What annoys you about property management?

I'm a PM and actually went through this process with clients too! I work in an area where all PM's have a bad name and I wanted to stand out from the rest and make sure I was on the right track to keeping all of my clients really, really happy with my service! Obviously communitaction is important but I think the thing it really comes down to is be pro-active, not reactive. It's easy when in property managment to get into a situation where you are just reacting to everything which is happening, if you can get to a point where you are being pro-active half of the problems will be solved before they arise and you'll have some very happy landlords . Just my thoughts on it!

Ours were great at getting a tenant, it was never vacant, rental return was best in the suburb for the house type, good price and the rent was always on time (as they made their clients use an electronic direct debt system).

BUT……..

poor inspections…….. where issues are under reported. Eg noted at the 3 month inspection there was some paint coming off the walls. We called and asked about it when we recieved the report. Manager assured us it was only minor superficial and would be fixed. When they left a year later……. it was 1m x  1m of paint missing on a wall….(????)……… our property manager then didnt want to put in a claim because they claimed we rented the house out that way…….we got our money back in the end but there were numerous issues that should have been dealt with during the inspections that was not dealt with. They did their inspection after the tenants left, and said everything was fine. We went and had a look for ourselves……. very shocked as their final inspection was so glowing of the condition of the house….. turns out they got the carpet cleaner to inspect the home (yes I was told the cleaners inspect the house- how would they know the condition of the house they had never even seen the house before). Anyway thank god for bonds (which covered all but a few hundred dollars of damage which was covered by insurance)…….. We learnt our lesson. 
 
AND

Communication is the biggest one for me though. I found it really hard when I wanted to find out something. Everytime I called it seemed there was a new manager of our house, and a different person for each issue which mean talking to people who didn't communicate with each other.

Hi,
We have only been renting our IP out for the last 5 months and are alrady sick of our PM!
The hot water system was dodgy in the house so we asked the PM to get 2 quotes to replace it, we recived one within a day with the manager saying 'I'll email through the second one when I receive it".

Well two weeks later I get an email from her with a forwarded email from the unhappy tenant who had had cold water for the past two days, and asked us to hurry up and make our minds up and why we hadn't got it fixed! So I very nicely told her we were still waiting for the second quote and she didnt beleive me until I forwarded her the last email she sent me! She finally got the other quote and admitted she was in the wrong, but the tenants had a very bad impression of us and they had cold water!

Also, at the very start we had a change of PM without being informed which we didn't like too much.

TayloredProperty – I think it's great you have are getting property investors opinions, I think you will make a good PM with all this on board!

Good Luck!
Kate

Hey Skye,

Great to see you out on your own now. Hope everything is going well too.
Re your post though, I think the lack of communication sometimes, and the 'generic' cut'n paste type inspections would be the biggest gripe I have. Keep it personal. If I was buying over in sunny SA I'd give you a shot!

Cheers

As I type this, I'm chasing up two weeks of missing rent. Not long before, I went for a holiday for 2 weeks or so, round about the same time my PM went on leave. Recently I got down to checking my bank statements and found 2 weeks of rent were missing from the statements, corresponding to the period we were both on vacation.

I was under the impression that property investment was supposed to yield passive income. That is, money that comes in without you actually needing to work for it. This missing rent turns that concept on its head. Apparently if either the PM or myself (or both of us) go on vacation, the money doesn't come in! And of course, if I didn't check my bank statements and trusted that everything should be working fine, it would have been a grave error and my loss to bear.

Time and time again I've learnt to chase up and check things over and over. It makes you seem paranoid to do this, but life has taught me this much: don't concern yourself about what things should be like. Accept the things that are and rectify issues accordingly.

Anyway, I've spoken to an ex-PM as well and I'm sure they too have their own challenges. This particular person said that, between landlords that don't want to spend a cent on repairs and tenants that complain about everything, you've got your hands all tied up! That said, some PMs probably have WAY too many properties on their book to successfully manage them to an acceptable standard, hence causing the issues many people raise as above.

Good point Scott, although in this instance I am debating that the tenants actually have paid and it was the agent's office at fault for not ensuring the funds were disbursed to my account. Other than the missing rent these two weeks, I've been paid consistently every fortnight. Regardless, this is a grave concern.

I hear your point Mrs C – can I ask if the IP’s are in a small town (may be a bit of an explanation for the closeness but possible laziness of the pm if it’s not a small town). Have the selected tenants been a bad call by the agency? Familiarity can be a good or a bad thing – it may allow vigilance to drop or allow you to secure a tenant earlier (less loss of cashflow).

To further Derek’s point about contact, this is a business relationship – occasional contact with the pm costs zip but can also put you front of mind when dealing with prospective tenants for upcoming rentals rather than languishing for weeks with little activity.

In everyone's experience, how many properties is too many for a PM to properly manage and keep both sides happy? Any numbers someone can throw out there?

ONE

Ian
http://theblockblog
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