another agent to switch to.

Hi Jules
Unfortunately property managers are like solicitors and can charge anything for anything.
Management Fees vary from 4.4% to 11%
Then there are letting frees, lease renewal fees, fees for routine inspections, outgoing/ingoing inspections, monthly admin fees.

Cheaper is not always better.

Have a look at the total package and calculate what you will be paying per week for someone to manage your property – that is the only way to compare between agents.

all the best

Xenia

Property investing was the beginning of my personal journey to self development.

At the end acquiring properties was just the tangible result of becoming a bigger person.

I’m assuming that the agent has your letter of offer including your terms of purchase and subject to’s?

It’s normal for an agent to allow the vendors to consider the letter of offer first. It that is accepted by the vendors then it gets written up as a contract.

If offer is rejected then no contract would be entered into anyway.

chase him up on Monday.
If you contact vendors, he would just say that he was waiting for them to approve letter of offer first.

He could have always just given you a blank contract to be nice while the vendors are considering….