Who pays your bills?

I've always paid my own strata, water, council and insurances but I've now got 5 properties (and still buying more) so was thinking of getting my PM's to do it.

Who pays their own and who gets their PM to do it?

Are there any negatives of having your PM pay it, that I should be aware of?

I suppose it won't affect cash flow much. Do PMs pay bills the day they're due, or will they pay them before this date? I usually pay bills on the very date they're due (or schedule them to be paid on this date).

Cheers

 

Some person that I have never spoken to in Bangladesh - all outsourced

 

We might use the same guy!?

 

A bit of both.

You miss the chance to pay it with borrowed money if the PM pays it directly (not that I have worked out how to do this)

 

Step 1 call pm
Step 2 say "look after these champ"
Step 3 pina colada!

 

Why pay for this and not get your PM to do it?

I'm interested to know your reasoning and how you structure it... Do they do anything else for you as well?

 

Thanks Bob.
I don't know how to use borrowed money to pay expenses. That few thousand per year could be reducing my home loan

 

I like getting it all on one statement at the end of the financial year and just hand that to my accountant.

 

Can't you just use an equity loan (or similar? Credit card? ) with a debit card or direct debit to auto pay the bills?
I like the pm doing it for ease

 

I'm thinking a specific credit card will be easiest, and pay it monthly from a loan.

 

Yeah that sounds good. Can you do mine to?
Why not debit card? No fees etc?

 

If you want some stats from a pm agency. We pay about 98% of the water invoices for clients, that is they come directly to our office. We prefer to do this for water so that we can invoice tenants their share at the same time.

We pay other invoices, council rates, etc for about 70% of our clients. 30% prefer to pay it themselves.

It's a service offered by pm companies, some people take it, some don't.

 

I probably pay about 90% of all invoices. Of the ones that prefer to pay themselves, they're usually doing it by credit card to get points.

Only thing I'd want to make sure is that you have a good PM to start with, who will withhold money if required to ensure you don't get charged interest on late payments.

 

Here is my thread on debt recycling:
Tax Tip 2: Debt Recycling

 

@Bran when you make sense of it let me know!

 

It is a service included in the management fee that you pay so many landlords do opt for the PM to pay these bills. Its all itemised on your statement too so it is good in that sense. Your PM should have a good system in place so that these bills are paid before the due date (and if for whatever reason there is not enough rent in the trust account to cover then they should contact you to "top up" the funds) however if you are charged a late payment fee then most agencies I know of do actually pay that difference themselves, unless it was an error of the landlord. Hope that helps, this information is based on my experience in QLD however I think its generally the same elsewhere.!

 

Once the bills are entered into the property management CRM system, money should be withheld until they are paid and as MPP said above, landlords get calls to top up to ensure that no penalties are applied for late payments if required.

 

Our PM's pay for all invoices except insurance and land tax which I like to pay direct.

 

My 2 cents...

Water bills to the agent, so they can handle the tenant water usage invoices.
All other bills to you = debt recycling. +1 See Terry's tips for details.

 

I pay my bills, a bit more work for me however:

1. I get the credit card points
2. I get an extra month or two to pay it using interest free period
3. not a fan of PMs taking money out of my accounts (even if its a valid charge)