5 signs it is time to change your property manager
Most landlords do not change property managers because they want to. They change because something quietly stopped working, and the cost of staying put crept up on them. If any of the following feels familiar, it is worth a conversation.
1. You cannot get hold of anyone
Calls go to voicemail. Emails sit for days. You find yourself chasing your own manager for an update on your own property. Good management is built on communication, and when that goes, everything else tends to follow.
2. Maintenance drags on for weeks
A small repair becomes a big problem because nobody followed up. Often you hear about it from your tenant before you hear about it from your agent. Slow maintenance costs you money and costs you good tenants.
3. Your property sat vacant too long
Poor marketing, slow inspections or over-optimistic rent advice left the property empty while the mortgage kept coming out of your pocket. A well-run leasing process should have it tenanted quickly, to the right person. Our own median time to lease is eight days against an inner Sydney median of around nineteen.
4. The wrong tenant was placed
Filling a property is easy. Placing the right tenant is the hard part, and it is the most important decision your manager makes on your behalf. Rushed screening shows up later as arrears, damage or an early break.
5. You feel like a number
Your manager has two hundred properties and no bandwidth. You get reactive service at best and silence at worst. Boutique management exists precisely so that every owner gets genuine attention.
What to do about it
Switching is more straightforward than most owners expect. You can change agents at any time, even mid-tenancy, and a good incoming manager handles the whole handover for you. We have written a plain-English guide to how to switch property managers in NSW, and if you would rather just talk it through, you can switch to The Gallery and we will take it from there.