Any of you managing your own investment property and tenants?
What do u have to do?I currently have only 1 property, and monthly i have to pay the agent $40. The thing is, they collect the rent early of the month, and only forward it to me on the 28th of the mth.
I am thinking of not having the agent, and to increase my profit by $40 a month.
Is that a good idea?
Some say they dont want to deal it themself coz if anything the tenant needs fixing, they’ll call u.
If the tap leaks at night, the tenant cant call the agent at 11pm at night anyway.hi fullout
i still manage one property myself only because it is a friend of a friend. In the past i have done it and made some mistakes. Put a single mum into a house in Ararat, nice girl, mum came with her to look at the house. spoke to a local agent who said she was OK but exhusband was bad news. put her in the house 4 weeks later she gets back with him, he starts selling drugs etc . neighbours start ringing me about the problem he is creating with people calling all hours of the night. eventually kicked them out but a bad experience. so now i pay someone to handle the hastles, i’m an investor not a property manager. although it could be good to manage it for a while as a learning experience, just be prepared to learn.
westanHi
Property Managers fees are in my experience money well spent.
Managing tenants and choosing new tenants takes good people skills and and you only realise this when things go wrong.
In What other business could you rely on somebody to collect money owed on your 200k investment, supply you with a yearly financial statement and do your dirty work if needed and charge 40 pw ( which is tax deductible any way)
Treat them as a business partner and not an unwanted expense and i reckon its heap service.
As far as THEIR banking arrangements go it’s a scam,and dont put up with it.If they refuse to change, arrange for your rent to be paid the day before their banking days.
JoffHi joff and fullout
one of my property managers “horsham real estate” are a very professional opperation, anyway they offer to pay the rent weekly, fornightly or monthly, i get it weekly.
this is very unusual (isn’t it?) but i hope a new trend.
westanHi there,
$40 a month!!! That’s $10 a week. There’s not much you can buy for that nowadays which will give you peace of mind and let someone else take care of the hassles. Besides, it’s a tax deduction.
If the property manager does his job well, then isn’t he worth $40 per month? If you spoke to the agent, I’m sure you could negotiate that the rent gets foward to you earlier, unless you’ve signed a contract stating otherwise.Cheers
Sooshie [
]“small steps make the journey” (SAS)
Wow that is cheap, especially for all the benefits that you’d get from using an agent (which everyone else has already posted on). Also, agents will usually be able to get you access to really cheap landlord’s insurance (I think it could be less than $100 per year in some cases).
I would only manage a property myself if I was renting to a close family member.
I’ll give my experience for what it’s worth. When I bought my 1st IP, that was managed by an agent. And I was not happy & eventually sold that property.
For my next IP, I decided to handle it myself. The toughest part is finding the right tenant.Most of you will agree that your tenant is your most important asset. So how many of you spent the time to know your tenant? When you handle your own property, you really get to know your temants.
To find your right tenant, just have a face to face conversation with each applicant. The one you feel most comfortable with is usually the best. If you have the slightest gut feel that it is not ok, I’ll give it a miss & advertise all over again.
I normally get a tenant within two weeks. And most stay for a couple of years. I have 3 IPs which I handle myself. All the tenants have been there for the last 3 years.
Admittedly, all my IPs are within 10 minutes drive from home. I also have a rule for myself. I must be prepared to live in my IP. For that reason, they are well maintained, both in & out. And believe me, it doesn’t take much effort if kept right from the start. It is also very easy to get a better tenant.
When you get to know your tenants, they become very reasonable with requests. There’s a lot of give & take. But keep the tenant happy, & you’ll have very little to do after the initial stages.
I’ll encourage you to give it a go if your IP is within a reasonable distant from home.
Fullout, you might be saving $40/M but some time it is not worth the trouble at all. Owner manager is good as long as all goes OK. What happens if tennant decided to go his/her way. Then trouble starts for you.
Ta, Paul
That’s great TrueBlue – sounds like a good example of self-management done the right way. But how much time do you have to spend on managing the properties? I work fulltime (hopefully not for too many more years), and it’s hard enough for me to find time to sort out my own stuff, let alone manage tenants.
Cheers
MHi Elysium-M, I work full time as well It’s usual for me to work 60 hours a week. I also used to coach basketball for my children’s team. Hence I don’t have much free time.
To answer your question, once the tenant is in place, there’s very little to do except to check that the rent is paid weekly. This takes less than a minute over the internet. I do make it clear at the start that I am to be advised if rent is late in coming.
As for minor repairs, I normally tell the tenant to get someone in & fix the fault & deduct the expense off the rent & the invoice be sent to me. This happens infrequently if your property is well maintained.
The single most important thing to managing your own IP is to do your due diligence on your tenants as you would when you buy your property. After that, it’s a breeze. I’ve done this for 10 years now. As a qualifier, I still leave my commercial properties to professional managers.
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