Property management encompasses rental management, wherein the former also includes facilities management and could also involve the operations within a body corporate setup.
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Managing Residential &
Commercial Property? There is a huge difference between managing a residential and a commercial property. In a residential property, it is commonly known that the landlord would fix the property and hand it over to the tenant for use as a place of residence. And when the contract terminates, the tenant is expected to return the property as they found it or better.
Whereas, in commercial property, the tenant may receive the property as a white box or without much character and they would then convert it into what the business requires and be branded accordingly to represent the business. The leases for commercial properties usually have a longer duration than residential properties.
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Ensuring Compliance & Professional Management
of a Property It is important that real estate agencies understand legislation surrounding rental property rights for both tenants and landlords. These would generally be the Rental Housing Act( RHA), the Consumer Protection Act( CPA) as well as the Estate Agency Code of Conduct.
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Landlord ' s Mistakes on Rental Management of a Property? Paradoxically, the first and foremost aspect the landlord has to look out for is who they mandate to rent the property out on their behalf. If the ideal property practitioner is appointed, they ensure that they clarify processes and responsibilities of all parties in the rental agreement, so that when the process starts, there are no surprises.
The landlord must also ensure that they understand the mandate given to the agent, understand the lease agreement and whether the agreement with the agent is merely from procurement of a tenant or to include managing the rental on a monthly basis.
Some of the mistakes could be where a landlord relies entirely on the rental income to service the bond or to pay other expenses; hence every landlord should leave room for vacancy and no rent income periods. This means that a landlord must have cash reserves to mitigate instances where tenants have delayed payment or not paid. Landlords should also realise that when the property is in a bad condition where they are responsible for the repairs, and this doesn’ t happen, then the damages continue and this could devalue the property or cause the required restoration costs to skyrocket.
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine NOV 2021 35