3 reasons to hire a professional property manager

If you’ve just purchased a rental property or holiday home, the next step is to decide who is going to look after it; and hiring the right property manager is one of the most important elements of your home investment.

Hands-on management

Let’s be honest - owning a property asset in a different location to where you live is always going to be a bit of a logistical challenge, even with improvements in technology. So one of the main benefits of using an experienced property manager is to oversee your investment whilst you are away or don’t have the time.

A good property manager will provide hands on attention to your property, and fulfil a number of roles, including: property inspections, managing of contractors, managing tenant complaints and queries, bill payments, routine property maintenance, dealing with complaining neighbours or council related enquiries. These are all part of the ongoing needs that homeowners entrust to a property manager, to ensure their lives are stress-free. At HQM Properties we become your eyes and ears and manage the home as if it were our own. The following feedback is testament to this:
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"Over the last few years HQM Properties has managed the daily maintenance on my properties and looked after all related administration needed in caring for my investment properties in Cape Town. Their service standards are extremely high; they run a very honest and professional service making it very easy to leave your property in the care of someone else.I would be happy to recommend them to any other property owners in Cape Town." K Pfleiderer, Bantry Bay

​Maintenance check-lists
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Large properties require ongoing maintenance that even homeowners themselves often cannot predict.If your secondary home is not attended to often, things can arise overtime that could have been dealt with more cost effectively earlier by a property manager.An example of this would be a large pristine landscaped lawn dying off due to infestation of lawn pests because a gardener did not pick up the problem early enough.
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The good news is that our team of property managers have the required knowledge and experience to understand possible future needs for your home, and checklists to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Long-term savings
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We always say a home is like a living thing; if neglected it will soon cost the homeowner dearly. For example our team have seen entire properties become flooded because roof drainage inspections were not carried out. These often cause a chain reaction of damages that take time and money to fix.

Large homes tend to have complicated and expensive structures, fixtures and fittings;and there are many potential disasters that can occur in an unoccupied, unsupervised home. So our goal is to maintain your long term investment.

The annual cost of employing a home management company will seem insignificant when an expensive crisis can be avoided with a trustworthy manager carrying out the correct management procedures. For example we recently advised a client to re-seal all external window frames, knowing from experience that this simple and relatively cheap exercise would avoid the likelihood of future water damage inside the house. In the long run we therefore firmly believe it is cheaper to employ a reliable property manager.
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Now that you are aware of some of the benefits a property manager can offer you and your home, feel free to give us a call to discuss your needs and arrange for a free assessment of your property.