Without a doubt there are some unscrupulous rental property managers and owners (as there are in all industries) but not many rental property managers and owners fall into this category. Most property managers and owners are concerned about their tenants and work hard to ensure that their rentals are warm, dry and comfortable.

Only in it for the money

The perception that all property managers and owners do is collect rent is incorrect. This is only one of many tasks involved in being a property manager. As well as collecting and monitoring rental income, other tasks include:

• finding tenants including advertising, meeting and showing properties to applicants, carrying out credit and reference checks, signing new tenants up for a tenancy, collecting bond money, filling in the paperwork and sending bond money to the Bond Office
• making changes to tenancy agreements when a tenant leaves and a new tenant moves in
• carrying out property inspections and writing reports – inspections are typically carried out every 3-4 months depending on owners’ insurance requirements
• organising and overseeing maintenance which can range from changing a lightbulb to major renovation work
• making payments to and on behalf of owners
• managing disputes.

Yes, property managers do charge for their services. But so do plumbers, builders, lawyers and accountants to name but a few – in fact, who does not charge for their services?

We orchestrate “bidding wars”

Perhaps bidding wars do occur but at Nightingales, we have never participated in rent bidding and refuse to consider doing it. As property managers, we choose tenants on merit, not on how much they are prepared to pay.

We randomly terminate tenancies

An empty property does not earn income either for the owner or the property manager so it makes no sense to randomly terminate a tenancy. Both owners and property managers aim for long-term, stable tenancies – this is the most beneficial for all parties concerned, including tenants. Note that long-term tenancies can equally be achieved with fixed-term and periodic (month-by-month) tenancies.

We are providing a service

Property managers provide a service. This is charged to the owner, not the tenant. That the cost is passed on to the tenant is incorrect as renters will only pay market rates. Approximately 1/3 of rental properties are manged by property managers while the rest (2/3) are managed by owners who do not have to pass management fees onto tenants. Furthermore, where a rent is too high, the property is likely to remain vacant for extended periods.

Talk to us

If you have any questions about this subject or any of the other Nightingale Properties blogs, please feel free to call me on 029 200 3950 or email us at len@nightingales.net.nz.