So long as you take the time to learn the rules and your rights and responsibilties as a landlord. But also make sure your are not too much of a softy or a harda*se - you need to look at it as a business transaction, and issue all the correct notices as soon as required, and manage any issues that may arise, without feeling guilty or being bullied into anything. The majority of tenants are fine to deal with, but there are those out there who certainly do give the rest a bad name.
We are going to bbe using a PM intitiially with ours, simply because although I know all the rules (have worked as a tenant advocate) I like to keep a degree of seperation between myself and the tenant, plus I don't have the time to do everything myself - not with study, work and being a SAHM. Having said that, once the kids are older I may reconsider my position.
Do keep in mind that any PM fees are tax deductible and in my experience, everything is negotiatable.
Like Misty said: PM fees are tax deductible... it's usually wiser to leave it to the professionals.
We have both been landlords and renters. As renters we refuse to consider a property unless it is managed by an agent. As landlords we were very happy with our PM.
I have a property self-managed, the tenants are pensioners, the rent comes out of their pension at a cost to me of 99c a pop. To get a PM to do it would cost $16pw plus inspection fees plus statement fees plus fees to get the lease set up etc - 20% of the rent. But that was 6 months ago, now there is simply no PM who will cover the area. The house is so cheap and in such good condition that I'm not too fussed what they do to the house as long as they keep paying rent, and being in good condition there's not much that can go wrong. The tenants have damaged a fair few minor things so far and are by no means ideal tenants but they'll do. They used to live in a PM managed house but the PM let them get $4000 behind in rent and evicted them. They are perfectly up to date being self-managed and all it took was a few forms with Centrelink.
In a few months when our new house arrives we are likely to self-manage our second rental. It will be next door - easy to keep an eye on, and in a better area so I'm likely to get employed tenants not pensioners, and likely triple the rent of the first house if we rent it tenanted.
I don't care that the fees are tax deductable. I don't earn enough at the best of times to pay tax, I'd rather have higher income. It does dent my parenting payment something severe though - rent from the first house drops me to $320pf, rent from the second will drop me considerably more. Stupid $61 per fortnight earning limit.
I've never rented a property with a good PM and I've rented a few properties with good private landlords so I'm biased against PMs.
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