Changing PM when current lease expires in 6 weeks' time

Have been with the same PM agency for years however since 12-18 mths ago or so, the agency experienced high staff turnover resulting in multiple change-over of PMs managing my property (Brisbane).
New PMs appears to be inexperienced and less proactive, standard of service has deteriorated- communications is lacking, i.e. have to chase up a few time both emails and phone calls.

Am aware that I will need to stay with the existing agency until the notice period has been fulfilled, which is 30 days (approx. 4 weeks).

So, should I change the PM now? Will the current out-going PM be disinterested in running the advertising campaign and looking for a new tenant, or even sabotage the process knowing they won't be managing the property moving forward?

Thanks for your advice

 

Give them the required notice now.
Get new pm to handle handover process.

The current pm has a duty to carry out work until the transfer - fully.
If not they can negotiate an early termination

 

Thanks @Xen

I have spoken to a few agencies of late however I haven't decided one yet.
Any PM recommendations for Brisbane City?

 

With the photos of the property, whose ownership is that, and does the out-going PM be willing to release them?

 

Good evening,

I would give notice now, if they are not performing now, chances are they are not going to perform well during the leasing of the property.

If you have been with them for several years, which form are you on? If its a 20a the notice period that you are on will be different to the form 6.

Have the current tenants given notice already?

In regards to the photos, if they are taken for the property for the purposes of reletting your property, for which you paid for, then they should be your photos to keep.

Kind Regards

Rachael Hall

 

Hi @Bdm Rachall , thanks for the info.
It's a 20A form.
We haven't heard from the tenant yet, and he has two more weeks left to give us the notice of his intentions.

 

If you are not getting the service you need provide the notice period now - it is 30 days notice unless all parties agree to an earlier transition (the latter often occurs). If you have paid for professional images you will have been given a copy of the images, and if not, request the outgoing agency to remove their watermark to enable the images to be used elsewhere. If the images are not professional it makes good business sense to have quality images taken for marketing purposes. The professional images will then be augmented with a great marketing spiel highlighting all the great features of the property. Have you asked your agent to give you a comparative rental appraisal of all properties within a 1.5 km radius of your home to ensure you go to market at a competitive rent - this mitigates against the property languishing on the market if the price is too high - our phones are simply silent if a property is overpriced and very busy when priced at market rent. Thereafter, to ensure leads are followed up expediently either via Open Homes or inspections by private appointment. Have a conversation with your current PM on what the marketing campaign is going to look like. Also, agents 99% of the time work very cooperatively between agencies and the transition process when you switch will be seamless with your new PM doing all the background work to transition the property in collaboration with your current PM. I do hope this information assists.

 

Good question, but I guess you paid for them.
As long as they don't have watermarks on them.

 

@Ringo1 Although in an ideal world they should fulfill their responsibilities with regard to the letting process either way, the realities are that if they've dropped the ball with service and you give notice now they will probably drop the ball with regard to the letting process too - professionalism can be hard to come by. This could then cost you vacancy on the other side if they refuse to negotiate the 30 days and then essentially do nothing during that period. Personally (as an investor with my own portfolio), I would now wait until the letting process is complete, keep tight and regular comms and apply some pressure to make sure it's being marketed/let properly and then give notice. As has been suggested, you could try to negotiate a shorter termination period if the relationship has broken down as no PM should be in the business of burning bridges.

Regarding the photos, if you paid for them then they're definitely yours - water marked or not. Ask for the original non-water marked files before giving your notice (again, personally if I pay for photos I always get a copy for my records at the time regardless of my future plans) just make sure there is no resistance.

I actually just changed to @D.T. for my properties in Adelaide and one of the reasons was high staff turnover (also I like his M.O. ). We service the Brisbane area so feel free to send me a private message or email if you need any further advice.

- Andrew

 

Indeed, turnover if the bane of all investors (us included). Our Brisbane owners only deal with Martin and I as a PM to mitigate revolving doors of PMs...read a few threads...there are many quality PMs on the Forum who value offering a quality service. Send a private message to a few PMs and assess who you feel comfortable with to build a long term business relationship

 

Just a caveat to that - has the property already gone on the market for rent and what is the vacancy rate in the suburb of your property? If the market is strong, you have 6 weeks until lease expiry - you could give 30 days' notice now and that would still give a new PM roughly 2 weeks to find new tenants. We have plenty of properties in suburbs with a strong market and low vacancy rates in Brisbane where we are letting properties in that time period quite easily. I think the strategy here might need a little more specific planning depending on location and the sub-market conditions. Of course, this depends on whether they have already started advertising and any money has been spent on their part as you don't want to be paying two letting fees.

 

Thank you all for your input
The photos are not professionally taken, but yes I'll ask for non-watermark file prior to giving the notice. * great tips when dealing with PM in the future*

@DiligentPM , @Andrew Hancock, indeed their level of professionalism is my reservation here on deciding when to give the notice. The worst case scenario is that they won't budge on the 30-day notice, not working in the best interest of their client during that period, and costing me vacancy.

@Andrew Hancock , no the property isn't in the market yet. The tenant has the right to give notice the latest 4 weeks prior to lease expiry. From what I last gathered from the PM a while ago, the tenant did mention due to his work/study contract he has to move interstate once the lease expires.

The current vacancy rate is 4.9%, with one of the contributing factors to be the volume of new apts in the market. I don't think 2 weeks is enough to secure a tenant (?)...

 

One possibility is to pay them out the 30-day commission in lieu of notice. Sounds like you don't trust them any more, and looks like more harm will be done by staying with them. To me time is money.