property manager or D.I.Y

Hi jec,
You just have to ring the RE agents in the area to see who will give you the best deal. Also beware that there are 52 weeks in the year that means the RE/Property manager can only look after your property for 1 week in the year if they are looking after 52 properties. You do the sums.
This is what we did to find the most helpful property manager for our IP.

Best of luck,
Twilight

Hi,
My opinion is consider if you have the time and skill to manage worst case situations:
1. Tenant is in arrears. You need to know the process you must follow (ie letters, tribunal hearings, etc). You must also have the time to attend to all these items.
2. Tenant skips town and leaves the place in a mess with a big clean up bill.

I agree with Twilight that the smaller managers are usually better as they dont have the brand behind them to push sales.

If you have a full time job I would find a good property manager and try to get somewhere down to 5-6% commission. If the agent keeps filling the property with good tenants then this is just cream for them.

If the property pays $200pw then you are paying the agent $10pw or $520pa to collect money, manage your outgoings, followup maintenance, etc, etc.

Mat