Matt Phillips,
Sales Agent at Image Property.
Onsite Vs External Property Management?
[lwptoc]Onsite VS External Agents: Which is better?
It’s a common misbelief that investors need to have onsite manager for their property. A quality property manager is going to have the experience and knowledge that entitles them to effectively get the job done and work as a buffer between you and your tenants as seamlessly as possible. Whether this is an onsite agent or an offsite one, you need to be sure that this is a manager that you can trust. After all, this is possibly the biggest asset you own, so it deserves the right level of service.
What is meant by ‘onsite’ and ‘external’ agents?
An onsite property manager refers to an agent that lives in the unit or apartment complex, whereas offsite refers to the property management businesses who work out of the building and manage your property out of an office.
Often you’ll find in larger apartment complex of 30 or more apartments, there will be a resident manager living onsite. They may have purchased the rights to the onsite leasing and are responsible for taking care of the building. Quite often they own one of the apartments or units in the complex.
Traditionally, the profile of an onsite manager has been a husband-and-wife team that have experience in the property management industry. Of course this is not always the case. In recent years, this traditional model has been replaced with people who are looking for a little extra income on top of their day job. Unfortunately, this can come with little or no experience in property management, and can result in poor communication and organisational skills.
To make your job a little easier, here are some advantages for both onsite and offsite property managers so you can make the best decision possible.
The advantages of onsite property managers
- They will likely have a strong understanding of the building because they live there.
- They can show potential tenants through the apartment/unit complex for an inspection with relatively short notice.
- Because often they own the unit/apartment, they have financial interests in the building.
- They often have a hands-on approach to maintenance and will already have local contacts for reliable tradespeople
The advantages of offsite property managers
- They have experience in the legislation around landlord liability and how their clients can protect themselves.
- Some tenants prefer an offsite manager because they feel they have an extra level of privacy, as opposed to walking past the property manager everyday.
- The marketing is often better tailored to each individual property, with managers taking the time to update new photos and descriptions on advertisements.
- They are quick to respond to the market, including when you should be raising your rent prices.
- Offsite managers make sure to prioritise their client’s needs while onsite managers may be working another job and are not always available.
If you’re unsure of their experience, skill-set or communication skills of your property manager, you may be costing yourself a lot of money in vacancy.
Image Property manage over 2000 properties. One of the most competitive advantages is that we have enquiries from up to 50 properties that are online at any given time. Not only are we generating the enquiry from the advertising for the unit in the complex, we’re also using the enquiry from the listings we have in the surrounding suburbs. With increasingly higher vacancy rates in the current marker, our large database allows us to find a tenant quickly so you’re not missing out on valuable rental income.
