Hiring a property manager in Perth. What happens, and what we need from you.
Most agencies will tell you what they do. Very few will tell you what they need from you, or when. This is the whole appointment, from the appraisal to the day your tenant is handed the keys, including what is actually inside the agreement you will be asked to sign.
What to ask before you sign anything.
Fees are the easiest thing to compare and the least useful. A cheap manager who leaves a property vacant an extra three weeks has already cost you more than a year of the difference.
- How many properties does the person managing mine actually manage?Ask this one first, because it answers most of the others. You cannot compare two agencies as though the job is the same at any volume. Someone carrying two hundred properties is not attending their own routine inspections, not running their own home opens and not meeting applicants at the door. There are not enough hours. That work goes to junior staff or contractors, and the person whose name is on your agreement becomes someone who sits in an office and answers the phone. They have never been inside your property and they have never met your tenant. That is not a criticism of them as a person. It is arithmetic.
- Will the same person handle my property end to end?Or does leasing sit with one team, maintenance with another and accounts with a third. Ask who chooses your tenant, and whether that is the same person who will manage that tenant for the next three years.
- Is there a lock-in term, and what does it cost me to leave?Two year agreements with liquidated damages on early exit are common in Perth. Ask to see that clause specifically.
- When is rent paid to me?Same day, or held in trust until the end of the month. Across a year the difference is real.
- What is included, and what is billed separately?Ask specifically about ingoing and outgoing report fees, title searches, end of financial year statement fees, and whether the management percentage is applied to tenant reimbursables such as water as well as to rent.
- What does the marketing actually include?Ask whether professional photography, a floor plan and a video walkthrough are standard or charged as upgrades. A listing with a floor plan holds attention far longer than one without, because photographs of individual rooms do not tell an applicant how a house actually works.
- Who physically attends routine inspections, and what does the report look like?Ask to see a real one with the address redacted. Then ask whether the person who signed you up is the person who will be standing in your property.
- How quickly are applications processed?Good applicants apply for several properties at once. If applications sit in an inbox until someone gets to them on Monday, you lose people. Ask what happens in the first hour after an application arrives.
- How are applicants screened, and do I approve the tenant?Ask how many checks, whether references are called on independently sourced numbers, and whether you see declined applications and the reasons.
- How often will I hear from you while the property is vacant?Vacancy is the most expensive part of the year and the period owners are most often left in the dark. Ask what the standard update rhythm is, not what is possible on request.
- What happens if the tenant stops paying?Ask about the arrears process, the timelines, tribunal experience, and whether debt recovery is included or charged.
- Do you actually work in my suburb?An agency covering the whole metro from a single office is not the same as one that knows what a three bedroom in Tapping leases for this month. Ask what they have leased nearby, and when.
Every property we take on is a property someone will call home.
Four steps from you. The rest is ours.
Everything we ask of you fits into four steps, and only the first takes any real time. What follows on this page is the detail behind each, and everything happening in the background while you get on with your week.
- 01Your details
One sign-up form on our website. It captures everything needed to prepare your REIWA management agreement and set the property up properly.
- 02A quick ID check
A secure link by text or email. A photo of your identification and a selfie, from your phone. A couple of minutes.
- 03Sign the agreement
Your REIWA management agreement, prepared from your answers and signed by DocuSign. We will walk you through it first if you would like.
- 04You are set up
Your MyPlace login lands in your inbox. If the property is vacant, the marketing campaign launches the same day.
The sign-up form, and why it asks what it asks.
Your answers become the management agreement, the compliance calendar and the setup in our system. Filling it in carefully once is the reason you are not chased for information during the leasing period, which is exactly when you least want to be.
Eight sections, roughly ten minutesWhether it is vacant, currently your own home, already tenanted, or managed by another agency. Strata details if it applies, including whether you would like levies paid from your rent. If it is tenanted we carry across the existing lease and rent and look after your tenant from day one. If it is with another agency we handle the entire handover.
Whether you already own it, have an offer accepted, or are still looking. How many owners are on the title, and whether it is held in individual names, a trust, a company or an SMSF. If you have the Certificate of Title you can upload it, and if you do not, we run a title search at no charge. Where you have not settled yet, we set everything up ready for the settlement date.
Starting list price. Worth setting near the top of your appraised range. You can always lower it later, but lifting the price on a live listing is the part you cannot really undo. If you have not had an appraisal yet, tick the box and we will arrange one.
Maintenance approval limit. The most we can spend on a repair before checking with you. We suggest a limit rather than zero, so a genuine emergency such as a burst pipe or failed hot water system is fixed the same day rather than waiting on a callback. You always approve anything above it.
Routine inspection frequency. We recommend every three months through year one, then a review. The first year of any tenancy is where you learn the most. With a stable long-term tenant they can be spaced out to reduce disruption and cost.
Preferred lease term and management start date. The start date is the one thing we genuinely need, because it is the date your agreement runs from.
Your ideal tenant, any preferred tradespeople, and any material facts. Material facts include a previous death at the property, proximity to government or transitional housing, ongoing neighbourhood issues, parts of the property excluded from tenant use, known defects or temporary restrictions, and any planned works affecting occupancy. There is also a short checklist for previously flooded, contains asbestos, contaminated or heritage listed.
Early disclosure reduces disputes and protects everyone. Anything you tell us here gets written into the lease properly rather than mentioned verbally and forgotten.
Details for each owner on the title, and the account your rent is paid into, with split payments available if there is more than one owner. If you would rather provide banking details separately and securely, leave it blank and we will follow up. It is used only to disburse your rent and is never shared.
The services we arrange on your behalf.
These go into your authority before signing, so everything is ready from day one. Each is optional except where noted, and each comes with our reasoning rather than a tick box.
Landlord insurance
Required on every property we manage. A standard home policy does not cover the risks of renting: lost rent, malicious or accidental tenant damage, or legal, eviction and tribunal costs. We arrange multiple quotes from specialist landlord insurers so you can compare cover properly rather than take the first number you are given.
Tax depreciation schedule
Lets your accountant claim wear on the building and fittings against your income each year. We arrange multiple quotes through quantity surveyor partners, who estimate your likely deductions before you commit. A one-off cost of around $550 including GST, itself tax deductible. Best done soon after buying, though a report can sometimes backdate deductions on a property held for years.
Annual electrical safety check
Required. Every managed property needs an annual smoke alarm and RCD check by a licensed electrician. We coordinate a trusted one and it is charged at the electrician's own rate. Letting it lapse puts your tenancy out of compliance, so we keep it diarised against the property.
Debt protection
Covered by Barclay MIS at our cost, so it is free to you. We only engage it where a tenant is unresponsive after our standard arrears process, which helps recover money early rather than after it has escalated.
Bills paid from your rent
Water rates, water usage, council rates, strata levies, landlord insurance and building insurance can all be paid from rent. It makes your end of financial year statement effortless, with no spreadsheets and no missed due dates. There is no charge for this.
Keys collected and cut
If you are interstate, overseas or simply would rather not deal with it, we can collect the keys directly from the seller or the selling agent. If the sets are short we arrange the copying and cutting during the advertising period rather than on handover morning, because coding remotes takes days, not hours.
The quick ID check.
A couple of minutes, on your phoneUnder the WA Code of Conduct for Agents and Sales Representatives, we verify the identity of every property owner before we can act for you. It protects you and your asset from anyone giving instructions on the property other than you.
We send a secure link through our verification provider by text or email. You upload a photo of your identification and take a quick selfie, which is matched against it. That is the whole step. A verification report is returned and saved to your file.
Alongside it, we verify ownership by sighting the Certificate of Title or a current Landgate search, confirming that the registered proprietor matches the person signing the agreement. If you have not settled yet, the agreement can still be signed and the title confirmed once settlement effects.
Your REIWA management agreement, section by section.
It arrives as a REIWA-branded PDF by DocuSign, the official industry-standard form every licensed WA property manager uses. It looks formal, but most of it is standard language and the parts specific to you are filled in from the answers you have already given.
Around twelve pages plus annexuresNames, contacts, the address and the agreed fees, all pre-filled from your sign-up form.
Who owns it, your rent range, your preferred lease term, and how long the agreement itself runs.
Every fee set out with worked examples, and everything that is included at no charge. This is the section worth reading twice on any agreement from any agency, ours included. You can run the numbers on your own property first.
Which bills we pay from rent, your maintenance authorisation limit, your bank account, insurance, and any special conditions.
Appointment, termination, your obligations and ours, GST, disputes and privacy. These are the REIWA standard clauses and are the same wherever you go.
Insurance requirements, the annual electrical check, our tribunal policy, and how maintenance and pre-tenancy inspections are handled.
The commitments that sit outside the standard form: our multi-property fee scale, referral bonus, walkaway clause, leasing guarantee, fee-review cap, Barclay MIS debt protection and same-day disbursement. These are written into your agreement rather than promised on a website.
Our desktop risk assessment covering fire, flood, contamination, asbestos, title, zoning and unapproved structures. We disclose what we find before we take on the management, not after, and you sign off on it.
There is a box on the sign-up form asking whether you would like Daria to talk you through the agreement before you sign. It is a plain-language run through each section, and there is no reason not to take it. Signing something you have not had explained to you is how people end up in two year lock-ins they did not know about.
Nothing is binding until you have read and signed it, and the agreement, not this page, is the document that governs the relationship.
Five things you get here that you would not get elsewhere.
Not a features list. These are the five differences owners notice inside the first month, and the reason most of them came across in the first place.
- 01Same-day rent payments.
Your rent is paid to you the same day it comes in, not held in our trust account until the end of the month. Cleaner cash flow, cleaner reconciliation, and your mortgage payment is no longer tied to someone else's calendar. Across a year, end of month batching costs you weeks of interest on money that was always yours.
- 02Debt collection cover, included.
We hold a dedicated debt collection policy on your property. If a tenant ever falls behind, a professional recovery service steps in to manage it and protect you, rather than the matter sitting in an arrears report until it is too large to fix. It is covered at our cost and included in your management fee. Peace of mind you do not pay extra for.
- 03360 degree routine inspections.
Every routine inspection includes a full 360 virtual tour, so you can walk through your own property online rather than reading a written report and squinting at a handful of phone photos. You see what we see, from wherever you are, which matters most if you are interstate or overseas.
- 04Live access through the MyPlace app.
Everything at your fingertips in real time. Track maintenance as it moves, check compliance status, view your accounts, statements and every original invoice, and see exactly what is happening with your property whenever you like. Free, on iOS and Android, and issued the moment your onboarding completes.
- 05An award-winning manager, start to finish.
REIWA 2025 Residential Property Manager of the Year and a 2026 REIA National Awards for Excellence Finalist, overseeing your property personally. One point of contact from the appraisal through to the tenancy, rather than a file handed between a leasing team, a maintenance team and an accounts team, none of whom have been inside the property. That category is assessed on service quality and how difficult files are handled, not on the size of the book.
No lock-in. A walkaway clause, written in. You stay because it works, not because leaving is expensive. Most Perth agreements run two years with liquidated damages on early exit.
Nothing charged for the basics. No ingoing or outgoing report fees, no title search charge, no end of financial year statement fee, and the management percentage applies to rent collected only, never to tenant reimbursables such as water.
A capped book, and a fee-review cap. Each manager's portfolio stays well below the 150 to 300 common at larger agencies, and there is a written limit on how your fees can move once you are settled in. More on the model behind it.
Keys handed over in person, at the property. Every time.
What we need from you, and when.
Short list. Most of it comes out of the sale, which is why the earlier you appoint us, the easier it is to collect.
Keys and remotes.
Worth getting right at settlement. If you are not local, or would simply rather not deal with it, we can collect the keys directly from the seller or the selling agent on your behalf.
- One office set, retained by us for the life of the management. It never leaves the office, and it is what allows trades, inspections and emergencies to be handled without involving you.
- One full set per adult tenant. A standard tenancy has two adults, so in practice the minimum is three complete sets.
- Every key on the ring. Front and rear doors, security screens, laundry, side gate, meter box, letterbox, shed and window locks.
- Two garage remotes, plus any keypad or alarm codes in writing.
- If the sets are short, tell us early. We arrange copying and cutting during the advertising period rather than on handover morning. Coding remotes takes days, not hours.
The sales photography
Ask the selling agent or vendor to release the sales images. Sales photography is usually excellent, often professionally styled and sometimes staged, and it presents the property at its best. Where permission is not given, the photographer will often relicense the same images for rental marketing for a fee, which is essentially paying again for a different use, and it is generally cheaper than a fresh shoot. Otherwise we arrange our own photographer, usually at 24 to 48 hours notice.
A floor plan, if you can get one
We push hard for a floor plan on every listing, because photographs of individual rooms do not tell an applicant how a house actually works. As the registered owner you can request a copy of the building plans from your local government. You can also ask the seller or selling agent for the marketing floor plan. If nothing can be sourced, one can be drawn during the photography visit.
Your settlement date
Tell us the moment it is set. We work backwards from it, scheduling each step against a date rather than reacting once the keys land. Signing the management agreement well before settlement is what makes that possible.
Access before settlement
If the seller will allow photography or a rental home open before settlement, tell us early. It requires their written agreement, but it is the single most effective way to shorten a vacancy.
Utilities during advertising
Keep power and water connected in your name while the property is advertised. Home opens need lighting, and the condition report needs to record working lights, appliances and smoke alarms. Once the lease commences we will ask you to close those accounts, as the tenant takes over from that date.
Presentation before the report
Cleaning, a lawn mow and small repairs are best done before the condition report is prepared, not after. The report sets the standard the property must be returned in, so whatever it records is what you get back.
Disclosures
Anything not working, anything needing specific care such as a pool or reticulation, and any material facts. Tell us and we write it into the lease properly.
Your decisions
The launch price, the approved applicant, and any maintenance above your authorisation limit. Everything else we handle.
Advertising, leasing, and handover.
From the weeks before settlement to the day your file closes, two weeks after your tenant moves in.
Our strong preference is to have the management agreement signed well before settlement, not after it. That turns settlement from a starting gun into a scheduled date we have already planned around. Photography is provisionally booked, the listing copy is drafted, the floor plan is sourced, and each step is diarised against a date rather than left to be sorted out once the keys arrive.
Where the seller agrees in writing, the property can be photographed and even opened for rental inspections before settlement, which can put a tenant in place within days of you taking possession. Where they do not agree, everything is staged and ready to fire the moment the keys are in hand.
We can collect the keys for you. Directly from the seller or the selling agent, which matters if you are interstate, overseas, or simply have better things to do on settlement day.
Where the property is vacant, the campaign launches the day your onboarding completes. Our photographer can usually attend at 24 to 48 hours notice, and the visit produces professional stills, a 360 virtual tour and a video walkthrough. The video does real work: it reaches applicants who cannot physically attend a home open, which in Perth means a meaningful number of people relocating from interstate or overseas who will otherwise never see the inside of your property.
A floor plan goes on every listing we can get one for. Photographs show rooms. A floor plan shows how a home lives, and it is the difference between an applicant scrolling past and an applicant picturing their furniture in it.
A signboard goes up where the property type, council and strata rules allow, because a board out the front generates walk-up enquiry and word of mouth no portal reaches. Premium placement on realestate.com.au. We run a weeknight and a weekend home open, because most good applicants work during business hours.
You will not have to chase us. Expect a weekly update as standard for as long as the property is advertised, plus an update after each home open telling you how many groups attended. Enquiry numbers and listing performance are available any time you ask, not just when we choose to report.
Applications are processed the moment they land. We get a notification the second one arrives and we start on it, rather than letting them pile up until someone sits down to review the batch. The period straight after a home open is the critical one, and it is where slow agencies quietly lose good tenants for their owners.
Applicants apply for several properties at once. That is normal, and you should expect it. We make contact as soon as an application arrives, because being the first agency to respond is often the reason a good applicant stays interested. It is also why some applicants withdraw partway through: they get approved somewhere else first. If that happens with someone strong, the right response is to keep moving through the remaining applications rather than stalling the campaign over one that got away. We will tell you when it happens and what is still live.
Every applicant is screened on eight points: identity to 100 points, income verified against bank statements, employment and rental references called on numbers we source ourselves, national tenancy database checks with written consent, credit check, affordability against a rent to income guideline, and a brief and respectful review of digital footprint as a cross-check. Collecting references properly takes 24 to 48 hours. Anyone presenting applications faster than that has not called them.
We meet every applicant in person at a home open. A great deal of what you need to know about how someone will treat a property is apparent in ten minutes at the front door, and a paper application cannot give you that. We decline applications that are not suitable, on factual grounds, and we will always tell you how many were received, how many were declined and the specific reason for each. We make a recommendation based on risk profile and explain the reasoning, and no tenant is approved without your written decision.
The property condition report is photographed exhaustively and timestamped, often more than a thousand images, paired with a written report that usually runs around twenty pages. It records the condition room by room. This is the entire basis of any bond claim at the end of the tenancy, and a thin one is worth nothing.
Every disclosure from your sign-up form is written into the lease properly rather than mentioned verbally and forgotten. The lease is drafted on the prescribed form and issued for signature by DocuSign, and you receive a copy as soon as it is signed along with confirmation that landlord insurance is in force on the commencement date. Advertising is then wound down, unsuccessful applicants notified and the signboard ordered off.
First rent and bond must be received in cleared funds before any key is released. Once they are, we meet the tenant at the property. Keys, remotes and codes are handed over against a signed receipt, along with a move-in card carrying the practical detail people actually need in week one: bin day and which bin, when rent is due and how to pay it, and anything specific to the property. We walk them through how to report maintenance, when routine inspections happen, and how to reach their property manager directly. There is a small gift, and the condition report is issued with seven days to return it.
Why in person. A lockbox is faster. It also sets the tone for the whole tenancy. A tenant who has met their manager at the property and been treated like a person reports maintenance earlier, communicates when things change, and stays longer. Retention is the quietest lever on your yield and it starts on day one.
At day five we survey the tenant to confirm they are settling in, chase the condition report return and pick up any maintenance while it is still small. The results are shared with you. The condition report is signed and returned within the seven day window, with follow-up if outstanding. The bond is lodged with the Bond Administrator within fourteen days of receipt and the certificate and reference number saved to file. Documents are uploaded and visible to you in MyPlace, everything you opted into is completed, the first routine inspection is scheduled, and you receive a final email with the condition report and the bond lodgement certificate. That email closes the onboarding.
Who does what.
| Task | You | Us |
|---|---|---|
| Complete the sign-up form | Around ten minutes | We build everything else from it |
| Identity verification | A couple of minutes on your phone | Secure link, report and filing |
| Certificate of Title search | Upload it, or nothing required | Ordered at no charge and verified |
| Property risk assessment | Review and sign off | Prepared and disclosed before we take it on |
| Management agreement | Sign by DocuSign, ideally before settlement | Prepared, issued and explained if you want |
| Landlord insurance | Choose from the quotes | Multiple quotes from specialist insurers |
| Tax depreciation schedule | Choose from the quotes | Multiple quotes through our partners |
| Collecting the keys | Nothing required if you prefer | Collected from the seller or selling agent |
| Extra key sets and remotes | Tell us early if sets are short | Copying, cutting and remote coding arranged |
| Sales photography permission | Ask the selling agent or vendor | Relicensing arranged, or a new shoot booked |
| Floor plan | Request from council or the seller if you can | Sourced, redrawn, or drawn from scratch |
| Photography, 360 tour and video | Nothing required | Booked, usually at 24 to 48 hours notice |
| Utilities during advertising | Keep connected, close on lease start | Remind you when |
| Cleaning, gardens, repairs | Arrange, or ask us to | Quote and coordinate if you prefer |
| Rates, water and levies | Nothing required | Redirected, recorded and paid from rent |
| Advertising and home opens | Nothing required | All of it, with weekly updates to you |
| Processing applications | Nothing required | Started the moment each one arrives |
| Tenant approval | Your decision, in writing | Screening, evidence and recommendation |
| Lease and condition report | Nothing required | Prepared, issued and filed |
| Key handover | Nothing required | In person, at the property |
| Bond lodgement | Nothing required | Lodged, certificate sent to you |
This is not a sales page. It is the standard.
Everything above is what a well-run appointment looks like in Western Australia. The verification, the risk assessment, the disclosures written into the lease, the weekly updates while the property sits vacant, the condition report that actually protects your bond claim, the certificate confirming your bond was lodged. None of it is exceptional. It is the job.
- Read it as a checklist against your own experience. If you have never seen a bond lodgement certificate, never been told how many groups came through a home open, or cannot remember the last time your manager was physically inside the property, that is worth knowing rather than wondering about.
- We are not going to tell you your agency is bad. We do not know them and we would not name them. What we can do is tell you what the standard looks like, in detail, and let you judge for yourself.
- If something here does not match what you are getting, ask us. No pitch and no obligation. Send us your current agreement and we will tell you what your notice period and exit terms actually are, even if you decide to stay.
If you are switching from another agency.
Everything above describes a vacant property being leased for the first time under our management. Switching an already tenanted property is a separate and shorter process, because there is no advertising and no leasing phase.
In outline: you sign our agreement, we serve notice on the outgoing agency, around 28 days, and we collect and audit the file. That audit is the important part. We verify the lease, the rent, the bond lodgement, the compliance records and the billing, and in our experience there is almost always something that has been let slide. We then introduce ourselves to your tenant and pick up the management. You do not need to speak to your old agency at any point.
Your existing agreement may contain a lock-in term. Send it to us and we will tell you where you stand before you commit to anything.
A free rental appraisal, then a conversation.
Send through the address, anywhere across the Perth metro from Rockingham to Two Rocks, and I will tell you what it should lease for, how long it is likely to take, and anything that needs doing before a tenant can move in. No obligation, no lock-in. If we are not the right fit, I will say so and point you towards someone who is.
Written by Daria Tedling, Director and Licensee of Local Property Partners, REIWA 2025 Residential Property Manager of the Year. General information for Western Australian property owners, current at July 2026 and subject to change. This page describes our standard process for a vacant property and does not form part of any agreement. Services, fees, inclusions and any guarantees are confirmed in the REIWA form Management Agreement, which is the binding document. Tenancy obligations are governed by the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA) and associated regulations. Local Property Partners. Licence No. RA85442. ABN 48 582 232 398.