6 tips on how to choose the best Property Manager!Β 

  
So whether you have a palace or a little shack for an investment, best practise these days is to hire a professional to do the job. 

Which sounds easy but quite often from experience a bad Property Manager can be a wolf in sheeps clothing. 

So I have written you my 6 top tips on how to weed the good from the bad! They are definately not what you think! 

1) Negotiating skills. A PM will need to negotiate just about everyday of the working week. From lease renewals, maintenance, cleaning, difficult tenants, rent collection …the list goes on. It’s imperative to have sales skills if they don’t then they can not complete the tasks at hand successfully. 

2) People Skills. Tenants and Owners come in various shapes, sizes and cultures. I’ve worked with some seriously racist PMs in my time who have deliberately not put perfect tenants in a property based on their culture. We absolutely must base all our descions on the best application at the time NOT on race/sex/atheistics. You simply can not judge a book by its cover. I know sometimes I do the school drop off looking like a homeless person but truthfully I’ve had a late night with sick kids. 

3) Organisational skills. Every PM must must must have an every day task list, an ideal week, several white boards, calenders, reminders, intrays and a clean inbox. Ask to see a copy of their ideal week. 

4) Reference(s). Every great PM will be able to provide you the name and number of a current owner and tenant for you to call for reference. I’m not talking about the Facebook popularity contest either- you know the one in groups where someone asks for a good agent and all the agents friends pipe up and start recommending them? No I mean real people, real experiences. Look up the agency’s google plus review too, that’s where a lot of unhappy customers go these days. 

5) Marketing. I do not see why rental marketing is any different to sales marketing. A good PM will have a premium marketing strategy available just like the sales reps. Professional Photography, highlight listings on portals, staged property are some of the features @ Mandurah Property Management. Also each Monday you should be recieving market feedback on your current for lease home. Eg- how many hits, how many enquiry, how many viewings, how many applications WEEKLY. 

A good PM will simply not ask for a price reduction without market justification!!! 

6) Tenant Database. An established agency has many many tenants already leasing houses from them. A good PM should know 2-3 months in advance whether their tenant is staying or going and/or needing a property different. They should also have every single past enquiry logged into a database with prospective tenants. In poor markets such as WA currently a good PM will be proactive and hold onto their good tenants with both hands. Ask to see a copy of their database!
Thanks for reading my blog πŸ€—πŸ€—πŸ€—πŸ™πŸ½πŸ™πŸ½πŸ™πŸ½

6 tips to securing a tenant in a crap market!

  
This job may not be brain surgery but you do need to have some common sense about you and over the years I have found “some” property managers to be lacking in this area…not all however. There are definately some great property managers out there, that’s for sure. 
In the past I have trained my property managers to follow a little guide when it comes to leasing property. If followed properly you can definately be assured that no tenant lead is lost and that each and every enquiry is dealt with not just letting a prospective tenant disappear into thin air.  
For me, spending time in sales has taught me many things when it comes to rentals, that is, that a prospective tenant is no different from a prospective buyer. If a buyer wants to make an offer on a property especially in a tight market like it is today, then they need to be treated like gold, just like a sales rep would treat a buyer. Tenants are no different to buyers, they both are not eligible for a home until they are approved! 
So in the following order here are my top 10 tips or guidelines on how to secure a tenant –
1) Advertise your property on real estate estate websites, this is for the private landlords. You want at least 6-10 proper websites. All the tenants come from these so you need to Invest the money on advertising.
2) The confirmation process ok so you get an enquiry. You call back within 1 hour. You book in a private inspection that is suitable with the tenant. The morning of the viewing YOU ring the tenant to confirm YOUR appointment. This should not be the other way around. I had a PM rudely ask me if I had rung to confirm. In this market it was enough to hang the phone up and go and view the other 15 cheaper comparable rentals on the market. This mind set needs to be abolished in my opinion. 
2) Conduct viewings. This includes those random mid week viewings that property managers love to make during their work time but also the evening/weekend/after hours viewings that suits the working tenants. 
3) Make Applications available. If I had a dollar for each Pm that forgets to bring a app to a viewing I’d be rich. A PM needs to be organised and so does your website or on line enquiry forms. Tenants should be able to email and/or apply online in this day and age.
4) Once the viewing is completed Follow up! Hi Mr and Mrs Tenant, are you going to be making an application on the property you viewed with me today. If not why not! It is all valuable feed back for your landlords. If it’s a price issue then you are demonstrating where the market is at for your clients. 
5) Create a tenant database put every single tenant and their needs into your database. This includes all your current tenants. You never know when they may need some where bigger and when you can help them find that somewhere on your portfolio!
6) Feedback, Feedback, Feedback every week you should be giving or getting feedback. How many hits? How many enquiry? How many viewings? How many applications? What did or didn’t they like about it? How do they think the price sits in the market? Based on this information landlords would be crazy to not align the rent to meet the market, but if they are not being given this information then they are clueless. Why would you reduce the rent if you feel it’s going well and you have not been told otherwise?
Thanks for reading my blog!
To be a part of my mandurah property management club and to receive regular info and blogs please register below or hit me up at belinda@mandurahpm.com.au 
  

We are looking for a rental! Part 1

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So what ever you want to call me… single mum, mum with a boyfriend that has kids, mum that has kids and doesn’t Β live with the father of her kids or mum with a boyfriend that has kids and chooses to live alone with boyfriend on weekends… I think anyone that has been separated can understand that after separation there is a certain amount of time that it takes for you to get back onto your financial feet.

Yes I used to own my own home but since separation, I’ve been left in quite a compromising financial position and I have to rent. I will be a home owner again one day. It will just take some time. That I am sure of. In the mean time, I have set up a property management/ property maintenance company with my boyfriend that is definitely going places.

So enter this weeks dilemma. My current rental is not big enough. I am tired of watching kids movies. I want somewhere that has 2 living or lounge rooms and with the market being Β in the state that it is, I should be able to find something suitable, with views and $50 per week less that what I am paying now. I know this not just because I am in the industry, but because of the technology at hand. All I do is search my suburb on several websites and up pops all the comparison I need.

So I begin to call these property managers.

Company One:

10.30am Monday 7th March 2016 : Hi, my name is Belinda can I please see through Property X ….ASAP. I live locally and am available anytime. (this company is registered for Real Inspect by the way, an automated messaging/booking service available to tenant/PMs)

Tuesday 8th March 2016. No call

Wednesday 9th March 2016. No call

Thursday 10th March 2016…..4pm….Voice Message

Hi Belinda, I got your message regarding Property X, can you please call me back to let me know when you would like to view.

No- sorrys for not returning your call in 4 days Belinda, I know how hard the market is and will do anything to latch onto any potential tenant…nothing. Just a sentence to book me in.

 

I have not called her back by the way. Out of principal, I will wait to see if she tries to call me again. If she is acting in the best interests of her owner, I will get a call.

 

…Stay tuned. πŸ™‚