Top Five Signs Your Property Manager Is Doing a Bad Job

Although you may be able to manage your own rental properties, doing it yourself isn’t always the best decision to make as an investor. That’s why it is important to hire a property manager to help care for your property while you work on other things. A property manager becomes handy when you’re investing interstate, when you have many rental properties with less time to manage them or when you simply don’t want to be involved in the management duties and choose only to be an investor. Whatever your reason is, hiring a property manager is beneficial to you as a property investor. You need a reliable property manager to ensuring your investment is fairing on well as you focus on other pressing things. A bad property manager can make you want to run for the hills, which is obviously not your investment goal. How will you know whether your property manager is doing a good job or letting your investment plunger into disaster?

Here are signs that your property manager is doing a bad job.

Poor Communication

Your property manager is supposed to be your representative at your investment property. If you cannot reach your property manager often when you need them, you shouldn’t trust them with your property. When you need to find out what is going on with your investment, the manager should be available to provide immediate feedback. A good property manager should be on top of things at your investment property and give you reports regularly. Ensure your management service is proactive in handling issues at your property. 

Tardy or No Monthly Reports from the Property Manager

Professional property management requires strict notice periods. If your property manager fails or consistently delays to send you a report of income and expenses related to your property each month, you need to consider another decision. You should get a detailed report of the amount of rent collected, the property management fees deducted, the amount used for maintenance and any other necessary details. Whether they are unorganized, overwhelmed or perhaps even lazy, your management company should perform as you agreed.

Zero Follow Through

No-follow through is a sign that your property manager is unprofessional in their duties. If repairs are not done on time and correctly, your property management company may be doing some bad job on your investment property. A professional property manager should handle repairs on time and respond to tenant complaints within the shortest time possible. Failure to fix needed repairs is likely to strain a good landlord-tenant relationship. 

Compliance Issues

Your property manager has the responsibility of inspection your investment property for compliance issues. A professional property manager typically inspects the exterior of the property quarterly and inside the property yearly. The inspection should be done regularly to ensure your property is ever in good shape. Your management company should ensure that you as a landlord and your investment property are compliant to the relevant legislation. If you receive write-ups consistently from the regulatory agency, it could mean your manager is clueless of the relevant legislation.

Inconsistent Cash flow

Part of your property manager’s job entails screening of tenants, showing your vacant investment properties and marketing your properties. When your manager is efficient in these roles, you should have a fairly steady cash flow with a few variations now and then.  However, if you get a consistently decreasing cash flow, you may need to replace your manager.