Property Management Checklist – Understand Them Fully
If you have decided to approach a property management firm to help you deal with property matters, then you have taken the right step. However, do not think your responsibility is over and you can leave everything to them. You need to be anyways be aware of some of the nuances behind property deals, especially the charges you could be paying so that you are not in for a surprise later on.
The agreement prepared by the property management firm has to be read thoroughly and understood. There are heads like leasing fee, monthly fees for the management of the property, flat fee property sales and so on that you have to first comprehend before going ahead with the firm.It would be tempting to hire a firm that boasts of the lowest charges. But appreciate that every company or firm is there to make a living and profit from their transactions and therefore will find ways of recovering their costs and margins from clients like you. Hence do not fall for any tall claims of some firm offering you a low fee property sales deal or anything to that effect.
Aspects of charges you need to watch out for in addition to their consultancy fees would include trip charges, fees for inspection of the property, fees for setting up the deal, reserve account charges and the like. Unless you have a clear understanding of each of these heads and their implication on your total expenses, you should not go ahead with the deal.
When you deal with property management firms that are not too reputed but are offering you very low consultancy charges, you have to be wary about the kind of people they bring in as tenants.
You may find that a bad tenant can cause you a lot of discomfort from the aspect of paying rent on time as well as keeping your property tidy and neat. You may have to resort to evicting him or her and the cost of replacement can be quite high as well.
You also have to find out how they would go about managing your property. Check out how they would manage repair requests, how they would take care of situations when the tenant has caused damage to the property, what is their mode of lease payment collections, inspection frequency, eviction process in case the tenant does not pay and so on.
Property management experts and real estate agents also need to be chosen based on how many properties they are currently handling and the number of years they have been in the business. The experienced guys know how to market the property well enough so that you as their client gets the best deal and do not have to worry about the background checks as well as other formalities needed to be done.A low fee property sales deal in Canberra is obviously something everybody would like to enter into but remember professional consultancy and advise comes at a price and premium you should not grudge paying.
