Professional management of your property allows you to save precious time and minimise rental risks like unpaid rents, property maintenance etc. But, for this, your residential property management agency must have the right skills and experience. So what are the criteria for selecting a good rental management agency?
The professional property management agency you choose must have these essential skills:
Registration
In Australia, several laws are regulating residential property management. To offer a rental management service, the manager of an agency must have property manager registration. This gives the agency full legitimacy to take charge of your property management in all its aspects: publication of the advertisement, selection of potential tenants, collection of rents, management of rental situations, emergency, etc. The idea is to only register agencies with the necessary skills to ensure that everything is managed professionally.
Essential Insurance And Guarantees
The rental of a property is always subject to risks, including with regard to the agency itself. The management you choose is also not immune to an error. Therefore, the selected agency must have insurance that allows them and you to face any problem in the context of your rental management.
Relevant Additional Services
All agencies that practice rental property management take care of basic tasks, such as finding a tenant or collecting rent. The difference is often in the complementary services, which a quality agency offers while others do not. For example:
- Services dedicated to emergency situations (sudden water damage that requires immediate intervention with the tenant);
- A service focused on accounting and taxation to help you correctly declare your income;
- Guarantee against unpaid rent or damage, etc.
These are relevant services that can change your life and make your rental go smoothly!
A Financial Guarantee – Liability insurance
For this, real estate agencies turn to specialised organisations. The subscription of these covers is obligatory by the law to obtain the registration. However, you must check that the targeted agency is up to date with its subscriptions and its guarantees are valid.
Adequate Experience In Property Management
The registration, additional services and financial guarantee are not enough: the question is whether the real estate agency which offers this service is sufficiently experienced in this field. To find out, you need to do your little research: analyse the agency’s reputation at the local level – checking feedback from former clients, etc. Start by consulting the website of the targeted agency. There you will certainly find details of its rental management services and landlord’s opinions.
Financially Sound
Bankruptcy or shut down is the worst-case scenario for any rental management or other business agencies. Although these both are rare scenarios, anything can happen in a blink of an eye. Therefore, you must get an idea of the financial health of the professional property management agency you choose. For this, take into account the amount of its share capital which acts as the security.
Final Words:
After considering all the above factors, you need to establish a checklist before initiating your search. You have to know what you want. Make a list of your priorities and classify them. You can decide to favour the price and types of services offered. To do this, you can go through all the options available to you one by one.
Note: To match individual needs, some managers offer options that may or may not be included in the price. It is therefore essential that you open your eyes to these specificities to avoid any misunderstanding.
