A Beginner’s Guide To Property Management In Australia

Whether you’re a landlord, a renter, or even a property manager in training, you’ll all likely innately know the difference between a good or bad property manager. You’ll also know just how vital having a good property manager can be when it comes to maintaining long-term lease agreements and keeping both property owners and their tenants feeling positive.

Despite there being an array of different types of property managers, ranging from residential property managers, commercial property managers, and even strata managers representing a wider body corporate company, the responsibilities of this essential role are rarely subject to change.

Read on for a little overview describing the responsibilities of property managers operating across Australia.

Finding high-quality tenants

One of the most challenging aspects of being a property manager is ensuring that you find good quality tenants for all your properties. Whilst many may believe finding quality tenants is all about calling up your applicant’s personal references and checking tenant blacklists, there’s a lot more that a good property manager can do throughout this screening process.

Having a thorough application process for your properties is crucial to ensuring that your applicants are all sincere and dedicated to securing a lease. Engaging with their prior rental history can also be valuable, as you can glean from this information whether or not it’s likely you’ll be dealing with broken lease agreements, property damage, and other issues that may demand excess attention from your property owners.

Setting appropriate rental rates

Of course, it’s impossible to find quality tenants without ensuring that the property being managed is ideal for any potential applicants who may come across it in rental listings. This naturally means setting an appropriate rental rate, or a rate that’s not too high for the property or the region within which that property is located. Whilst setting your rental rate too low will likely yield a great number of lease applicants, a large influx of applicants will likely mean more work for you, and a lower ROI can potentially cause your property owner to become dissatisfied with your property management services.

So how do you go about setting an optimal rental rate? Rental appraisals are the simple yet elegant answer here. It also helps to have in-depth knowledge of the suburb within which the property resides, and information regarding the prices of neighbouring properties too.

If you’re still having difficulty with finding tenants even after conducting a rental appraisal and setting an approved rental rate, then it’s well worth communicating any concerns you may have regarding the property with the property owner.

Facilitating communication

Speaking of communication, it’s incredible how often tenants may decide to move homes or even break their lease simply because they’re unhappy with the interactions they’ve had with their property managers or landlords. Tenants repeatedly leaving early can become a red flag to property owners, which may, in turn, tarnish your reputation as a property management professional.

Alongside this, when seeking a property manager, many property owners tend to look at your communication style as an indicator of whether or not your services will align with their own personal and professional needs. Whilst it can be difficult learning the ropes and engaging with tenancy laws enough to demonstrate confidence in front of any potential new clients, presenting yourself as a proactive communicator and exhibiting a dedication to keeping both tenants and property owners well-informed regarding any grievances or maintenance issues, will ensure that both parties stay satisfied with your service.

Managing property maintenance

That being said, property managers must also sadly come to expect that most tenants and landlords alike may not be entirely respectful of their professional availability, which may often result in after-hours phone calls left unanswered and emails left unread. As tenants live in your properties 24/7, tempers can run high when issues like sudden power outages arise. You can often find yourself coming into the office at 9am only to be met with a myriad of different concerns. The best thing that you can do is ensure you demonstrate transparency and present a genuine willingness to help.

Be sure to lean on your wider property management agency or body corporate company, and always follow the correct procedures regarding hiring third-party contractors to conduct any maintenance jobs.

In essence, the best property managers are the ones who truly care about not just their landlords, but also their tenants. The best property managers come from a background of being renters themselves, and see that property management is more than just a business, it is a series of relationships. It is playing a key role in the lives of many individuals and is dedicated to ensuring their shared contentment.