As an property investor, do you know what the key responsibilities of a property manager are? At Orbit Property we go above and beyond for all our clients. But there are some basic property manager duties that ALL property manager should be doing. Below we highlight some of the roles and primary obligations.
Key property manager responsibilities include:
Looking after your one of your most valuable assets
Owning an investment property can be awarding but as with anything it can come with its challenges. Even the best of tenants invariably has demands. Sometimes attending to these requests, queries, and maintenance can be frustrating, stressful, and time consuming. Having an experienced professional looking after these essential property manager duties contributes directly to the success of your asset.
Advertising and open inspections
This may seem like an obvious one, but a good property manager will ensure that your vacant property is well advertised at the right time. This is so important to maximise the number of potential tenants who see it. Having a good selection of times available for inspections is also important. Here at Orbit Property, we ensure that we accommodate after hour and Saturday inspection times to capture as many potential tenants as we can.
Thoroughly screening tenants
As a property owner, you want to be confident that the tenants living in your house or unit are quality tenants. It is vital that thoroughly checks your potential tenants’ application before it is approved. Employment, tenancy background checks should always be run carefully. It is important to ensure that the people who are being trusted with your property have demonstrated themselves to be responsible. We ensure that all our owners are provided with a full summary of applications so an informed decision can be made by you as the owner.
Management of maintenance requests
Managing maintenance issues can sometimes be a nightmare if you are not equipped to deal with these requests. It can be stressful to organise urgent maintenance or repair requests from tenants and understanding the legislation that goes with this. Good property managers are well equipped to deal with these requests. Established property managers will usually have plenty of great contacts they can call on. Furthermore, due to the relationship between property manager and trades services, there can be more benefit than just speedy attention. Trades services that work closely with property managers can often complete the required works for a very reasonable cost or can trouble shoot problems that save a potential call out fee.
Visual inspections
Your property manager should always carry out visual inspections. This is to ensure that the tenants are taking good care of your property. Also, any maintenance issues can be spotted and addressed quickly. A full report including photos should then be complied for the owner’s reference. This is also an opportunity to report any items that are going to be needing to be replaced or refreshed such as carpet or painting so that a plan can be put in place.
Building rapport with tenants
A vacant property means advertising costs and lost rent money for a property owner. So, you want a property manager who knows how to balance the relationship between working for the owner and looking after tenants and to ensure they are happy. Experienced property managers know how important it is to establish good communication and relationships with tenants. Because good relations and communications have all sorts of benefits which can minimise the stress and expense that can be caused when a good tenant vacates a property.
Knowing your property’s value
A knowledgeable and thorough property manager will keep on top of your property’s value. The property’s value can relate both to rental income and the saleable value. Rent should be reviewed prior to each lease to ensure that it is kept in line with market rent with rent increases occurring accordingly. As mentioned above, keeping on top of the condition of the property and ensuring that any updates such as carpet or painting are required and planned for. This will ensure that you are getting the most out of your investment from both a rental and sale point of view.
Knowing and understanding the legislation
A committed property manager is always across the latest laws and legislation. Most importantly, they keep up to date with changes as they happen and often undertake continued education. The importance of this cannot be underestimated with the increasing trend of litigation. For example, not fixing a maintenance issue that could potentially provide personal injury to a tenant is just one example in a growing number of cases. A property manager should be notifying you of such risks and providing you with advice and educated knowledge on how to minimise or eradicate any risk to you as the investor.
An exceptional property manager can be hard to find, and it is important not to place one of the valuable assets with a property manager solely based on fees. At Orbit Property we love what we do, and we love providing all our clients with exceptional service whilst ensuring that we always provide full transparency.
