Hi, I'm Mike Steeneveld, the founder of WeRent.
By 2009 I had increasingly been shocked at the sloppy and expensive management services being offered to landlords by Real Estate companies. Over the previous 16 years I had owned and managed properties for myself and friends, as well as using so called professional property managers. By 2009 I said enough to these substandard services; and that's why I started the first Property Management company offering landlords the opportunity to trial management services for FREE. I also wanted to give something back to my fellow property investors, so I worked out a business model which would operate on lower margins. The idea was to Give you More... for Less!
I have been a landlord since 1993 (wow! time is passing). During this time I have had all the experiences you can have as a landlord and property manager.
But it is with property managers I have had the most frustrations. After all, you trust them to look after your properties and you pay for this service. Check out a few of my experiences below.
With most property managers charging a % fee I have always let out my own more expensive properties. In most cases it was easier than the less expensive properties. I just don't get why the owners who get higher rents should have to pay more. It's the same service and the tenants are often much easier to deal with.
So why pay more? You shouldn't!
(Oh, and some of the companies doing this are just trading on their names and making way too much out of it.)
Most of the problems of poor service come from overworked property managers who get paid the same salary whether or not they do a good job. Whenever I have had good property mangers in past they have usually been the owners of the PM business... they just try harder. They have a real stake in keeping the landlord happy and getting the rent in. When does it go wrong? When they get too big and hire salaried staff. They just can't be there making sure these staff are doing the right job.
At WeRent we have a profit share (or pay per action) so our people have an incentive to look after your properties as though they are their own.
With WeRent you are assured that the people looking after your properties CARE MORE because if they don't, they feel it first.
The property managers who left the keys in the letterbox for prospective tenants who then cleaned the place out (of course).
After 8 weeks of vacancies and being told, "it's tough out there", I check the Trademe listing only to find a single photo of the property up and the rent advertised at an unrealistic price.
The rent being dropped by 10% after 3 weeks vacant and a new tenant installed without any consultation (I had just got new tenants myself at the old rent).
Testing the managers out by pretending to be a tenant and being told "just drive pass and call if interested".
Renting myself and seeing how often letting agents don't bother to show up to appointments or don't have weekend open showings.
