Latest Property Management News
Property Management Newsletter
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wow! Another exciting couple of months have passed at Baird Real Estate.
The Property Management Department is still running hot with the majority of our properties being leased after just ONE inspection. We believe Ashlee recently created a residential high price of $450 per week for a home in Cessnock. Our vacancy rate in parts of Cessnock are as low as 1%!
In this issue we have also included information regarding our arrears process and the disadvantages of choosing a managing agent based on fees as many landlords still believe fees agents charge are still to high. That is until they are proven to get what they pay for when it comes choosing a quality property management department.
Baird Real Estate had another successful Autism Awareness month with many activities and a lot of hard work producing $3500.00 to go directly to local schools. The days was well supported by the community with sausages donated by Dave Masters from Barry’s Quality Meats, bread rolls donated by Sylvester Bros Bakery, sausage sizzle was cooked by Cessnock Lion’s Club. We also had a cake stall full of delicious creations and live entertainment provided by local artist Tara Naysmith. Following weeks of rain, the day was full of beautiful sunshine making it a great day had by all.
Ashlee and Maxine recently attended a Property Management Forum in
Why Cheap Fees Means Poor Service
In such a competitive market, no saying is truer than ‘you get what you pay for’. We continually come across agents dropping their fees just to secure your business. Baird Real Estate strongly disagrees with this practice as with less income comes many other problems affecting the management of your valuable investment property. Such problems that frequently occur include:
· Property Management overload: because the agency now has a much lower income to work from, due to the cheap fees, the property manager assigned to the property has far more properties to manage than what is considered responsible and feasible.
· Burnout and resignation: overload of managements causes the property manager not being able to cope resulting in burnout and subsequently resignation.
· Inexperienced Property Manager employed: The principal then must search for a new Property Manager. Typically experienced property managers are hesitant to manage property portfolios where they will be overloaded and as such inexperienced property managers are usually the ones employed to take on the portfolio.
· Cycle of staff turnover: as the overload of properties is too much for the new property manager to deal with, and little or no training is provided the property manager is quickly overwhelmed and often ‘throws in the towel’ starting the process of finding a new property manager again.
· Poor service levels: due to the high staff turnover, staff are untrained, inexperienced and overloaded. This results in poor service levels and dissatisfied clients.
· The Principal lets others know: the principal is now disillusioned by their ‘poorly performing’ property management department, reinforcing the notion that the property management department is still ‘second best’ to sales in a real estate business.
Baird Real Estate strongly believes in ‘getting what you pay for’ and by paying a premium price you are provided with premium service that is second to none!
Arrears Management in Critical Times
With all the stressors in these uncertain economic times, it is vital that you have a Property Manager who is closely monitoring your tenants rental payments. As tenants not paying their rent only further strains the already tight household budgets.
Due to this very reason Baird Real Estate have implemented a very strict arrears monitoring policy when it comes to tenants who have fallen behind.
At Baird Real Estate our arrears is run off daily and tenants behind in rent are contacted every day until they are back in advance. Our four step policy consists of the following:
· Days 1-2: friendly reminder phone call advising tenants a payment has been missed
· Days 3-6: Courteous reminder letters, text messages, phone calls all recorded on the tenants permanent ledger
· Days 7 - 14: Payment demand letters, test messages and phone calls advising tenants they are at risk of termination. These are also recorded on tenant’s permanent ledger
· Days 15 +: An automatic termination notice is issued to the tenant advising they have 14 days to pay all monies owing and vacate the property.
Following the termination notice being issued your tenant will continue to receive constant reminder notices. Should your tenant not have paid the arrears and continue occupying the property, once the termination expires we will proceed to the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal for a judgement on the case. This is the worse cast scenario and rarely does this sequence of events occur.
Baird Real Estate takes arrears management very seriously and landlords of chronic re-offenders are encouraged to take matters further to ensure tenants do not continue in arrears.
- Ashlee Murray & Joseph Lorriman
