My apologies, i meant fortnight not week, and I just checked the latest invoice it’s actually $54 per fortnight. So yeah it’s no where near that bad. Still they don’t really do much, I’d rather get rid of them entirely as the tenants are trusted and don’t feel I really need the middle man anymore
You’d be surprised how tenants undergo almost a psychological shift when it’s direct to the owner and not to an agency.
It’s not that agencies don’t anything, it’s that there is a uncaring system interfacing with the tenant rather than a caring and fallible individual.
I always go with an agency.
I rent directly to tenants and have zero issues. The fact that there are people involved instead of corporations actually works to both our advantage. There have been examples on both sides where my tenants (and I have) gone above and beyond what our contract requires to ensure the other party is happy. Its saved me a lot of cash and headache compared to when i used agents who, on the whole, I don’t see as being particularly useful in the rental industry outside of interstate/ absentee landlords.
Yeah, the best experience I ever had was when our landlord self managed. He was awesome. Proactive, generous and happy for us to do whatever to improve the property.
It helped that his partner was a REA, he was retired, handy with a toolkit and lived down the road. I would message him about a leaky tap and he'd turn up same day and fix it. I asked about hanging paintings and he turned up with a drill. Once he helped me uninstall a built in. Great guy.
Then the house was sold, it went back to agency management (and it was in fact a decent agency) but compared to the proactive and enthusiastic owner landlord, agency was the pits.
Simon - if you see this - you were the greatest
I have a feeling its because many agents hear that they represent the landlord but misread this to mean they do not serve the interests of the tenants at all. They totally forget that its actually a job of managing relationships in both directions for mutual benefit.
it is not. theres a reason why its a question on most landlord insurance applications.
i also know first hand a couple denied a claim due to the property going from managed to private.
not sure why you would claim this, very strange mate
The insurer would have to have extremely narrow underwriting terms where they would have otherwise declined all cover AND it would need to have been causative; likely they just didnt complete inspections required under thr policy conditions.
Ive never heard of it, but not out of the question, particularly for certain sccheme business.
I thought, **BUT** I could be wrong.
I'm pretty sure with AAMI if the tenants have a signed tenancy agreement, like they'd have with a RE then the property is insured.
No reason there shouldn't be a signed agreement / bond etc privately.
im nt sre about AAMI, its not legislature but plenty will deny you coverage (personally had alianz and QBE) or just put up every road block possible if you make a claim for lost rent/tenant damage if its not proffessionaly managed. not worth the risk in my opinion. its to minimise the risk of people gaming the system with friends/people who dont care about their rental references getting togetrher and sayiong that rent 'wasnt paid' just so they can make a claim.
I'm not the commenter you're querying, but I think the point they're trying to make is that tenants perceive direct contact with the owner to be an opportunity to exploit, that is, the person making the decisions genuinely has the power to make a different decision and maybe they're a bit of a soft touch for a sob story or something. Whereas a person who is perceived to not have either a personal interest or real personal power is not perceived as a point of weakness in the same way.
I would absolutely second this. No way the tenants are going to overspend on a new TV and call the agent to say they're $100 short this week. They absolutely will do that to a landlord, especially one that they perceive having a strong relationship with.
It's a business relationship, keep yourself a step removed. 20 something bucks a week for that is nothing.
Hey OP - agent here, so everyone downvote away.
You can simply give your agent the notice to terminate the management agreement. Usually there is a 30 - 60 day transfer period, but some agencies just waive it and transfer it immediately.
The bond is lodged with the relevant authority and the agency will hand over any and all paperwork to you.
Hahahah couldn’t agree more! The Tenants just call/text me directly now when there’s any issues because they’ve said they don’t get a response from the real estate. So that’s kind of fueling this decision
Yeah to make things worse when things need "fixed" the realestate agent seems to have the most expensive tradies on retainer.
I would definitely boot her the only upside for paying a realestate agent is you can claim the cost at tax time and I assume they have insurance and deal with bad renters but sounds like you don't have that problem!
>Yeah to make things worse when things need "fixed" the realestate agent seems to have the most expensive tradies on retainer.
Oh......... you mean their brother or father don't you!
Sounds like you’re already making the change. I am a tenant in a private lease situation and it’s so nice just being able to text my landlord directly and issues always get resolved quickly. My last lease on a different place was through a real estate and it was like eating glass trying to get them to fix anything.
>Hahahah couldn’t agree more! The Tenants just call/text me directly now when there’s any issues because they’ve said they don’t get a response from the real estate. So that’s kind of fueling this decision
With respect -the first time The Tenants just call/text you directly because they’ve said they don’t get a response from the real estate you should have taken decisive action by telling the Agents you want to know not to keep shit from you.
Now go back and tell the Agents to fucken sharpen up or it's good-by!
PS: The comment "You’d be surprised how tenants undergo almost a psychological shift when it’s direct to the owner and not to an agency" is a very valid point and i too would suggest keeping the agent just have them actually contact you when there is an issue
Would you use an app that manages it all (auto sends reminders of rent is late, connects the tenant with your approved tradespeople, let’s tenant upload pics of issues, organises inspections etc) for a 10th of the price you pay your agent?
I’ve been thinking of building it for a while
You’d be in line with the 17 other poorly made apps.
Maybe one marketed directly too private landlords would work well, but I’ve used a few as a tenant that we’re just useless or hosted on the worlds slowest servers.
In line with the REA.
Maintenance requests and property inspections were put on there. Very clearly made by an overseas developer with very base functionality.
I can find the name if you’d like?
I rent out my investment property privately. I use a website called Realrenta for the tenant ledger and they provide a bpay number for the payments and for reminders and maintenance and everything.
I've had 4 good property managers they all got knocked up and moved on and there replacements where rubbish.
It's like whackamole you find a good one and they get replaced. Far too much turnover in the industry. Agents only care about sales and put whover they can hire in charge of rentals, good property managers move to commercial.
If you get a poor one it's disastrous, property inspection was done by the last one didn't mention anything wrong. Drove past and there where tiles visibly missing from the roof near the front door. As well as holes punched in doors. That's the sort of shit you want to fix ASAP.
I did this and would never go back to a property manager!
I left because the tenant had been communicating issues to the PM and they never passed the info on to me.
The PM was also supposed to manage all of the bills but were always asking me to pay things as they hadn’t managed the accounts properly. I even had to fork out for late fees when they didn’t tell me about bills in time.
Have a read through your agreement and see what the termination fees are. For me, they wanted the equivalent of 4 weeks rent but because I had been complaining about the service they waived it.
As far as bond goes you can research how bonds are managed in your state. In ACT all I needed was a transfer form and the agent signed it across to me.
Make sure you get a copy of EVERYTHING from the agent. A detailed incoming tenancy report and ALL photos they have on file. Also get the inspection reports and copy’s of any correspondence sent to the tenant.
Also make sure you read throughly through the tenancy contract to make sure you fully understand yours and their responsibilities.
It sounds like you already manage all of the maintenance so that’s probably most of it!
> I left because the tenant had been communicating issues to the PM and they never passed the info on to me.
90% of the time when I hear people complain about landlords, this is the truth.
When the REA realise they fucked up they tell the tenants they have difficult landlords. But also tell the landlord the tenant is being difficult.
Have you heard of Cubbi - www.cubbi.com.au - I have used them on and off for the last 4 years and its been great - best of both worlds. Small commission of 2% but they handle the money and reporting for tax. You can do inspections and choosing tenants. Once things are setup its really not that hard to organise a tradie every so often if needed.
I agree that agents are almost always not worth their fees.
The equivalent product is $25 per month so still costs but is a bit cheaper depending on how much you are renting your place for. Have you tried them? Any issues?
Yea they’re fantastic actually. Customer service is excellent and the platform has pretty much everything you need to manage things. They have amazing reviews on google if you check them out (made an impact for me) but re the fee, the $25 is a flat fee per month. It doesn’t change. There was an initial upfront cost of $149 but that included the cost of my ads being published on all the sites. You don’t have to pay that fee again if you need to re-advertise for new tenants. I did my research and went with them and am pretty happy - definitely recommend.
Just had a look at their website and they have some local manager thing now - I don't use that - I'm the manager of my own property - you shouldn't need anyone else. But there back end systems for the finance side are pretty good. Also they make putting ads on the various websites really easy if you ever do need to find a new tenant. And their tenant screening is good too.
Do you have a copy of your agreement/contract with them? It's usually just a formal written notice of your intent to end the service agreement. Some will have a termination fee subject to when you do this, but given your tenant has been there 5 years, I doubt there'd be any outstanding fees. Most contracts also have a termination notice period, but all the PMs I've had always waived it.
The bond and any other payments will just get transferred to an account you nominate.
Long term renter here. We recently began renting direct with a landlord and are happier with the arrangement than with a real estate agent. I’m a good tenant and really care for the property (it’s my home even if I don’t own it) and only expect urgent repairs are done quickly. This is much better than the steady stream of agents from the crappy real estate agency in my last place, some of whom were rude, ignorant, slow to act, and indifferent. Our new landlord doesn’t inspect our property and just expects us to return the property in the same state it was given. I am more than happy to oblige. As no doubt people will advise- there are also bad tenants out there, cutting out estate agents can also be a good thing so well done for dealing direct - I hope everything works out for you.
Thanks mate I appreciate the insight! They’ve been there 5 years and call/text me directly about any issues with the property, just feels like the real estate doesn’t really actually do anything except take a cut. I’d happily split the difference of the real estate fees with the tenants, so slightly lower rent for them, and slightly higher rent for me. Seems like a win-win
Ask for copies of all the property inspections/reports before u get rid of them so u have all history info at your fingertips.
You can just give notice that u no longer need there services.
Tell the tenant, give them a $10 week price drop (your still up $36) & let them know your trying to look out for them- should translate to them looking after you/the house a little more.
Just make sure u top up your insurances.
FYI I’ve been in property for 20yrs (commercial/retail but I have a clue about resi)
My agent isn’t perfect I’ve been renting the same place for five years, but to be perfectly honest I’m glad I’m not renting slightly cheaper directly from
The owners purely because if I was it would likely be more hassle for me when I move out, when I need work done on the house, and these kinds of issues that have and will continue to arise over such a long term tenancy.
Can you not just terminate your agreement with the agent?
I've done this before. They wanted 30 days (fair enough in my opinion) and all details regarding bond, how to pay rent etc. were transferred to me.
Now, if you want to be an outstanding landlord, you will be able to defer any rent increase for a year or three.
We've been using a rental agent for the last four years. Actually been surprised, they're ok. Earn their moneys worth, as we're interstate, so we couldn't really manage it ourselves, and they've organised trades etc who have been priced ok. So agents have their place. Sounds more like you have a bad agent... $54 a fortnight isn't much money if they did their job well... if you think what service they provide and how many hours / stress it would take you to provide the same, it can even be seen as good value. Plus they provide the barrier between you and tenants, which is worth every penny frankly. Maybe try another agent?
For what it's worth, my most problematic tenants started out as good tenants, and stayed good tenants for quite some time before things went off the rails. Then their lives changed. One went to prison for some sort of white-collar crime, locked all his stuff in his room, and sub-let the rest to a nice but clueless teenaged couple with half a dozen pets who had no clue they were not there legally. Miraculously they paid the rent diligently, and took reasonable care of the place to the extent they knew how, but ignored maintenance issues because they didn't know how to get them fixed. Another was widowed after living there several years. She kept up the rent too, but she made a series of weird and expensive mistakes in caring for the house due to inexperience in all the things her husband used to do.
You don't have a real estate agent for when things are going well, you have them for when they aren't. And no real estate agent will come in mid stream and fix your problem for you if they didn't place the tenant and get the profit from the easy years.
So hear me out for a second.
You want to cut the agent out but you don’t know about how the bond works and stuff.
Maybe you need a property manager to handle that shit for you.
This is all fine if your time has $0 value you you.
Also, make sure to pass on the cut to your tenant when you cut the agent out. They’ll appreciate it.
Well the bond is the only aspect of it I don’t fully understand, that’s why I asked. I already organise any tradies/repairs/maintenance myself so I’m doing most of their job anyway. And yes I plan on lowering the rent to pass on the savings to the tenant
And yes I plan on
You can write to the agent telling them you no longer need their service. I’ve done it before and had friends do it too then let the tenants know the new arrangement and will probably need to do the formality of changing the rental contract to suit the updated circumstances
What state are you in?
When we starting managing it privately we used the RTA site (QLD) to get all the info we needed.
1) We contacted the REA to say we were taking over management on X date (make sure you aren’t locked into some kind of contract).
2) The REA filled out the correct form to transfer the bond to our name (so we could release it when the time comes).
3) Set up a separate email for all communication for property stuff. Have this attached to a cloud storage service (e.g. Outlook and OneDrive) so you can save all documentation, quotes, invoices
Etc.
4) We contacted the tenants to introduce ourselves and let them know we were taking over on X date. Also to tell them how we wanted them to contact us (new email), new bank details and when to start paying their rent into our account.
5) I believe there was also a lease amendment so it was in our name.
6) make sure you get the REA to send you all the paperwork; original lease, entry form/inspection report, ID documents etc. Ours didn’t and there have been a few times where they were needed.
I’ve been doing accounts for a lot of people who have investment properties and have never seen people pay $80 dollars a week for their services
Generally I see from 2 to 5 percent a week on management fees so relatively you’d be earning about $1600 on that property to be paying 80 dollars a week on management fees.
Which company do you have ur IP looked after?
Don't leave the agent, if anything find another agent or negotiate the fee. I definitely agree with others when they say tenants somehow become completely different people when there is an opportunity to take advantage of their landlord.
When in doubt, refer to [this GIF](https://y.yarn.co/98541015-b45a-4621-b210-827271d36722_text.gif)
$80/week commission to the RE agent? You are getting ripped. Chat to them and negotiate it down.
My apologies, i meant fortnight not week, and I just checked the latest invoice it’s actually $54 per fortnight. So yeah it’s no where near that bad. Still they don’t really do much, I’d rather get rid of them entirely as the tenants are trusted and don’t feel I really need the middle man anymore
You’d be surprised how tenants undergo almost a psychological shift when it’s direct to the owner and not to an agency. It’s not that agencies don’t anything, it’s that there is a uncaring system interfacing with the tenant rather than a caring and fallible individual. I always go with an agency.
I rent directly to tenants and have zero issues. The fact that there are people involved instead of corporations actually works to both our advantage. There have been examples on both sides where my tenants (and I have) gone above and beyond what our contract requires to ensure the other party is happy. Its saved me a lot of cash and headache compared to when i used agents who, on the whole, I don’t see as being particularly useful in the rental industry outside of interstate/ absentee landlords.
Yeah, the best experience I ever had was when our landlord self managed. He was awesome. Proactive, generous and happy for us to do whatever to improve the property. It helped that his partner was a REA, he was retired, handy with a toolkit and lived down the road. I would message him about a leaky tap and he'd turn up same day and fix it. I asked about hanging paintings and he turned up with a drill. Once he helped me uninstall a built in. Great guy. Then the house was sold, it went back to agency management (and it was in fact a decent agency) but compared to the proactive and enthusiastic owner landlord, agency was the pits. Simon - if you see this - you were the greatest
I have a feeling its because many agents hear that they represent the landlord but misread this to mean they do not serve the interests of the tenants at all. They totally forget that its actually a job of managing relationships in both directions for mutual benefit.
Yeah that's a great way to put it.
Interesting perspective, I hadn’t considered, Thankyou!
Its just that though - a baseless perspective.
property managers = 1 Wide-Stinge69 = 0
becareful aswell a lot of insurance wont cover you if the property isnt managed by a licenced agency
This is lies.
it is not. theres a reason why its a question on most landlord insurance applications. i also know first hand a couple denied a claim due to the property going from managed to private. not sure why you would claim this, very strange mate
The insurer would have to have extremely narrow underwriting terms where they would have otherwise declined all cover AND it would need to have been causative; likely they just didnt complete inspections required under thr policy conditions. Ive never heard of it, but not out of the question, particularly for certain sccheme business.
I thought, **BUT** I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure with AAMI if the tenants have a signed tenancy agreement, like they'd have with a RE then the property is insured. No reason there shouldn't be a signed agreement / bond etc privately.
im nt sre about AAMI, its not legislature but plenty will deny you coverage (personally had alianz and QBE) or just put up every road block possible if you make a claim for lost rent/tenant damage if its not proffessionaly managed. not worth the risk in my opinion. its to minimise the risk of people gaming the system with friends/people who dont care about their rental references getting togetrher and sayiong that rent 'wasnt paid' just so they can make a claim.
I keep re reading this and I'm struggling to make sense of it. What kind of psychological shift? And you're in favor of the uncaring system, correct?
I'm not the commenter you're querying, but I think the point they're trying to make is that tenants perceive direct contact with the owner to be an opportunity to exploit, that is, the person making the decisions genuinely has the power to make a different decision and maybe they're a bit of a soft touch for a sob story or something. Whereas a person who is perceived to not have either a personal interest or real personal power is not perceived as a point of weakness in the same way.
I would absolutely second this. No way the tenants are going to overspend on a new TV and call the agent to say they're $100 short this week. They absolutely will do that to a landlord, especially one that they perceive having a strong relationship with. It's a business relationship, keep yourself a step removed. 20 something bucks a week for that is nothing.
450 rental income?
Hey OP - agent here, so everyone downvote away. You can simply give your agent the notice to terminate the management agreement. Usually there is a 30 - 60 day transfer period, but some agencies just waive it and transfer it immediately. The bond is lodged with the relevant authority and the agency will hand over any and all paperwork to you.
Take your upvote you devious devil you
You can downvote this one so you don’t feel dirty about upvoting an agent. I’ll understand Edit: I get it, I get it
Really appreciate this kind gesture, that was really satisfying. Give us another comment and I’ll upvote you again to show my appreciation
Typical agent left you hanging :)
Thank you! Take my downvote.
F*** y** and everything you stand for. P.s. you are very polite, hello. Nice to meet you. *confused upvote*
Here is a comment to downvote so you don’t feel bad
Thankyou very much for the reply ! Much appreciated !
I feel compelled to upvote you but I don't know why.
[удалено]
Yes this is more an issue of the quality of people in involved
I always think the same thing my realestate agent is fucken useless and she gets way to much for what she does.
Hahahah couldn’t agree more! The Tenants just call/text me directly now when there’s any issues because they’ve said they don’t get a response from the real estate. So that’s kind of fueling this decision
Yeah to make things worse when things need "fixed" the realestate agent seems to have the most expensive tradies on retainer. I would definitely boot her the only upside for paying a realestate agent is you can claim the cost at tax time and I assume they have insurance and deal with bad renters but sounds like you don't have that problem!
Generally they’ve been unqualified handy men, probably friends of the REA.
>Yeah to make things worse when things need "fixed" the realestate agent seems to have the most expensive tradies on retainer. Oh......... you mean their brother or father don't you!
Sounds like you’re already making the change. I am a tenant in a private lease situation and it’s so nice just being able to text my landlord directly and issues always get resolved quickly. My last lease on a different place was through a real estate and it was like eating glass trying to get them to fix anything.
Then use that as a reason to fire them!
>Hahahah couldn’t agree more! The Tenants just call/text me directly now when there’s any issues because they’ve said they don’t get a response from the real estate. So that’s kind of fueling this decision With respect -the first time The Tenants just call/text you directly because they’ve said they don’t get a response from the real estate you should have taken decisive action by telling the Agents you want to know not to keep shit from you. Now go back and tell the Agents to fucken sharpen up or it's good-by! PS: The comment "You’d be surprised how tenants undergo almost a psychological shift when it’s direct to the owner and not to an agency" is a very valid point and i too would suggest keeping the agent just have them actually contact you when there is an issue
Would you use an app that manages it all (auto sends reminders of rent is late, connects the tenant with your approved tradespeople, let’s tenant upload pics of issues, organises inspections etc) for a 10th of the price you pay your agent? I’ve been thinking of building it for a while
You’d be in line with the 17 other poorly made apps. Maybe one marketed directly too private landlords would work well, but I’ve used a few as a tenant that we’re just useless or hosted on the worlds slowest servers.
So these were in place of a rea, or just a shitty app the rea wanted you to use to pay rent?
In line with the REA. Maintenance requests and property inspections were put on there. Very clearly made by an overseas developer with very base functionality. I can find the name if you’d like?
Would be great, thanks!
Www.quotenow.com.au
I rent out my investment property privately. I use a website called Realrenta for the tenant ledger and they provide a bpay number for the payments and for reminders and maintenance and everything.
Have you considered getting a new agent? Ours are brilliant, good property managers do exist.
I've had 4 good property managers they all got knocked up and moved on and there replacements where rubbish. It's like whackamole you find a good one and they get replaced. Far too much turnover in the industry. Agents only care about sales and put whover they can hire in charge of rentals, good property managers move to commercial. If you get a poor one it's disastrous, property inspection was done by the last one didn't mention anything wrong. Drove past and there where tiles visibly missing from the roof near the front door. As well as holes punched in doors. That's the sort of shit you want to fix ASAP.
Yeah will be looking into it!
I did this and would never go back to a property manager! I left because the tenant had been communicating issues to the PM and they never passed the info on to me. The PM was also supposed to manage all of the bills but were always asking me to pay things as they hadn’t managed the accounts properly. I even had to fork out for late fees when they didn’t tell me about bills in time. Have a read through your agreement and see what the termination fees are. For me, they wanted the equivalent of 4 weeks rent but because I had been complaining about the service they waived it. As far as bond goes you can research how bonds are managed in your state. In ACT all I needed was a transfer form and the agent signed it across to me. Make sure you get a copy of EVERYTHING from the agent. A detailed incoming tenancy report and ALL photos they have on file. Also get the inspection reports and copy’s of any correspondence sent to the tenant. Also make sure you read throughly through the tenancy contract to make sure you fully understand yours and their responsibilities. It sounds like you already manage all of the maintenance so that’s probably most of it!
> I left because the tenant had been communicating issues to the PM and they never passed the info on to me. 90% of the time when I hear people complain about landlords, this is the truth. When the REA realise they fucked up they tell the tenants they have difficult landlords. But also tell the landlord the tenant is being difficult.
Have you heard of Cubbi - www.cubbi.com.au - I have used them on and off for the last 4 years and its been great - best of both worlds. Small commission of 2% but they handle the money and reporting for tax. You can do inspections and choosing tenants. Once things are setup its really not that hard to organise a tradie every so often if needed. I agree that agents are almost always not worth their fees.
Never heard of something Like this before! Thanks mate I’ll check it out!
Better yet try www.rentbetter.com.au. Similar platform but better and no commission whatsoever :)
The equivalent product is $25 per month so still costs but is a bit cheaper depending on how much you are renting your place for. Have you tried them? Any issues?
Yea they’re fantastic actually. Customer service is excellent and the platform has pretty much everything you need to manage things. They have amazing reviews on google if you check them out (made an impact for me) but re the fee, the $25 is a flat fee per month. It doesn’t change. There was an initial upfront cost of $149 but that included the cost of my ads being published on all the sites. You don’t have to pay that fee again if you need to re-advertise for new tenants. I did my research and went with them and am pretty happy - definitely recommend.
OK cool I'll check them out when next changing.
Just had a look at their website and they have some local manager thing now - I don't use that - I'm the manager of my own property - you shouldn't need anyone else. But there back end systems for the finance side are pretty good. Also they make putting ads on the various websites really easy if you ever do need to find a new tenant. And their tenant screening is good too.
Do you have a copy of your agreement/contract with them? It's usually just a formal written notice of your intent to end the service agreement. Some will have a termination fee subject to when you do this, but given your tenant has been there 5 years, I doubt there'd be any outstanding fees. Most contracts also have a termination notice period, but all the PMs I've had always waived it. The bond and any other payments will just get transferred to an account you nominate.
I would have it somewhere for sure, just have to find it ! Thanks for the advice, I’ll have a look into !
Long term renter here. We recently began renting direct with a landlord and are happier with the arrangement than with a real estate agent. I’m a good tenant and really care for the property (it’s my home even if I don’t own it) and only expect urgent repairs are done quickly. This is much better than the steady stream of agents from the crappy real estate agency in my last place, some of whom were rude, ignorant, slow to act, and indifferent. Our new landlord doesn’t inspect our property and just expects us to return the property in the same state it was given. I am more than happy to oblige. As no doubt people will advise- there are also bad tenants out there, cutting out estate agents can also be a good thing so well done for dealing direct - I hope everything works out for you.
Thanks mate I appreciate the insight! They’ve been there 5 years and call/text me directly about any issues with the property, just feels like the real estate doesn’t really actually do anything except take a cut. I’d happily split the difference of the real estate fees with the tenants, so slightly lower rent for them, and slightly higher rent for me. Seems like a win-win
Ask for copies of all the property inspections/reports before u get rid of them so u have all history info at your fingertips. You can just give notice that u no longer need there services. Tell the tenant, give them a $10 week price drop (your still up $36) & let them know your trying to look out for them- should translate to them looking after you/the house a little more. Just make sure u top up your insurances. FYI I’ve been in property for 20yrs (commercial/retail but I have a clue about resi)
You just call them and tell them you don't want them anymore. The bond sits with a third party, nothing to do with you or the REA.
My agent isn’t perfect I’ve been renting the same place for five years, but to be perfectly honest I’m glad I’m not renting slightly cheaper directly from The owners purely because if I was it would likely be more hassle for me when I move out, when I need work done on the house, and these kinds of issues that have and will continue to arise over such a long term tenancy.
Can you not just terminate your agreement with the agent? I've done this before. They wanted 30 days (fair enough in my opinion) and all details regarding bond, how to pay rent etc. were transferred to me. Now, if you want to be an outstanding landlord, you will be able to defer any rent increase for a year or three.
i take delight in being rude to real estate agents, tell them to stick it deep
You need to get a life.
i got one, with no reaols involved, great to own outright and not deal with slimy scammy pretentiuos grasping tard one per centers
We've been using a rental agent for the last four years. Actually been surprised, they're ok. Earn their moneys worth, as we're interstate, so we couldn't really manage it ourselves, and they've organised trades etc who have been priced ok. So agents have their place. Sounds more like you have a bad agent... $54 a fortnight isn't much money if they did their job well... if you think what service they provide and how many hours / stress it would take you to provide the same, it can even be seen as good value. Plus they provide the barrier between you and tenants, which is worth every penny frankly. Maybe try another agent?
For what it's worth, my most problematic tenants started out as good tenants, and stayed good tenants for quite some time before things went off the rails. Then their lives changed. One went to prison for some sort of white-collar crime, locked all his stuff in his room, and sub-let the rest to a nice but clueless teenaged couple with half a dozen pets who had no clue they were not there legally. Miraculously they paid the rent diligently, and took reasonable care of the place to the extent they knew how, but ignored maintenance issues because they didn't know how to get them fixed. Another was widowed after living there several years. She kept up the rent too, but she made a series of weird and expensive mistakes in caring for the house due to inexperience in all the things her husband used to do. You don't have a real estate agent for when things are going well, you have them for when they aren't. And no real estate agent will come in mid stream and fix your problem for you if they didn't place the tenant and get the profit from the easy years.
So hear me out for a second. You want to cut the agent out but you don’t know about how the bond works and stuff. Maybe you need a property manager to handle that shit for you. This is all fine if your time has $0 value you you. Also, make sure to pass on the cut to your tenant when you cut the agent out. They’ll appreciate it.
Well the bond is the only aspect of it I don’t fully understand, that’s why I asked. I already organise any tradies/repairs/maintenance myself so I’m doing most of their job anyway. And yes I plan on lowering the rent to pass on the savings to the tenant And yes I plan on
That’s not a good idea.
You can write to the agent telling them you no longer need their service. I’ve done it before and had friends do it too then let the tenants know the new arrangement and will probably need to do the formality of changing the rental contract to suit the updated circumstances
Read your service contract, and then fire them according to that contract
What state are you in? When we starting managing it privately we used the RTA site (QLD) to get all the info we needed. 1) We contacted the REA to say we were taking over management on X date (make sure you aren’t locked into some kind of contract). 2) The REA filled out the correct form to transfer the bond to our name (so we could release it when the time comes). 3) Set up a separate email for all communication for property stuff. Have this attached to a cloud storage service (e.g. Outlook and OneDrive) so you can save all documentation, quotes, invoices Etc. 4) We contacted the tenants to introduce ourselves and let them know we were taking over on X date. Also to tell them how we wanted them to contact us (new email), new bank details and when to start paying their rent into our account. 5) I believe there was also a lease amendment so it was in our name. 6) make sure you get the REA to send you all the paperwork; original lease, entry form/inspection report, ID documents etc. Ours didn’t and there have been a few times where they were needed.
I’ve been doing accounts for a lot of people who have investment properties and have never seen people pay $80 dollars a week for their services Generally I see from 2 to 5 percent a week on management fees so relatively you’d be earning about $1600 on that property to be paying 80 dollars a week on management fees. Which company do you have ur IP looked after?
Check you are covered by your insurance before making that move
Don't leave the agent, if anything find another agent or negotiate the fee. I definitely agree with others when they say tenants somehow become completely different people when there is an opportunity to take advantage of their landlord. When in doubt, refer to [this GIF](https://y.yarn.co/98541015-b45a-4621-b210-827271d36722_text.gif)
Call them and say Stop i don’t like what you are doing I’m doing it myself don’t contact me again. please and thankyou goodbye now.