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I recently had two new clients contact me in regards to leasing their unit. They advised me that they only wanted it as a casual letting and, once we secured the tenant, they wanted to manage it themselves.
Quite often we are contacted by landlords asking for us just to find the tenant as they like to manage it themselves. I always ask the question, 'Why don’t you want to engage in an agent to manage it?' The most common answer is they don’t want to pay all our fees and advise ‘it’s easy, we collect the rent from the tenant ourselves, so why would we pay fees to an agent to do that?’
I have found that many landlords have not been educated on how to effectively manage their property and a lot of them are not keeping up with current legislation. It is not just about collecting the rent. If that is all the landlord is doing, then they are not looking after their investment very well.
One client I took over previously managed the unit themselves. The landlord did not do an in-going condition report when the tenant moved in. When the tenant vacated, there was a lot of damage and the owner just assumed they could charge all of this to the tenant from their bond. I advised they couldn’t as there was no in-going report to go from. I also asked how often they did routine inspections as the damage should have been picked up earlier. I was advised that the landlord had never completed a routine in the year that the tenants lived there. The rent that the tenants were paying was also well below market rent. Not only did this client have repairs and damages that they now needed to fix out of their own pocket, but they were also not achieving the potential rent they could have been. After the loss that the landlord occurred, they then signed over for me to manage their property as they did not want that to happen again.
The other client I had, signed over from a causal letting to a management after I sent an email of our fees for causal lettings versus management fees. At the end of the day, causal lettings from most agents can be quite expensive and, when I worked out management fees for a year, it was a little more, but I explained all of the things we do in that year for them. The landlord was more than happy to sign over and actually said to me he has used one agent for years for a casual letting and they have never explained the scenario of a causal versus a management. I really don’t understand why agents would not try to convert the landlord to sign up as a management.
Both landlords have advised that they are happy they now have an agent and can feel at ease that their investment is now being well looked after. Investments are generally one of the biggest purchases people make beside their own homes, so why would you not want it properly looked after and ensure you are getting the most out of it?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kylie Meier
Kylie Meier is a licensed real estate agent who has developed a strong reputation within and around Sydney’s eastern suburbs as a senior property manager for over 13 years. Kylie is now packaging all of those hard-earned skills, knowledge and experience into a new role as business development manager at MyPlace Estate Agents Zetland.
Kylie started her career in real estate at a young age and has consistently received many accolades. Winning top awards such as Property Manager of the Year nationally for Outstanding Property Management two years running and also winning the Property Management Chairman's Club Award - a prestigious award achieved in her previous role.
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