4 Things You’ll Never Have to do Again When you Hire a Property Manager

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.

Finding and keeping tenants

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 Managers success or failure comes down to the quality and reliability of the most essential group in the equation – the tenants.

Know tenancy law

There are many laws in place to protect tenants, all of which you must be aware of if you are managing your property. They include:

• Lodging of bonds
• Installing & maintaining smoke alarms
• Maintaining the property to minimum standards
• Drawing up rental contracts

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.

Organising property maintenance

Your property will inevitably require maintenance no matter how careful your tenants are. This will include yearly general up-keep, 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 up-keep 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.

Settling (and avoiding) disputes

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.