When you shouldn’t self-manage your property

A few red flags to look out for, that may suggest self-managing your property is an accident waiting to happen.

If you don’t have time to keep up-to-date with the regulations and compliance requirements.

It is just as it sounds, you need to keep abreast of any industry updates and legal obligations that you are required to uphold. If self-education and reading legal jargon isn’t something you enjoy then perhaps a PM is worth looking into. Unfortunately, this part of investing is unavoidable, as if you fail to meet your requirements you will find that you will not stand up in VCAT should any issues arise, your insurance may be void and worst-case scenario you may be legally liable for injury/damages to your tenant/property.

If you do not feel confident in dealing with disputes.

As a private landlord, there is no middleman. In a dream scenario, your tenant and you will get along swimmingly, communicate clearly, and respect each other’s obligations, however – as you can imagine- this isn’t always the case. When it comes to rent arrears, evictions, disputes, VCAT proceedings, this will all fall on you to deal with in a professional manner, which can be tricky to do when you are the owner.

If you are unable to view your property as a business.

Unfortunately, personal attachment can yield poor results. It would make complete sense to be personally attached to your own investment property. You have put your own blood, sweat and tears (or, at the least, your own finances) into the place, so it would make sense that you feel strongly and struggle to remain neutral and professional when it comes down to it. In the case of an inherited property, this can be even further amplified.

If you have multiple properties.

Managing multiple properties can become a full-time job (in fact it is our full-time job- haha) and we even use specific platforms and software to help automate, document and streamline our processes, systems, and responsibilities. Without these tools you may find that many hours of your day are being consumed with property management responsibilities. It is wise to weigh up how much time you are spending managing each of your properties and weigh up whether that combined time is worth your efforts, of if you would be better spent palming off these duties to a PM and freeing up your time.

If you live far away from your rental.

Depending on how high/low maintenance your tenant/property is this could prove a time consuming and expensive endeavour.

If you are required to commute every time you need to inspect the property, deal with maintenance, hold opens homes etc the time that you take away from work/other commitments will soon add up.

Plus, you will need to develop a network of trustworthy local trades that can be relied upon to deal with maintenance, who will be able to attend quickly to urgent maintenance and whom you trust to conduct the works for a fair price whilst you’re afar.

If you are already very busy:

Not able to act immediately for urgent situations/maintenance (meet maintenance deadlines)
Not able to document to a required level
Not available to communicate with your tenants in a timely manner
Not able to keep on top of rent/routines/compliance schedules etc, and
Not able to hold opens/market and properly vet tenants.

If you are currently self-managing and have any questions, or would like us to complete a job for you on an ad-hoc basis, please reach out to us a PropertyOwners and we can discuss your property. Call 03 5223 1657.