Property management can be an afterthought for a lot of property investors. Here’s what you need to do to become indispensable to landlords.
For many investors, renting their property is less exciting than the purchasing experience, and even the subsequent renovations, but property managers can be an imperative part of ensuring an investment is successful.
Let’s Rent founder and managing director, Lisa Indge, has some tips to keep clients happy and ensure hiring a property manager is their natural first step when they want to lease their investment property.
“The property manager has a major role to play in ensuring that the landlord achieves the best result out of an investment,” Ms Indge said.
Risk reduction is a key factor in property management, with Let’s Rent ensuring that 99.5 per cent of their new tenants are secured before the current renters vacate.
Ensuring tenants are on fixed leases is another important factor when reducing risks for landlords, Ms Indge said.
“Out of our tenancies, we have about 87 per cent on fixed leases … because in terms of a risk factor we don’t want a tenant giving 21 days’ notice coming up to Christmas.”
Landlord education is a significant part of the property management process, especially when it comes to pricing their investment to attract tenants.
“I think it’s the property manager’s responsibility to educate the landlord firstly, that’s what we are there for,” Ms Indge said, adding, “So if you have a landlord who wants to rent their property out with unrealistic expectations of the pricing then it’s up to us to demonstrate to that client why we feel that that is the case.”
Selecting the perfect tenant for the property is another area where property managers can shine, from reviewing the applications to checking supplied references. Ms Indge believes a good property manager can save a lot of headache for inexperienced landlords.
A property manager should also be an investor’s go-to when trying to get tenants in the door in a market with oversupply.
“The reality is that from one weekend to the next or one day to the next, there are a fixed number of people in the rental market looking to move within a short space of time,” Ms Indge said.