How to pick a real estate agent to be your property manager?

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  sparkles on 21/04/2014 - 23:35

  +1

  The agent can only pass on the rent as the tenant pays it. Some agents seem to be quick with the turnaround, some hold onto your money for ages and spin lines like 3 days cheques clearing when you know that the tenant paid in cash. I changed from one that was sitting on rent for too long. A lot will charge for inspections, rolling the lease, anything really, you don't get something for nothing these days. They really only earn their money finding you a tenant and when something goes wrong. From my experience, property managers want to earn commission to do nothing, so start being demanding and they will not pretend to be sad to see you go to another agent. The key is to find an awesome tenant and then ditch the real estate agent altogether - easier said than done.

  • 

    illumination on 22/04/2014 - 09:06

    Ah interesting points.
    What do you mean by "when something goes wrong" though? How do they earn money from that?

    Finding an awesome tenant and ditching the real estate agent sounds awesome..

• 

  netsurfer on 22/04/2014 - 00:25

  +4

  For me, it is mainly about how well they do their work when attempting to rent my property out. Things like are they willing to open the property for inspection promptly for potential tenants, whether they will do open for inspection on Saturdays (there are ones which won't open for inspection on Saturdays unless you ask them to - hard to believe but true), and whether they will start showing people through when the current tenant has provided notice. The way they do the advertising on realestate.com.au, domain.com.au (the photos they took for you). Also, how quickly they arrange repairs.

  I used to pick the cheapest and the agent was really lazy.

  I had a couple of dodgy ones. So, in order to find a good one, I did the following… I pretended to be someone looking to rent a property and I called various agents (and it is actually best if the agent couldn't answer my call right away and the receptionist indicates the agent will call back - if the agent couldn't be bothered calling back, he/she is out of consideration). I also attended open for inspections. The one who did the best job got my pick.

  Basically, the best way to find out whether an agent is good or not is to test the agent. You can also check their listings and see whether they are doing a good job (some will put just 2-3 photos with lousy/average description).

  • 

    illumination on 22/04/2014 - 09:08

    That definitely makes sense although that is somewhat more time consuming. How much were you roughly paying for each of these agents (including dodgy)?

    For the ones that returned your call, did you then just turn around and say.. I am actually looking to find a property manager, not a tenant?

    • 

      netsurfer on 22/04/2014 - 19:59

      +1

      Just ask questions like whether the property is still available for rent and when the next open for inspection session is (even if you already knew the session time from the Internet). Or, you can tell them you are after a property manager right away, but just get all the details without committing to it (until you go to one of their inspections).

      You go to the inspection to see whether the agent takes down your name and whether they are doing their job properly. You can tell them that you are looking for a property manager to manage your property at that time.

      Another easy check is to look at their listings. How many photos can you see? The cheapest one charged 5.5% with just 1 week rent for leasing the property, but honestly, it was not worth it. The agent refused to open the property for inspection until after the current tenant moved out. Also, no Saturday inspections (will only show people who called up). That agent does not return my calls sometimes. Repairs were done very slowly too. The previous tenant also indicated the agent was quite slack.

      It depends on your property too. Whether you have a property that's easy to rent out (i.e. the price and location). If you generally have no issue finding a tenant, you could go with the cheap one. My one, the agent makes a big difference. You get what you pay for. To me, getting a new tenant in a.s.a.p. is more important than saving in the commission.

• 

  ms_caz on 22/04/2014 - 10:41

  Our agent was recommended by word of mouth, in a sense. Somebody we knew was looking for a rental property and commented that XYZ agents were really tough. That made us think that if they were tough on prospective tenants, they were likely to be on the ball when it came to managing our property.

  We had the experience of a local well known large scale chain of agents who had been "managing" our property - rent was always late or partially paid; it turns out that the tenants had requested some minor repairs/maintenance that they agent had not bothered to deal with; property manager rarely returned our calls.

  It was an easy decision to make to go with the new agent. Their management fee is 5.5%. They inspect every six months. We have had a couple of open for inspections at times which have been appropriate for the market, and they have always had a shortlist of recommended candidates for tenants. They appear to have a very good network with other agents in the area and know quite a bit about prospective tenants, over and above what is contained in their rental applications. We consider ourselves to be good landlords and we are always on the ball when it comes to responding to tenant requests/repairs/maintenance issues. Our property manager has made sure that we know immediately if there is something that needs to be dealt with (unlike the previous ones, who NEVER communicated with us.)

  BTW - I would never advise to remove the property manager from the equation. A PM keeps it a business transaction and if anything goes wrong they are there to act as first port of call. Do you really want your tenant to have your personal contact details - if an arrangement sours, that is going to be a very difficult situation to be in. Your property management costs are tax deductible.