Do you know why property owners change their property managers and often terminate the management contract with an agency?

Majority of the time its small but consistant issues that reoccur in real estate agencies daily. Whether it’s the lack of maintenance on properties,  high turnover of the staff, or simple lack of communication, there's a way to help ensure your clients don't pack up and move on.

1. Little to no communication

Communication barriers occur when the frequency of dialogue doesn’t meet a landlord’s expectations. For instance, if your landlord has called you to give an update and you missed the call and didn’t call back, they might begin to lose their patience. Simply not replying to emails or calls has become one of the biggest frustration for the landlords. 

Address the situation by learning to manage your work load better or giving landlords access to mobile friendly applications like Bricks+Agent that allow them to message you instantly and communicate via a portal. Whether it's financial informations, payment history, or approving quotes for repairs and maintenance, landlords will have access to documents and information they normally have their property manager chasing. 

2. Lack of property maintenance

Maintenance and repairs requests take the most consideration when it comes to property management services. Often these requests are ignored and other times they can get missed under all the emails. 

Good property maintenance is key to keeping landlords happy, however neglecting maintenance and repairs cause landlords to be out of pocket and potentially affect vacancy rates and depreciation of the property.

Being a property manager, it's essential to keep up with property management demands. Educate your tenants, respond to maintenance and repair requests and perform routine inspections to handle any issues.

3. Increase in turnover

It's known that property management has a high turnover and as a result this often frustrates the landlords. If your property management company is dealing with the same, keep an eye on the things and drill into the reasons why this is happening.

You don’t have to be the middlemen of everything. Instead, you can achieve this by offering the right salary, work satisfaction and non-financial incentives to the staff.

4. Lack of experience

At times, when the task of managing properties is handed to less experienced staff members who have limited knowledge about the client and property, it can damage an existing relationship.

Being inexperienced and working without supervision can lead to failure as they may not have in-depth knowledge about landlords and tenants, which can be risky. To address the situation, make sure that your property management company has an experienced professional to lead the team. If you are hiring inexperienced staff, offer them training on the job. 

5. Concerns regarding fees

Another reason why people change property managers is because of fee structures. Any unexpected fee in their regular expenses make both landlords and tenants frustrated. To minimise this, make sure that you have a transparent fee structure to define any changes that may occur.

If you have mentioned any additional fees, you can communicate the reason to the landlord. Doing this will show the landlords that you care and will also help to nurture the relationship.

If you want retain your landlords and keep them with an agency, keep these tips in mind!