frequency of PM changes

How often have your property managers been changed? Yeah, I know property management is not a well paid job with a lot of hard work so people do not stay in the role long. Should there be any concern if the changes appear to be too frequently? One agency we had a few years ago changed our pm every 9 months to a year. Another agency changed our pm less than 6 months. However, we have had one pm from one agency for almost 6 years now. We also have an agency which is owner-operated. Please share your thoughts.

 

This was one of my bug bears with my own investment properties and one of the many reasons I wanted to start my own. I hated dealing with a new person, especially if they had no background knowledge of the property.

The main issue is that property management staff are either low paid or over worked (and some cases both). This leads to burn out and eventually leaving or asking for a different role.

As management fees get lower and lower either from agencies undercutting each other or from people haggling fees, there's less in the company pot available for wages. Staff need to be paid less (resulting in lower job satisfaction) or be given more properties to manage (resulting in lower service levels).

The way around this from an agency perspective is to :
1. Hire well. Hire PMs who want to be in the game long term and help keep their job satisfaction levels up so they want to stay and are motivated to do a good job.
2. Hire assistant / administrative staff (each agency will come up with its own structure) to take some of the load off.
3. Turn down people who want cheaper fees. There's other agencies they can go to that are cheaper if that's what they require. Otherwise sabotaging the salary pot which affects both of the above and then service level received by everyone else .

 

Thanks, DT, for sharing your thoughts - appreciate it. While most PMs are pleasant to deal with but not always pro-active, I have to "manage" them from time to time. As soon as I establish a working relationship with them, they move on so it is often the case of starting all over again - which can be time consuming. Just like changing a tax accountant, the education and familiarisation process is time consuming.

 

I just posted about this in another thread funnily enough!

Property Managers are largely under-paid, under-supported and lack the skills & expertise needed to do the job effectively. Despite this, most PM's can still do a good job if their portfolio is reasonably sized and the office systems are well structured. However... as soon as you start throwing in turnover, it all falls to pieces. I can't stress enough how dangerous staff turnover is for a PM business, it puts an enormous extra workload on the new PM for anywhere between six months to two years while they familiarize themselves. Most business owners don't understand this at all. In most cases, the PM's don't make it out of this period- causing a snowball effect.

Although it is a good indicator, you shouldn't just select PM's based on their tenure, because I also know of plenty who have been with a business for years and years doing a bad job.

 

Thanks, Tom Rivera, for your additional insights. I feel for PMs - like you said they are overworked, underpaid, lack of support - too many properties to manage effectively. Most of the time, there is little to do other than collecting and disbursing the rent. But some cannot cope when it comes to dealing with repair & maintenance issues - time-consuming in getting quotes and following up on work completion. A change in the PM puts pressures on me (as landlord) to go through the history.
I agree what some long-term PMs can be complacent. The one I have for over 6 years has been doing an OK job, until a fire broke out in our unit. She messed up the whole insurance claim process (landlord and strata). In the end I have had to intervene and dealt directly with the strata manager and insurer to get things back on track.

 

That's how a lot of businesses survive. The PM's do just fine until there's an issue, then they lose the business.

 

I was thinking the same thing,
I interviewed extensively with lots of questions and found a PM I was happy with in Melb SE.
@Lil Skater unfortunately doesn’t cover this area.
Unfortunately about 4 months in he left the agency and my property was passed on to another (existing) PM from the same agency. This PM has also now left after 8 months (total).

I’m not sure a couple of minor maintenance items were followed through properly as it was months after my approval before they were deducted from rent received.

Coming up to 9 month inspection now (Vic is 3 month + 6 monthly) and a new PM has been appointed who seems very poor on communication. I wanted to advise I’m not attending the inspection and please value appraise from sales agent at the same time.
I also received a letter advising I have not returned a rental slip and rent review (never received so not sure of recommendation contained within) and if no response they will assume no action.
I tried calling Wednesday to office and left message and her mobile 3 times on friday without a response.
I usually want to give people a chance first but poor communication makes me think is the tenant having he same issues in communication?
Rent has also been late a couple of times that they disn’t seem to be oaware if.

Sorry for the long post but I’m thinking it’s time to change PM’s or am i being unreasonable as a new PM settles in?

Thanks

 

Have a chat to the Property Manager if you can and see if that changes anything. If you can't contact them (which is pretty bad...) OR if nothing changes post-conversation, Get in touch with the business owner and explain what's happened- frame it in exactly the same way as you have here, it's not negative- it's just factual failure of process that's concerning you.

It's more than likely that this PM is totally snowed under with the backlog of work from the past two PM's leaving. If you can actually talk to the person and discuss the issue, you'll have a better idea of where it's going- downhill, or towards a solution. Talking to the business owner also alerts them to the fact that there is an issue, many principals don't understand the snowball effect of multiple PM's leaving in short order- it doesn't take many issues to double the workload etc etc.

 

Where abouts is the property? I think @Lil Skater has expanded her range a little bit or otherwise others might be able to recommend someone in area .

 

Thanks Tom, Dave.
Will try calling again tomorrow.
Property is in Endeavour Hills SE Melbourne.

Thankyou