Hi there
While I can appreciate the appeal of saving the property management fee by doing it yourself, you must keep in mind that the role of a professional property portfolio manager should include a range of responsibilities that property investors can and should take advantage of including:
- A professional appraisal of local market conditions
- A well written set of online advertisements for the property
- A professionally conducted open house
- Thoroughly analysed tenant applications
- A well-documented, and photographed, ingoing inspection
- Conduct “settling in” inspection
- Regular six-monthly periodical inspections
- Daily updates on rent collections and manage arrears
- Deal with tenants’ repair requests and make sure that the repairs are carried out professionally and at a cost-effective price.
- Be aware of opportunities for preventative maintenance and renovations that might increase the rent achievable on a particular property
- Be meticulous about rent reviews and ensure that increases are managed equitably.
- Provide landlords with regular reporting on the financial transactions surrounding the tenancy and ensure that all relevant bills are paid including tenant bills for water usage and breakages.
- Keep abreast of ever changing legislation related to each tenancy.
- Work consistently to improve the landlord’s return on their investments as by doing so, the agency itself will also improve its return.
Property management is, essentially, a commission only service that is founded upon the agency being paid a percentage of the rent collected. If the rent is collected on time, the tenants look after the place well and the rent is consistently and reasonably increased over time, then everybody wins.