Change Property manager, bad idea? is your property manager doing things ?

Hi everyone, just want some opions on property manager.

I got 3 IP in Brisbane, (Both North and South side) I gave them all to a major realestate company in QLD. At the moment one of them is pretty good that they actually doing things. eg. Get a quote if need repair, Chasing water bill...etc. The other two is doing absoultely nothing except from distributing momeny to our account or even help the tenant to get lower rent...etc.

The one at Rochedale south (Logan QLD) is giving me a lot of trouble. There were some electricity issue need fixing and I asked them for a quote as it is normal to ask when you need repair. The quote they gave me is around $1650 while the quote I get independently only come back $750. Therefore, I do not trust their quote after that, which i think its very understanable. Now the aircon is not working and they want me to repair it ASAP and remind me as a landlord I need to fix issue asap..etc. etc. I asked them for a quote, but they not providing one. At the end, I find an air-con repairing specialist to go have a look.
They actually write an email to us saying we did not act on things fast enough and should just let them do all the repairing automatically. That email set me off because We call the tenant for more detail the second we got the email and we getting quote for repairer the next day.
On top of that, we always have to chase the water bill ourself everytime. Sometimes they even Lost the bill we send them. We also nearly impossible to contact them as they hardly answering the phone. My question is : "Is this normal??" "Is quote request abnormal?"

I am a bit confused, because we always have to slove every problem ourself and even chase the tenant for water bill payment ourself ... then ... why we paying property management????

what are people's experience with their property management? Is it a bad idea to change property manager ? (which we really want to do, but affarid other small agency cannot find tenants for us)

 

I will go out on a limb and say that most PM's with a rent roll are trying to juggle too many properties, and are therefore incapable of doing their job to the best of their ability, and will take the shortest route for expediency to get through the workload and maximise profits.

Human nature I'm afraid.

This brings in to play all sorts of various shortcomings in your results for your IP's...including poor quoting for repair work.

Most use a selected team of maintenance dudes, and that's it.

They haven't got the time to field 3 quotes for every repair for every LL they handle properties for.

Unfair on the LL, but reality.

You may find the smaller agency better than the larger one; less properties, trying to build the business and will do the extra yards for you, etc

The big ones; swamped with work, running a shoestring staff.

(prepares to be flamed by PM's on PC)

 

It is not difficult to change agencies at all as this happens all the time between agencies. From our experience boutique agencies use the same online advertising marketing opportunities as large chain agencies in addition to offering inspections by appointment - to illustrate, we always respond immediately to inquiries (we don't have inquirers waiting for our scheduled Open Homes if they are inquiring a few days ahead of the Open Home - we offer an inspection by appointment at a time convenient to the individual and this works very well in terms of converting inquiries to applications - provided the asking rent is based on the current market rent and the property is well presented. Bayview offers a realistic picture of life in busy agencies. Effective agencies ensure that utilities are paid on time on behalf of owners who delegate this responsibility to an agency (we personally pay our own utilities for our investment properties to preserve our rents for our own investment properties - some owners prefer agencies to pay on their behalf) - whatever works for the customer. In terms of quotes, most agencies have a list of reliable, well priced and quality tradespeople to draw from in addition to happily sourcing an additional quote if the owners feels that the quote is too high (often our initial quote wins though) - for us what works well is consulting with owners about maintenance matters and quotes - for emergency matters, if an owner cannot be contacted we respond to the emergency and subsequently contact the owner to inform her/him of what is happening. Property management agencies never experience 'kicks backs' from tradespeople we draw from. At the end of the day the owner - PM relationship is critical and it is important to work from a space of mutual trust and respect which is earned on both sides

 

Renee and Martin are in Brisbane - Diligent PM and they are on the ball and great people. I'm sure they can help out.
The service you are receiving is not typical of a good property management agency.