“property managers” too busy to manage properties!

Good luck Sonyasal,

Hopefully the PM has got their act together. Maybe request some interior photos to make sure they have at least inspected the property, the camera can time/date stamp the pic. You may need these anyway if their is any damage etc. My fingers are crossed for you, I'm hoping for the best out of this situation.

Good luck.

BTW, the rental we are living in, they sent out the notices to put up rent, never followed up, sent out notice for us to either re-sign lease or notify if we are vacating property. No option for month by month which I am allowed to do…..didn't follow that up either, tits on a bull, glad it isn't my property!

D

Hi All,

I have been reading on here for some months and have finally decided to post and hopefully help at least one person!

I really don’t understand why so many people use property managers… If the property is in reasonable condition, the suburb is ok, and the target tenants are going to be someone such as professionals or a family it seems that the odds are stacked against getting into trouble. Managers seem to cost money for no return, especially when the property is in the same city as you POPR. Most people who get to the point where an IP is within their opportunities are going to be a decent judge of character also.

We just purchased our first IP and immediately asked the property manager for a full history of the tenant, on receiving that we gave the manager 7 days notice (as we had no contract with them I thought even 7 days was generous), called the tenant to let them know that we were the new owners and self-managing, we dropped around for a cup of tea and to discuss if they would like us to do anything to the property for them (to establish the relationship), got ALL THE FORMS from Consumer Affairs, dropped over to sign them up and replace some smoke detector batteries and away it all went.

I had no knowledge of renting property going into this. I spent one day during winter reading forums, each states consumer affairs site, studied up the landlords rights and tenants rights here in VIC, made a spreadsheet and chatted to a few people from work. All up, including the meetings with the tenants maybe 20 hours. In a year I save $2000 in management fees, that means my income from this part time ‘job’ was $100 per hour plus I know more about my investment which equals less risk.

So I believe have a go yourselves! If I was maybe the CEO of a publicly listed company then yeah, I would be busy and use managers (haha, probably to manage my offshore bank accounts though) but I’m not. I work 40 – 60 hours a week so why not spend some time to better control the investment myself.

Remember, if you get the right tenants then they want to stay there as much as you want them to!

Also remember, real estate agents aren’t that smart, they’re real estate agents not astrophysicists so you can probably do it better yourself !!!

… or maybe I’m just nieve … we will see

Cheers

Hi All –
TSAU. Sure is something that can be learned, and you're quite right about some aspects.
If I was planning for the best result in a tenancy with no regard for CG or anything about the investment potential of the property, I would choose a nice property that 75% of the population would be happy to live in. This ensures that the property attracts a number of the right type of tenant. Poor properties attract bad problematic tenants.
Second is the tenant selection process. This involves vetting the tenants from their applications. This takes some skill, experience, practice and preferably access to the database of TICA, which I used everyday as a PM.
A certain number of tenancy applications contain a bad tenant. Not surprisingly, they lie and camouflage their tracks. An experienced PM who vets tenants on a daily basis becomes sharper in perception, develops a nose, and if using TICA,  has the edge.

By all means try self management, but understand you are vulnerable until you gain enough experience to vet bad tenants.

Until that time, I suggest you only rent to tenants with the ability to pay the rent and to be safe, must have details you can confirm absolutely by phone or in person or by paperwork like –
a good employment record (no unemployed – Centrelink won't talk to a landlord), 
clean car interior (your property will look like their car interior in 3 months),
well dressed and groomed,
previous good rent record with a reputable Real Estate Agent (not private landlord setups popular with scammers),
refererees contactable at their workplaces,
all of which double checks with numbers and addresses in the white pages and yellow pages, 
100 points ID like drivers licence, medicare card, bank plastic, phone bill, rego papers, utility bills,
all must be current and match, so you know that the person you just checked out as "tenant wonderful" is actually the person standing in front of you. 
Now that is about 75% of the list I used to check on as a PM.  The above list will weed out all but the best scammer, who will beat most PMs coz they're not thorough enough, and as you can see from this hot topic, good PMs are a small percentage. 

However if it all turns pear shaped, and you're in over your depth, take it to a good PM who will take it over for you for fees, and clean up the mess.

Hope that helps those considering self management.

Good luck
Cheers
thecrest
 

Quite right Scott.
The tenant vetting version I outlined is a low risk one for those considering self management.
It only allows for referees who also have jobs ( because if all of someone's friends are at home unemployed it tells you something about the tenant) and also those referees must be contacted at their places of work so their employment and position is automatically confirmed through the switch or first phone answerer, (can you put me through to John Smith please oh and by the way what's his position there please) and notice the mention of checking all contacts with White or Yellow Pages, so you can be sure you have a listed number not just what the applicant wrote on the form, so it's harder to fake a business. Mobile phone numbers tell you nothing, no good for references, not listed in the White or Yellow Pages with an address. Silent numbers no good for same reason. The phone book is a powerful ally for vetting people.
Cheers
thecrest