Hiring a property manager in Perth. What happens, and when.

A book of 150 to 300 per manager is common in Perth, but you cannot compare two agencies as though the job is the same at any volume. At two hundred properties a manager cannot personally attend routine inspections, run home opens or meet applicants. That work goes to junior staff or contractors, and the named manager becomes an office contact who has never been inside your property and has never met your tenant. A deliberately smaller book is what lets the same person do all of it.

Before, and ideally well before. It costs nothing to sign early and it changes what is possible. With the agreement in place we work backwards from your settlement date: photography provisionally booked, listing copy drafted, floor plan sourced, compliance diarised.

Where the seller agrees in writing, the property can even be photographed and opened for rental inspections before settlement, which can put a tenant in place within days of you taking possession. Appointing after settlement usually costs two to four weeks of vacancy that did not need to happen.

It depends on the lease term, which is why it is worth choosing deliberately rather than defaulting to twelve months. A fixed term runs to its end date and cannot be cut short because your plans change. If there is any chance you will come back, say so at the appraisal and we will structure the term around it. Far easier to plan for than to unwind.

As the registered owner you can request the building plans from your local government, which holds plans lodged at construction or for approved works. You can also ask the seller or selling agent for the marketing floor plan, which is usually the fastest route after a purchase. If nothing can be sourced, one is drawn from scratch during the photography visit.

We push for a floor plan on every listing because photographs show rooms, while a floor plan shows how a home actually lives, and that is what an applicant is trying to picture.

It happens, and you should expect it. Applicants apply for several properties at once and withdraw when one approves first, which is exactly why speed matters. We start processing the moment an application arrives rather than collecting them up, and we contact applicants immediately, because being first to respond is often the reason a good one stays interested.

If a strong applicant does withdraw, the right move is to keep working through the rest rather than stalling the campaign over the one that got away. We tell you when it happens and what is still live.

A weekly update as standard for as long as it is advertised, plus an update after each home open telling you how many groups attended. Beyond that you can ask for listing performance and enquiry numbers at any time and we will pull them for you. Vacancy is the most expensive period of the year and the one owners are most often left in the dark on, so we would rather over-communicate through it.

Yes. Every applicant is screened against an eight point verification checklist and met in person at a home open. Applications are presented with a recommendation and the reasoning, along with how many were received and the specific reason any were declined. No tenant is approved without your written decision.

Yes, if you ask for it on the sign-up form. We arrange landlord insurance through Property Insurance Plus, who we use because they offer the strongest cover of the specialist landlord insurers. For depreciation we get quotes through quantity surveyor partners who estimate your likely deductions before you commit.

Nothing is arranged without your say-so, and we are not insurance advisers, so read the product disclosure statement before you sign anything.

All of it, and it is diarised against the property rather than remembered. Mains powered smoke alarms, at least two RCDs covering every circuit, minimum security to external doors and windows, the annual electrical safety check, and pool barrier certification every four years where there is a pool. Renewals get booked before they expire, not after.

Before the lease is drawn we walk through the property in person and record anything excluded from the tenancy and anything not working, so it is written into the lease properly rather than mentioned and forgotten. It works as a partnership: we schedule, prompt and track, you approve and fund the works.

No. Most Perth agreements run two years with liquidated damages on early exit. Ours has a walkaway clause written in. You stay because it works, not because leaving is expensive.

The full Perth metropolitan area, from Rockingham and Baldivis in the south to Two Rocks in the north, and east to the Hills. That includes Joondalup, Wanneroo, Tapping, Landsdale, Clarkson, Yanchep, Stirling, Scarborough, Cottesloe, Melville and Canning Vale, along with the northern coastal corridor through Lancelin, Ledge Point, Seabird and Guilderton. Not sure about your suburb? Ask, and we will tell you straight.

Switching a tenanted property is a shorter and separate process, since there is no advertising or leasing phase. We serve notice on the outgoing agency, around 28 days, collect and audit the file, verify the lease, rent, bond and compliance records, and introduce ourselves to your tenant. You never need to speak to your old agency. More on switching here.