What a property manager should do for a landlord

What management should cover

• Advertising a unit the day notice is given, rather than the day it falls empty.
• Vetting tenants: identity, income, and a word with the previous landlord.
• Collecting the rent, and chasing arrears so you never have to.
• Being the number tenants call, including for repairs.
• Accounting for all of it, unit by unit, in writing.

Ask when you get paid, and what it depends on

This is the question that separates managers. Some pay you what they collected, when they collected it, which makes your income as unpredictable as your worst tenant. Others agree a date with you and pay on it.

If a date is offered, ask what happens in a month when collection falls short, and get the answer in writing. A date that quietly moves is worse than no date, because you will have planned around it.

Insist on a statement per unit

A single figure deposited into your account tells you nothing. A statement should show, for every unit, the rent due, what was collected, what is in arrears, what was spent on repairs and what the agent took as their fee.

If the arithmetic is not laid out unit by unit, you cannot tell a slow month from a unit that has been quietly empty, and you have no way to check any of it.

Questions worth asking before you sign

• What is the fee, and is it a share of rent due or of rent collected?
• Who authorises a repair, and above what amount do you call me first?
• Where is my deposit money held, and whose name is it in?
• What is the notice period if I want to take the property back?
• Can I see a sample statement for a property like mine?

Warning signs

• Reluctance to put the payout date in the agreement.
• Statements that arrive late, or only when you ask.
• Repairs billed without quotes or receipts.
• No written record of who is in which unit and on what terms.