An experienced property manager believes there are four common areas where members of her industry fail to meet the needs of their clients.
Renee Chad, general manager of Diligent Property Management, believes like all professions the reputation of property managers suffer due to the actions of a few, but there are still areas that can be improved.
“Unfortunately, with many industry sectors there are always a handful of individuals or businesses who choose to not do the right thing, subsequently damaging the reputation of an industry,” Renee said
“What I have noticed happen in these situations is that people tend to predominantly notice the pockets of poor practice, amplify them and as a result new assumptions and myths about an industry develops and flourishes,” she said.
As an established player in the industry, Renee has plenty of experience with clients coming to her after sub-par experiences with previous managers or agencies, and more often or not it involves one of a small handful of reasons.
Renee identified poor communication, poor inspection practices, lack of follow through on presenting matters and high staff turnover within management agencies as the main reasons why people become frustrated with property managers.
“When people switch across to us we have a conversation with them about why and at least one of those four factors will come up,” she said.
“We find a lot of it comes down to people’s expectations, people will be promised all this great service and then after a month or two it all drops off and they’re left feeling let down about the whole experience.”
For Renee there are a number of relatively simple steps that people can take to ensure they find somebody who will fulfil their needs.
“Word of mouth is a great way to find out, whether it be talking to other investors or having a look at the forums on the internet to see what people are saying.
“If you can speak to actual clients that’s a great way to find out how somebody operates and you should try to find out more than just the basics like how long somebody’s been operating for or how many properties they manage.
“Property Management is a people business and you want to find somebody with the right capabilities for that, things like if they can build and sustain positive relationships with people, are they good at de-escalating situations and managing expectations; you want somebody who demonstrates a balanced perspective to meet the needs of both the tenant and landlord.”
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