It’s sometimes hard to work out why you feel vaguely dissatisfied with a given service. You know it's not working but you can't put your finger on why. When it comes to property managers, there is a checklist you can run through to reassure yourself that your agent is doing the best thing by your investment.

Most people want to communicate with one person for their day-to-day needs.  They don’t want different jobs to be managed by different personnel (task management); they want their whole portfolio to be looked after (whether they own one property or several) by one person who is responsible for all tasks relating to their properties - arrears, re-letting, repairs and so on.

1. Does your property manager talk to you on the phone or does he/she send emails or text messages? Most landlords are baby boomers and prefer to discuss things directly when there is a problem so if you feel your property manager is hiding behind emails or text messages when you need to talk, let them know.  
    


2. Do they respond to your requests quickly? Property managers who take longer than half a day to respond to phone calls and emails are letting you down.
    


3. Most landlords prefer minimal vacancy; it’s obvious that even a week’s vacancy is money that will never be recouped.  If your property is vacant, don’t let your property manager ‘give it another week to see how we go’. If it isn’t rented in 10 days, it’s time to drop the rent by 10%.
    


4. Are you getting the best referenced tenants? Keeping the rent at 95% of market value minimises arrears, vacancies and maintenance – and therefore increases net return although the rent is slightly below market. Landlords who go for the highest rent lose money in vacancies and repairs – so check that your agent isn’t setting the rent too high.
    


5. Does your property manager keep you informed about further ‘good’ investments? This could be via an email with links to their website and properties for sale.