So you have a property manager, and they seem to be doing okay.  Oh wait what is their name again, you know the girl from the local real estate office, is it Shardi, Shading, Shadingfield, or Shady? Frankly Shady and property manager shouldn’t really be in the same sentence. To get the best out of your property manager, we are starting simple. Get their name right: There is a person behind that name. I personally get called all sorts of names. I believe in my case it is mostly to do with ducking autocorrect. And if it is not Shady, it’s the rental lady. Understand: Firstly understand that they manage more than one property, yours isn’t the only one. Surprise! Having said this though, you as a client should never feel you intrude on their time whether it is via email, text or phone or even in person if an appointment was made.  Your property manager has time for you, how this time is given to you may depend on your mutual relationship with each other…mostly where you have placed yourself in their books/favouritism radar/easy to deal with or too hard to deal with today basket. Understand that your property manager has done this job for a while and has extensive experience, well we would hope so. If you have taken the time to do your homework before engaging the services of a property manager and the company they work for then the next step is to trust them. Trust: Yes, trust the property manager that they are doing the right thing by you, your property and tenant.  This trust may not happen overnight, it can take months or even years…and a couple of mistakes and few head butts before trust can be established. Trust that they know the best time to do a viewing on your property, or the best application and or the better tradesperson to use. What a property manager knows is based on their previous experience both positive and negative, so it’s armed with collaborated mistakes, experience, gut feeling, facts and figures that they recommend a certain direction not to mention having to stay within legislative laws. Once you have come this far, then stick with them. The relationship between property manager and client is basically like a marriage. Imagine if we got divorced every time we had a disagreement. But it’s these disagreements that have made us stronger, trust each other more, and mistakes that happen once, should not be repeated. Leaving one, is to start all over again with another one. Let them do their job: I had an owner years ago that wanted to come to the inspections with me. A routine inspection that would normally take me 10-20 minutes to do, turned to be a half a day exercise. Constant emails and phone calls to your property manager about everything every day, means that the property manager has only time to manage you. In this instance guess who is not getting looked after or managed because they are too busy with you? Yes, you guessed it right. Your tenant and property. Pay them what they are worth: I will keep this part simple. I love my job, but I am not rich enough to be doing it for free. So in the eyes of your property manager, be a VIP client, not a discounted client. An example is, if you have set yourself up with no disbursement fee charged on work/invoices organised you may want to reconsider your position. Be patient: Because of the nature of our job, 70-80% of our time is out of the office. So when you send an email, you should get a reply back within a reasonable time frame. At least the next business day. Don’t send another email the same day, and say ‘just following up on my email I sent 2 hours ago’….If the matter is urgent, ring your property manager. Give your property manager a budget: A maintenance budget to work with so that maintenance can be dealt with straight away. This method saves you time, saves the property manager time and the end result you have a happy tenant. See your properties: Yah, nah not at every routine inspection. Best time is between tenancies. What tends to happen sometimes is that an owner will buy a house. They will spend $30-45K on renovations.  That owner’s last memory of this property is this stunning home, new kitchen, new bathroom, ohh the soft carpet, the white as snow walls. Come four tenancies, seven years later, of course things will change. You have to allow for wear and tear. Date, time, tenancies will age your property. Meet and greet: You know how I said there is a person behind that name. Well that same person doesn’t bite either. Try and meet up with your property manager. Find common ground, drink coffee together, get to know each other behind your email address and phone number. You will be surprised what a face to face meeting does to cement that relationship and more importantly on your point of view – inspire that sense of accountability to you. Owner portal: Make friends with your owner portal. Once you log in, this is your property manager after hours! So if you want something on demand, 24/7 you can access it via the owner portal. A financial statement, end of year statement, copy of an invoice etc, all available on the owner portal. Yes sure the property manager can send them again, but if you want this information and it’s a Sunday or the middle of the night you can have it. Say thank you: It’s nice to say thank you. I have this one owner that sends me a thank you every single month and asks how I am when he gets his statement. That simple, thank you means that this person has my attention, and if he rings in the middle of the day or night guess what! I will be at his service. Have fun: Take a chill pill – … Continue reading How To Get The Best Out Of Your Property Manager If You Are A Landlord