Owning an investment property can be a rewarding experience and it can also be rather frustrating.
Many investors have an expectation that things should be smooth sailing but when you’re dealing with people and property, at times it isn’t always easy.
There are ways that you can reduce the chances of encountering issues and unwanted expenses…and choosing the right Property Manager is the first step.
Today, we’ll explore a few more tips for selecting the right Property Manager, but we’ll also look at some of the biggest mistakes landlords make even if they do have the right Property manager in place.
Let’s continue our series… the “Biggest Mistakes That Landlords Make”…
- Choosing A Property Manager Based Upon Their Office Location – When selling a property, many people now realize that because of the way business is done over the internet, one of the main criteria of the agent selected is to choose someone that you feel is a great negotiator, has an excellent track record and one that you feel will be honest and work towards providing you the right advice about how to maximise the price. The location of the agent has never been less important than it is today. The same criteria should probably apply to selecting a Property Manager but surprisingly, it isn’t a factor that’s valued as highly. From the research we’ve seen, many landlords choose a Property Manager primarily based on the distance from the office to their property. I’ve heard many of them say things like “They are close so that they can keep an eye on it”…or “If something goes wrong, they’re just around the corner”. The reality is that they might be just around the corner, but the Property Manager won’t likely be driving past your property every day. Not only that, but the Property Manager in charge won’t be popping around to fix too many maintenance issues so their location is irrelevant to some degree. There’s certainly validity for the Property Manager to be located within a reasonable distance from the property as they are the ones that have the local knowledge about potential rent etc (just like it’s a good idea to have a salesperson with some idea of the area they’re selling in) but we feel that this shouldn’t be a major factor in influencing your decision about which Property Manager you choose.
- Inspect Yourself Every Year – It’s an obvious suggestion but you’d be surprised to know how many property owners haven’t walked through their own investment property within years…and some of them have never ever seen it at all. First of all – make sure you take the time to personally inspect before you purchase it. Plenty of properties can look like a good deal online but might not be all that they are cracked up to be when you view them closely. One of my past clients called me around a week ago and told me that she was going to make an offer on a property in a town that was an hour outside of Townsville as the home as a ‘Bank repossession’ and it seemed like she’d be able to purchase it at a steal. She asked me to look at what the value might be and when I looked closely online and enlarged one of the photos, I could see that there was a very serious structural issue within the home…let alone the fact that the recent sales weren’t as high as what the local agent was suggesting. She felt like she’d be buying the property for “Land value only” but if the home is that bad and may need demolishing, it might not even be worth ‘Land value only’ as there could be an amount to remove the current home and construct a new one…especially in a reasonably remote area. Now back to the point – given it is your property and you have a vested interest, there’s every chance that you might notice a few things that a Property Manager may not notice (especially if the Property Manager conducting the routine inspection has changed consistently over the time – see my point about this in my blog from two weeks ago). Not only will a personal inspection tell you a lot about your property but it will also tell you a lot about how attentive your Property Manager is…and making a decision to change now might not seem like it’s a big financial decision now but this could save you plenty down the track if something goes seriously wrong.
Next week…we’ll have a few more tips on this topic so until then, Happy Renting, Happy Listing and Happy Selling.