Renting out your investment property is essential to its profitability, but it can also be a logistical nightmare. As the owner you’ll be solely responsible for your tenants while they live in your home. You’ll have to find and keep good ones, maintain the home, stay up to date with tenancy law and perhaps even settle disputes if they arise.
If you’re busy, as most of us are these days, you may not have time for this seemingly endless list of tasks.
That’s where a property manager is incredibly useful, taking care of nearly every aspect that relates to your tenants and keeping your property profitable. Let’s tick off some of the key jobs a property manager will handle.
A good property manager will find tenants who pay rent on time, respect and maintain the property and communicate clearly. The property manager will then focus on keeping these tenants, to ensure that your cash flow remains positive and your investment doesn’t become a liability. Managing a property is mainly about managing communication above expectation. At its most basic, a property manager’s success or failure comes down to the quality and reliability of the most essential group in the equation – the tenants.
CoreLogic RP Data shows that across the eight capital cities the average rent is $484.With an effective property manager your tenants will stay happy, and you’ll receive those handy rental payments like clockwork every week.
There are many laws in place to protect tenants, all of which you must be aware if you are managing your property. They include:
These will affect you before, during and after the tenancy and failure to adhere to them may result in a hefty fine.
These laws vary widely from state to state and if you’re not practised in property law might struggle to get a handle on it. Property managers are experts in all areas of tenancy and property law, and can ensure that your tenants are serviced to (and above) the standard set by the law.
Your property will inevitably require maintenance no matter how careful your tenants are. This will include yearly general upkeep, weekly or fortnightly garden maintenance as well as urgent repairs to the property.
Tenants may require that you undertake urgent maintenance to address problems with the property. A property manager can take care of all of these issues, ensuring that you don’t waste hours of your day booking plumbers or fielding calls from frustrated tenants.
When organising the maintenance and upkeep of your home, it’s essential that you hire only the most reliable and reputable operators. This is essential as keeping your property up to a decent standard of repair will help tenants happy and maximise the long-term profitability of your investment.
Your property manager will be an expert in avoiding any serious disputes with your tenants. In the unlikely event that a disagreement does arise a property manager will work to quickly resolve the issue, and can even accompany you to the disputes tribunal as an advisor if needed. Property managers are trained and experienced when it comes to avoiding and resolving disputes with tenants. By doing their jobs well they minimise the chances that your tenants will have problems and raise disputes.
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