Rental property management: why hire a professional

Have a rental property? You need to decide how to manage it on an ongoing basis. Here's how to choose the right rental property management option for you.

If you have a rental property (or you want to buy one), one of the key things you need to decide is how to manage it on an ongoing basis. You have two options:

hire a professional property manager to do it for you.
do it yourself.

Read on to find out answers to FAQs to help you choose the right rental property management option for your needs.

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Why should you use a property manager?

Using the services of a professional property manager can save you a lot of time and hassle in doing the following essential rental property management tasks:

ensuring you’re compliant with all your legal obligations as a landlord.
sourcing and screening potential tenants well before your property becomes vacant. This ensures that your vacancy period is minimised, and your rental income is maximised.
arranging potential tenant inspections and being there when they occur.
preparing lease documentation for you and your tenants.
ensuring that your tenant’s rent is paid on time.
liaising with tenants on your behalf.
conducting regular property inspections to ensure that your tenants are looking after your property.
paying any ongoing property expenses on your behalf (such as council rates, body corporate fees and insurance)
ensuring that any repairs and maintenance is carried out in a timely manner by quality tradespeople.
financial reporting on your property to ensure you minimise your tax obligations.
assisting with any tenant dispute resolution.
reviewing your rent prior to lease renewal to ensure it reflects market rates. This is important to maximise your property’s investment return.

What are the risks of managing your own rental property?

If you decide to manage your own investment property, you will have the time and hassle associated with doing all of the essential tasks listed above yourself. You also could directly face these potential risks:

not complying with all your legal obligations as a landlord due to a lack of experience and awareness.
difficulty in sourcing quality tenants (leading to a higher vacancy rate and lower return on your property investment). Professional property managers usually have databases of potential tenants on file.
preparing your own lease documentation and negotiating leases with tenants.
conducting your own property inspections to make sure your tenants are looking after your property (and communicating any associated issues directly).
dealing with any tenant issues or disputes yourself (for example, late or unpaid rent, damage caused to your property, poor property maintenance and potential eviction issues).
breakdown in tenant relationships and communication that you have to manage yourself.
tenants contacting you directly about any issue 24/7.
arranging your own repairs and maintenance as necessary via sourcing your own tradespeople.
without proper reporting systems you may not claim all your tax-deductible expenses.

You could face the risk of not complying with all your legal obligations as a landlord due to a lack of experience and awareness.

Is it worth managing your own rental property?

The answer to this question depends on how much rental property management knowledge and experience you have, as well as how much time you have available to perform all of the essential property management tasks listed earlier.

Property managers charge a tax-deductible fee for their services. If you value your time, this fee should be more than offset by all the benefits you will receive from your property management service.

Hiring a property manager will give you peace of mind in terms of ensuring your legal compliance, dealing effectively with tenant issues and maximising your return on investment.

Property managers do rental property management for a living. If you don’t have a high level of property investment management knowledge or experience, then hiring a property manager is a smart strategy.

How we can help

At DPN, we provide the full range of property management services for our landlord clients. Our highly experienced and proactive and team work with clients to maximise their return on their property investment. We have a guaranteed 24 hour response time as well as extremely low rental arrears and minimal property vacancy rates.

Contact us to find out how we can help you with rental property management. We would be happy to discuss your needs and goals, and to answer any questions that you have.

Full range of property management services
Work with clients to maximise the return on their property investment
Guaranteed 24 hours response time
Low rental arrears
Minimal property vacancy rates

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