QLD Property Manager - Certain Property

Hey, has anyone used this property management company called Certain Property (Full Service Property Management From 3.9% | Certainty Property). They are claiming a few exclusive features but I am worried about the quality of PM.

Some of the features they mention:

Low fee guarantee
We beat any quote
A real rent guarantee
No vacancies, arrears or falling rents
No vacancies
We pay the rent when your property is vacant
No arrears
We pay the rent if your tenant doesn’t
Lock in your rent
Protect yourself against falling rents

 

Look at their office locations. Co working locations. Cool but how does that help for property managers?

what areas do they service? All nsw qld and vic. How? They cant service all areas unless they partner with other pms, then how do they split their already low fees?

Pm is a face to face service and very dependent on personal skills. Pass.

 

How many properties/pm?

Severely undercutting other Qld PM's what aren't they doing?

How do they guarantee rent stability?

What are their letting fees?

What are the other costs?

 

How would they pay for rent guarantees?
With their profits? (Low fees already).
With insurance? (How are they paying premiums?)
With their own money?

Everything reads like a startup with a block of cash and running a loss to prove their business plan. Which is a fine way to start a business, but dont see how the business plan works.

 

Oh, it works, just in the short term. Then many landlords will be left holding the bag when the cash runs out.

I love reading the small print....

 

A small premium of a few percent, so equal to the management fee, doubling it?

 

'Just a few percent depending......'

It sounds to me as though they are essentially offering some sort if 'rental guarantee' insurance policy 'starting from a few percent' and have a basic management company attached to it.

Could be worth checking out, although I suspect all will be revealed in the pricing and other small print not mentioned on the website.

 

Good questions, thanks will ask.

 

Did check out the rental guarantee fee, was another 3% but they were willing to bring down to 5.9% for both. Seems really competitive compared to other agencies however again like Trainee and Aaron mentioned seems to be a start up and could run into cash flow issues after a while.

 

Really? Are you assuming they would be just as good service wise as other agencies?

 

Or could they be any worse one might sometimes have to ask?

 

Not assuming, just from price perspective. The quality of PM/service is just as, if not more important than the price. Hence wanting to find out if anyone else uses them, but best bet for me would be to ask them some more questions like Scotty mentioned.

 

I haven't personally heard of this company, but that is an extremely low commission. A commission that low will mean one of two things:

A) there's hidden fees.

Or

B) your property manager will look after a huge portfolio.

To be blunt, assuming they don't have hidden fees, then that is way too cheap. I would recommend quality over price 99% of the time (if you intend to demolish the property in the future, then quality might not be as important for example). It's simply not possible to offer a high level of service with that commission. Each property manager would be managing 250+ properties. It may seem fine while everything is going smoothly and all your property manager is having to do is collect rent, but the moment you or your property requires some attention, issues will arise.

Some good questions to ask:
1) how many properties will my property manager oversee?
2) what experience do they have?
3) how long have they worked for your company and what is your staff turnover?
4) do you outsource offshore?
5) will i have a direct mobile number to my property manager?
6) what will my total fees be annualised?

 

A bit of googling seems that Certianty Property must be taking up the online agent model that has been introduced overseas. From my brief search it appears that as an owner you need to be prepared to some some leg work at least (showing prospective tenants through the property).

Here is a link to a UK offering:

What's all the fuss about Online Letting Agents? - The Online Letting Agents Ltd

 

My understanding is that these companies tend to operate at a loss to grow an asset and then sell off, though the lenders seem to have picked up on this and are valuing these unsustainable businesses as worthless.