I have a property manager (a franchised 'Professional' – whoops – gave it away) that have we not been happy with for a little while (very slow in getting back to me via phone and email) who to cut a long story short looks after two properties for me and my wif (don;t you call your wife that sometimes?) and I have just done a brief interstate property inspection today, and found one of the places has a guy conducting his own computer business inside the lounge room (with overflow to the two bedrooms) and looks like a complete brothel……also he was going to have 'a small dog outside' which actually means two small dogs and a %^&@@ cat inside. Yep, it reeks. The other place has had major tennant instability, and the last one was 'selected' because (quote) 'we dont want a bad standard of tennant, so this is one we know and recommend, which is why you should not get upset about your house bieng vacant for 5 weeks in an area with high demand' (I added the last bit) .
I thought I was going to have a stroke, or some sort of seizure when I saw the 'computer business place' this arvo, and the other place has been described as 'untidy' on the 'inspection reports' over the last 12 months, and I did a drive buy this arvo, and all the nice landscaping and barkchips we paid to have put down prior to the tennant moving in so ' they were happy with it' (not my words – trust me) are covered in weeds and recently hastiy sprayed roundup.
So …….. as the latter is vacating in less thn 2 weeks, give m your thoughts – please. Do we –
1) Take it on the chest
2) Get another agent NOW
3) Warn them and give them another goInterested in any thoughts. Bearing in mind we dont want to burn bridges, and rent is always paid on time, and we have been happy with steady growth – all of course nothing to do with the above – just hiliting the truth that sensibly bought property, in a reasonable area is the best investment eh?
Cheers
they arent doing much of anything (or at least anything that takes any effort) that you pay them for , why would you consider keeping them? I'd be looking for recommendations and moving on.
Move on, why have they not told you about the extra pets if nothing else; they know you are interstate and are slacking off because of it. With the next agent could you get a few photos sent to you with the inspection reports?
the joys of property ownership. What do you expect ? To get renters that take care of the house like you would ?
Dreams… Anyway, soon the rental market will crash also, so your situation isn't the worst. The worst is when you can't find renters at all.Another positive post from Scamp
You should definitely get another agent!!! Don't mess around – Especially because you aren't close by to the properties!
Cheers
Banjo Smyth
BanjoSmyth wrote:Another positive post from ScampYou should definitely get another agent!!! Don't mess around – Especially because you aren't close by to the properties!
Cheers
Banjo Smyth
you would think he could stick to appropriate threads wouldnt you? the guy asks a very specific question and he gets the scamp company line ….. its great to have opinions but obsession gets a bit weird .
thanks for the comments so far guys/girls/others (the latter would be 'scamp' eh?)
Pretty much what I have been thinking.
I am meeting with another property manager tomorrow, and also have someone who out of the blue approached me to see if they could move in – and avoid the agent altogether. We'll see with that one.
Sally ann I think your comment re pictures is almost something all of us should possibly request now. We have just got an IP settling in Vic and the manager we chose has advised they always take pictures to supply with the inspections, as they feel 'many agents get lazy and just tick boxes'.I looked at some of the photos I took of the one property again after posting this, and must admit I nearly had another stroke.
THanks for the opinions again – and feel free to add, or hijack the post with any relevant discussions. Cheers
Hi All,
I've had a rather unfortunate episode with a property manager of a fairly large and well known fRancHise.
We put a lovely young girl, Nicole, in charge of our management in July of last year where they were quite quick to find a tenant – mother, her son and his two kids, paying $50 higher than the average rents in the area which we were estactic with. Let me tell you it all went downhill from there.We weren't given copies of any documentation and the building inspections weren't signed off by us – which I've since been told is a big no-no. 6 months down the track the rent was in arrears so we rang them up to speak to Nicole. "Nicole doesn't work here anymore she was asked to leave, I'm looking after your property now", we were told. We were also told that there was only a man living there and he'd bring his mates in to crash over on the mattress in the living room. My wife went to take a look at the place and was disgusted with the smell and the way the house was kept. A tenant who couldn't look after our asset and who couldn't pay their rent on time wasn't our kind of tenant so we tried to get them out. "I've sent a remedy to breach notice and they've got 2 weeks to pay and only if they don't pay can we kick them out" Well they paid within the 2 weeks but before long he knew the game and was late with his rent on numerous occasions. Well we put up with the situation hoping the tenant wouldn't stay. In the month before the end of the lease I rang the agency to find out. "Who is this?". Another change of rental managers and a rude one at that. Well the tenant was moving out much to our relief and they were advertising for the spot right away. In this rental crisis it shouldn't be a problem to put someone in I thought. Wrong! Not if you've got Sandie Hope looking after the property (whoops). Week 1 after the moving out of the tenants. "haven't found anyone Robert so I think we need to decrease the rent by $50". I thought she was mad. Rent goes up – not down. Having been unsatisfied with their service or lack thereof I spoke to a few property managers to discuss my options. "It's easy" they all said "Normally they'd want 30 – 90 days payment in lieu of notice but they haven't rented it out so they would just give you back the key". Great I thought. Couldn't contact the manager so I faxed the cancellation letter through. The day after we got a letter in the post saying that we were required to pay 90 days management fee to cancel. My wife managed to get in touch with her and the manager was very adamant that she wouldn't budge as they had the 'rights'. During this time we were being eaten alive by the repayments on the house. With the reality that Sandie would purposely not put anyone in for 90 days. We just wanted someone in there so we tried a different approach. We agreed to give her the rights if she could find a tenant quicker than any other agent. She agreed. Within 2 days another agent we had sought help from had placed someone in the house at a higher rent than we received before PLUS they were paying the electricity and water. BONUS. My wife then had the task of getting the key from the property manager. She went with her 'brother' (our new proactive agent). The manager refused to give the key back, luckily the 'brother' agreed to leave if and only if the manager could sign a declaration why the key couldn't be given back to the owners. Of course she refused to do that and started to co-operate. Rental documents were then demanded of her which she photocopied and gave up with out resistance and reluctantly handed the key over.
I've never dealt with such a person in my life and am glad it is finally over. I've been told by our new rental agent that there aren't many rental agents like that but you need to be very aware of who is looking after your property which you are working hard for.
We are now finding tradespeople to fix up the house in areas that were'nt reported to us.
Do not use this woman as your property manager, she put us through a lot of grief as did the company she worked for. This episode has taught us alot about
1)screening property managers
2)staying on top of your 'employees'
3)seeking expert help from expertsWell that's my gripe.
well i havent been a part of this web site for long but it is long enough to know that scamp is nothing but a miserable trouble making pathetic attempt of a human being. Get a f#&ing life scamp,but then again i suppose this is your life you poor miserable thing, something bad must have happened in your life to make you so bitter to everyone who is looking for genuine opinions or help in their quest for personal wealth and freedom. i feel sorry for you , but then i have probably given you the reaction that you so deliciously grave so…….. enjoy. And im not even going to bother to message you back so go your hardest.
My advice to everyone is that if scamp doesnt have anything constructive to add to the conversation then to just totally ignore him/her, because we are only here for constructive criticism not malicious criticism.Ive spent the last 2 weeks emailing property managers about rental properties available on Brisbanes north side.
out of 60 requests for an inspection via realestate.com.au, Ive had a grand total of ONE phonecall or email response.
if you have properties that arent getting tenants, this could be your problem?
For the first time ever we have had more than one applicant for a property we have that is vacant. We did our own advertising and initial vetting. Narrowed it too four. Then passed to the agent. Three applied and we had to choose. We live 4000k from this property. I respect our agent, but understand they don't only work for us. They have to manage their time, and some are better at this than others. So four days of vacancy and we have a tenant. Nothing beats working together instead of expect the world. Remember the agents are running a business too. Having said that, nothing excusses some of the behaviour of others I have had dealings with, and swiftly moved on from.
JL
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
