23 October 2015

Ask RiotACT: Property manager?

| Neko
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Hello Rioters, we have just bought an investment property in the inner north — a two bed unit.

Can anyone recommend a property manager or have any insights into which agencies are good? LJ Hooker seem to have a lot of rental properties. Independent did the sale but they don’t seem to do much rental work in the area.

Property websites recommend interviewing several property managers and asking lots of detailed questions, but is this really what people do? We are time poor which is why we need a property manager. Thanks in in advance for your help.

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Interviewing is no good unless you already know how to manage rental properties (in Canberra).

I was with LiveIn but Tamara pivoted that some time back, so I’m with PRD Nationwide now (that’s who bought LiveIn).

I also deal with LJ Hooker in Brisbane.

I have previously dealt with Independent.

So far I have yet to meet a property manager who, when asked to arrange an in-person inspection, will follow through. I have also had a hard time convincing property managers to send me inspection reports.

The worst bit is that the churn rate in property management is quite high: I think the longest I have had the same manager between emails has been about 18 months with one manager who moved from LiveIn to PRD.

The amoint of work I need to do managing the property manager is almost enough to make me want to manage the property directly myself and keep the fees as extra payments on the loan 🙁 Not quite enough properties yet to quit my job and be a fulltime landlord though.

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