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Is Your Property Manager’s Poor Communication Causing You Stress and Costing You Money?

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You may be surprised at just how bad a lot of property managers really are. Is yours one of them?

Investing in a property manager will be inevitable – especially if you plan on taking the phrase “passive investment” to heart.

In the world of rush hour traffic, work deadlines and family commitments it’s easy to forget your investment. But as you’re focusing on the more pressing things in life, how has your investment been fairing?

That’s a question you should be asking your property manager and there are some very easy criteria for deciding if they have been doing a good job or letting your investment plunge into disaster.

Six signs your property manager is doing a bad job.

1. Rents stay put

If your investment has not seen a rental increase in quite some time, two things could be at work. One possible reason is that the market could be in trouble. Or, simply your property manager does not keep track of the market trends and/or does not pass on any increases in rent to the tenant.

“It amazes me how often landlords miss out on their full rent… Sometimes when we take over management of a property from other agencies, we find that landlords are receiving 10% to 20% less than the current market rent for their properties,”

One of the most important jobs of a property manager is to negotiate rent. A good property manager will be constantly reviewing the rents in their area. A bad property manager will insist on lower rents or fail to perform rent increases when appropriate.

Prime Property NZ reviews the rent at every periodic inspection, three times annually.

2. Disputes get ugly

Relationship building with different parties and tenants is the basis of successful property management. You must have a good working relationship with the agent, who must have a good relationship with the tenant.

The alternative, is to see major problems arise such as non-payment of rent, theft and vandalism. One of the most important aspects of a manager is to ensure their dealings are relationship based.”

Problems that arise with tenants can thus often be the fault of a property manager failing to communicate properly with the tenant. When this is the case, bad property managers continue to ignore the tenant and also fail to communicate properly with the owner.

Prime property NZ excels in communication to both owners and tenants, thus eliminating the risk of any dispute getting out of control.

3. Lacks support

The property management division of the typical real estate company is the poor cousin of their sales division. Real estate agencies are often owned by sales people who don’t have the operational management, knowledge and attention to detail required in property management. The result is the property manager does not get the support, systems and training to help them do a better job.

Prime Property NZ is a dedicated property management business.

4. Excessive repair bills

Acquiring quotes for repair work is a time-consuming exercise and part of the point of having a property manager is to take the work off your hands. Good property managers will know a number of different tradespeople and will have a working relationship with them. They will be able to source you the best deals and will help minimise your maintenance costs.

It may seem like one of the more obvious failings that a property manager could have, but you’d be surprised at just how bad some property managers can be at it. In extreme instances, property managers have been known to siphon money from their clients by using fake contractors and then billing the owners for repairs that were never done.

 Prime Property NZ has a team of experienced contractors with more than one contractor in each profession, thus we are able to check and compare rates between contractors. Ie we have at least 2 plumbers, 2 electricians etc that we utilise.

5. Lack of repairs, inspections

Just as an unnecessarily large repair bill can signal a terrible property manager, the opposite is true as well. A generally incompetent or lazy property manager will not undertake regular inspections of the property, allowing potential problems to exacerbate and tenant damage to persist.

Prime Property NZ performs periodic inspections three times annually and continually monitors your property for any maintenance requirements.

6. Not a property investor

A property manager who invests in property is worth their weight in gold, a sign of a poor property manager is one that has little knowledge of the concerns and frustrations of owning a property that can be in a different town or city from you.

A great property manager should be a key to helping you create a more profitable future. With property investing, you surround yourself with good people who you know will look after the detail so you can keep focus on the big picture of finding profitable deals, balancing cash flow, loan gearing, borrowing capacity and “enhancing your financial future.”

All of us here at Prime own rental properties that are managed by Prime Property NZ.

Sign up with Prime Property NZ and receive the first 3-months FREE of management FEES
OR
Sign up with Prime Property NZ and receive the 1st year of landlords protection insurance with “Real landlord Insurance” FREE of charge (conditions apply)

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