Property Manager questionaire

[revdev]

Moderators note: guys please keep the comments general and light on self-promotion - thanks.

[Laurence]

1. What attributes make a good property manager?

2. Those of you who are currently using a property manager, why are you staying with them, what is so good about them that makes you want to stay on their books?

3. Those of you who have sacked their property manager why did you do so?

4. What do you think a reasonable price should be for property managers?

Q2: I am staying with Mike Burns at http://www.housingpeople.co.nz/ because since taking over my rentals in Napier, he has always found tenants promptly, collects rent efficiently, follows up late rent, tenancy tribunal meetings etc. When I had squatters move in after a tenant moved out, he promptly arranged police to evict them, and arranged repairs following their eviction and attempts to steal the stove on the way out. When another house needed extensive cleaning and refurbishment following a long term tenant leaving it a mess, he painted/ cleaned/ repaired this himself at a very reasonable fee.

Every week I get an email with invoice showing rent collected and management fee, and details of any costs eg repairs, rates etc.

Best of all, he agreed to take on both houses after other companies had refused, and after previous property manager had failed to find tenants for one house that was empty, and had failed to collect rent for the house that was tenanted.

If it weren't for Mike at Housing People Ltd, I would probably have gone bankrupt by now...

Q3: I have sacked 2 property managers. In Auckland I had a property manager who was recommended to me, but who couldn't find a tenant for my property in 2 months. When i asked to have the keys returned and told her I would find someone else she refused and said I had signed a contract requiring one month notice. I changed to Quinovic West auckland branch and they had a tenant in within 2 weeks of signing up with them, and had less than 2 weeks vacancy per year after that.

In Napier I initially had a property manager who didn't find tenants for an empty house, didn't collect rent from an existing tenant in a different house, and didn't get copies of keys from existing tenant, so that when my valuer turned up, by arrangement, she was not able to let us into the house!

Q4: I've seen fees from 7.5% to 10%, in my opinion the fee is not that important. A useless property manager who can't find a tenant, but who charges a low fee, is worse than a good property manager who can keep the property tenanted, but who charges a higher fee.

[FJW]

Hi Laurence,

Thanks for your constructive feed back greatly appreciated. The flaws that you have outlined with property managers that you have engaged in the past are no different to the guff that I've received from a couple of them hence why I launched manage my rentals. One of many incompetent stories from a property manager that I had was just absolutely too soft with the tenants. I had brought it to their attention on numerous occasions about the tenants treating the back yard like a tip, they were depositing their rubbish outside and it was a breading ground for rats/mice absolutely disgusting. I eventually had enough of the rubbish service from them so sacked them and took a nice tight grip of the management and within a week after taking it over I managed to get them to tidy the house and get a wheely bin for them to deposit their rubbish in. Its absolutely beyond me that the property manager didn't suggest this to the tenants in the first place.....

[Meehole]

I'm seriously contemplating starting up my own property management company. I already manage my own 2 properties and apart from a couple of hiccups they go really smoothly. I would hate to be paying $50 week in commission between the 2 of them just for some airhead to check the rent roll each week?
I have worked as a receptionist in a property management company and of the 4 property managers that worked there, none of them owned their own homes. 2 were broken down real estate agents and one was a Croatian who I am sure had man parts under her skirts but was great at collecting rent arrears!
They knew nothing about house construction and were therefore unable to advise their landlords on any possible maintenance issues that might arise in the near future.
So if you see a boutique property management company starting up in Akld, give it a call, it might just be me!

[justchecking]

I'm a renter and have used a well known PM company for almost 4yrs and can tell you that most of the comments from everyone are somewhat right .... but have to say that I've actually had to take this company to Tenancy Tribunal cos they refused to have something fixed. Before the mention of TT they were rude, arrogant and didn't want to know .... they even tried to scare me and have their Regional Manager (who happened to have a law degree) scare me, but at the end of the day I knew that they had to fix what needed to be fixed ....

The process would have been much pleasant if they weren't so rude and arrogant and because of this, they cost an owner (whom to didn't want to fix as well) over $3000 in compensation, plus having to do the repair via a qualified builder ...... and you wanna know whats even more funny is that I'm renting again off them (due to not being able to find a new property on time) and they are doing the same mistakes ...... What does that tell you????

I suggest that you don't use delay and bully tactics on tenants ..... and be more vigilant on tenants that do cause damage.

Just thought to let you know from a renters perspective....

[judos]

Recommendations for good PMs in Wellington?

Hi,
Many of us have experienced poor property management, and I can sure relate to so many of the points made on this forum.

Can anyone recommend a GOOD property manager in Wellington? Someone who knows property, is sensible, does follow-up and who actually works for the landlord?

Any recommendations gratefully received. This is my first post, so I hope I'm not breaking any protocols asking this.

Out of interest - I was recently asked to do a survey from a bank, and one of the questions was around property management, and what features I considered important in selecting a property manager. It was a tick-box type question, and the only options were around fees charged, fee structure, location, etc. Ie they assume that all that matters to us is the cost, and never mind if they can do a good job or not!

Regards
Jude

[Perry]

Welcome to the PT Forums, Jude. No breach
of Forum custom occurs in asking the question
you did. Indeed, one might say that seeking
answers to such questions is a significant way
in which the Forums can provide guidance and
help to those who visit.

Later, you might keep us informed as to how
you fare with what you decide.
.

[graemeh]

We have found Full House to be pretty good http://www.fullhousemanagement.co.nz/

[Austrokiwi]

JUst skim read the whole thread so I apologise if I repeating some one elses post.

I was intrigued with an early post that pointed out the on line profiles of some property managers. It impressed me ( in a bad way) in exactly the same way Human resources consultants around the world have. If you look at a situations vacant add for an HR consultant...you will notice that the focus is finding someone with good sales skills ( not good HR skills). The reason being the focus is on selling the service rather than ensuring it is a quality service. IMHO the whole HR recruitment industry relies on the fact that many managers don't actually know much about HR recruitment so the firms only have to be slightly better than their clients. Also the chances of loosing a legal claim made by a client are extremely low. I suspect Property management is the same......I would go so far as to suggest when you search for a PM you record the discussions you have with them and when you experience problems simple give them a copy of the recording.

Even if you don't like that idea.......Its up to PIS to make PM perform to expectations by:

Only contracting with some one who has the necessary experience in the field.
Having the contract checked by your lawyer,
and in every case have you lawyer demand changes ( even if just cosmetic) to the contract ( the aim is to send a very clear message to the company that the chance of legal action against them is much higher than normal)
Don't pay separately for house checks......or if you do have an appropriate penalty clause added to the contract for failure to professionally perform the checks.

[Keys]

or if you do have an appropriate penalty clause added to the contract for failure to professionally perform the checks.

Good idea. Please define and provide examples.

[Stickman]

I am new to property talk, however certainly not new to property investing and have been reading a few threads with varying interest.

It would appear that the first reaction some of you have here is to bag people that you know nothing about. Why is that? Could it be you have your own agenda and the only way to feel good about yourself is to put someone else down? It would seem sadly to be a very New Zealand trait, ie tall poppy.

Should we not encourage people to give it a go, and do their best. In some countries they even ask "what can I do to help".

Just a thought. I have always taught my children "If you can't be nice, don't be nasty".

After all it is always uplifting to read something positive.

I will go see if I can find a positive thread to read.


Bye for now
New Zealand Investor

Have to agree with this, while there are some incredibly experienced people on this site and some fantastic information contained amongst the many different threads, there are many that create a rather negative atmosphere IN GENERAL.
Given that property investment relies on a positive outlook for the future (very hard to make money in a falling real estate market...unlike equities, commodities etc), I find it rather absurd that so often I get on here to see what the latest news is, and get off feeling rather depressed.
As an entrepreneur and property investor/speculator/developer my success revolves around my ability to remain optimistic and positive about things, and having this mindset helps one to see opportunities where others are looking for a proverbial shotgun to put in their mouth. It's not always easy, but it takes a conscious decision to stay positive.
That doesn't mean blow sunshine up anyone's backside for the joy of it, but at least try to see things in a positive light.

[Keys]

Look at the last post then. IN GENERAL, those of us with high posting numbers are incredibly helpful. We're here most days. We offer advice often. Often it is not heeded. Often the original poster withholds vital information. So, we get a little jaded at times. Put the effort to put another thousand or so posts to your credit Stickman. See how you feel with the constant questions which have the same answer. No, you can't just walk out of a Fixed Term Tenancy. So, you have problems with your landlord, what have you done? Called him? That's a waste of time if you've done it several times over the same issue.

You wonder why we get a little negative at times?

[Austrokiwi]

Good idea. Please define and provide examples.

Like all good ideas its easy to say than do ( As you already knew keys)


With HR consultants ( my bane) and I suspect with PI the key is to ensure the required provisions are written in measurable behavioural terms, not in general terms). Again: that is simple to say and understand but in actuality very hard to do. The big problem is too often we assume we are specifying specific expected behaviours when in fact we are resorting to jargon that sounds legally good but which in fact is open to interpretation. IN looking at HR consultants contracts I first have to understand clearly what I want. Even with 30 years experience that is very hard to do..... So before I even look at the contract( usually before even looking for consultants) I specify exactly what the problem is, what I want to achieve and then I write down how I will measure those achievements. It is amazing that most organisations never do this they just give a group of consultants an indication of what the problem is and then during the tender process it is the consultants who actually end up defining the performance measures: so the consultants can't loose and generally the resultant work tells the organisation absolutely nothing new.


Once I Have established what the achievements are to be and how to measure them then the lawyer gets involved helping to write tender invites......or the actual contract. When this process is done properly a good many Consultants decide not to bid!!!

With PI
A number of posters have covered points needed to measure property inspection performance. One was a check list.....obviously if you are not there to check a lazy PM could just tick down the sheet. But that doesn't mean you should not have a check list.

Here's some suggestions to make it more workable( this is from an industrial Psych angle) you design the check list. Attend the first property inspection and if you haven't done so already take photographs either having the PM in some of the photos or better have her sign and date the back of the photos with you that day or the next. Making sure you have arranged for the tenants permission add to extra check list items that you require the PM to fill in........the power meter reading and the water meter reading. It is a possible means of catching a crooked PM out...but more importantly it sends a clear psychological message to the PM about the sort of PI they are dealing with.


For Expat landlords: you are allowed to claim the travel costs for one trip a year to check on the property..........no matter how much of a pain plan and budget for it. { you have a property worth around 1/4-1/3 of a million dollars you need to invest some time and money checking on it and the PM}. IF you can't afford to do that you can't afford to be an absent PI.

Obviously time your visit to coincide with a scheduled inspection and advise the PM no more than 48 hours beforehand that you will be accompanying them on the inspection. Their reaction will tell you a lot about how they are managing your property. A good PM will welcome you. a bad one will make all sorts of rational reasons why its not a good idea or is unnecessary........obviously it should be a requirement written into the PM contract.


I haven't really answered the question all that well. I do know who can answer it better:

From what I have seen of Keys posts........ of the last few years .... he is probably the best person to help someone develop the behavioural requirements for a PM contract..........and I guess hes the last person to want to use one

[Stickman]

Look at the last post then. IN GENERAL, those of us with high posting numbers are incredibly helpful. We're here most days. We offer advice often. Often it is not heeded. Often the original poster withholds vital information. So, we get a little jaded at times. Put the effort to put another thousand or so posts to your credit Stickman. See how you feel with the constant questions which have the same answer. No, you can't just walk out of a Fixed Term Tenancy. So, you have problems with your landlord, what have you done? Called him? That's a waste of time if you've done it several times over the same issue.

You wonder why we get a little negative at times?

I get what you are saying (I have belonged to a few forums where I have clocked up a few thousand posts, across a variety of different "interests" too. Sure, people need to learn to use a search function. It isn't this sort of thing I am talking about. It is the tendency of some, not all, and very often not the 'senior' forum members, to often cut people, ideas down at the knees with their personal opinions rather than being open minded. I am on thin ice here, because I can't really think of any examples to link to right now...so I should really STFU.