Is it worth it? Self Managing Rental

We have decided to rent out our primary residence and rent a bigger place.

So it's all set to go for 6 weeks - the hard task now is to tenant our home.

I met with 4 Real Estate agents, pretty standard and consistent across the board with fees - but bloody hell I didn't realise it's that expensive to use a Property Manager.

So I looked into self management - confident I could do it (worked in Business for 10 + years and admin to our business) BUT is it worth the hassle when something goes wrong?

I like that inspections would be done by myself or husband - don't like that it would be me fighting tribunal if need be....

Anyone had any experience or can offer some advice? xxx

We manage our own rental property for those exact reasons. Also I have heard so many stories of property managers not actually doing the job that they are paid to do. From my experience in the jobs I have had over the years, if you want something done properly, do it yourself!!

I am confident that if something was to go wrong that I could manage it.. Even though we have done it on our own, we have still done it the exact same way as what the agents would, for example we still have applications forms, references, lease agreement, and inspection checklists. Not sure where you are but in Victoria all of the forms / information is available at Consumer Affairs. We have everything in writing just in case something goes wrong.

Saying that we have great tenants and have had no problems (touch wood!) We rent our place out to a family that we know through other people but we dont actually know them iykwim, so we were able to get some great references but also there is no friendship on the line if something was to go wrong. I would never rent to friends / family.

It also helps that we still live in the same town as our rental.. so it would probably be different if we lived a long way away, or interstate.

As long as you know all the rules yadda yadda, I don't see why not.
Btw, the Tribunal isn't that bad - especially if you are in the right!

We had a Property manager manage our property and they were absolutely useless! We always had to call them up to chase the tenants for rent! and they screwed us over when the old tenants didnt want to lease the property anymore, making us lose over $15k in rental income.

I guess if you want less hassle, make sure the property manager is VERY GOOD. otherwlse better to do it yourself, esp if you know tradies.

Where is your property located? I used to be a PM and think its the crappest job and they dont get paid enough to cop the level of abuse and crap that i did. i was ran off the road, stalked, threatened and locked in a cupboard all by tenants. Its not worth the hasslte to do it yourself. I would be paying someone to deal with the crap. you an tell them that you want to be present at inspections they cant decline you that.

Oh really Kylza? The property is over at Lake Macquarie NSW

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.