Property Management on Pender Island
There are a number of Property Management Services available on Pender Island for property owners. These services fall under two broad categories:
- Rental Property Management Services
- General Property Management Services
There are many benefits to hiring a professionally licensed Property Manager. Licensed property managers take an extensive course through the BC Real Estate Council and they are licensed through the BC Real Estate Council, the Canadian Real Estate Association, and the Victoria Real Estate Association. They are fully insured. They have taken steps to be property managers as responsible professionals.
If you hire a licensed property manager to look after a rental property for you, their fees are deducted from the rental revenue. What this means is if the tenants don't pay their rent - the property manager doesn't get paid. Therein is the incentive for a property manager to find the best tenants they can for your property.
You can work into your agreement with your property manager how often you'd like your property to get checked. If there are tenants in place, this can be one way to prevent extensive damages to your property which could otherwise worsen without someone looking into the state of things on a regular basis.
Rental Property Management Services
There are two primary services we offer property owners wishing to rent out their homes:
- Securing quality tenants
- Rental management
Securing Quality Tenants
Your property manager can promote your rental property to attract a wide range of applicants. Securing good tenants involves application forms, reference checks, credit checks, and in a small town like Pender Island, keeping personal preferences and biases out of it. That last point is one reason in itself to hire a property manager to find your tenant - it can be difficult for property owners to personally reject people they know as tenants while a professional property manager is impersonal and removed, interested only in finding the most dependable tenant.
When you hire a property manager to secure a quality tenant AND to manage the rental itself, their fees are deducted from the rental revenue. What this means is if the tenants don't pay their rent - the property manager doesn't get paid. Therein is a powerful incentive for a property manager to find the best tenants for your property.
Rental Management
A property manager can manage your rental for you once it has been tenanted. If you'd like to spare yourself the trouble of having to deal with every little issue that comes up and to minimize the hassles of rent collection, damage deposit assessments and responding to each and every call for home repairs, a professional rental property manager can take care of these things for you. Services can include:
- Taking photos of the condition of the rental before and after the moving process
- Collection of rent and damage deposits
- Regular peroprty checks
- Hiring appropriate repair and handy people to take care of home maintenance issues as they arise
General Property Management Services
This is a popular service for home owners who live off island for part or all of the year. Most home insurers expect regular property checks, and it's best to ensure everything's okay when you're away from your property for extended periods of time. General property management services include:
- Property checks
- Watering plants
- Picking up mail
- Storm checkups, if there's damage they contact the owner(s) and get permission to resolve problems
- Walks about the property to ensure everything is in order
- Flush toilets, run water, turn off water for the winter, turn on water before owners return
Should you choose to hire a property manager, which services you choose to use are generally up for negotiation, a contract is drawn up so that both parties are clear on what the expectations are. A property manager on Pender Island can help minimize the hassles of a rental property, and they can also care for your home in your abscence.
Tanja Lonergan is Dockside realty's property manager; CLICK HERE to learn more about her property management services and to contact her.