Property Management Prices, Fees and Sneaky Hidden Costs

Thursday, January 21, 2016 / Property Management

Everyone has an experience in which they have seen an absolutely amazing offer, only to realise that there is a sneaky little * hidden above the best part, or the price.

You know the one we are talking about, it often looks something like this

As you notice the little * and then the all too familiar term “conditions apply”, you can’t help but feel a little suspicious and you probably become quite sure that the offer itself is probably not going to be anywhere near as good as what the advertiser is suggesting.

Sneaky Fees in Property Management services

There is a culture of adding sneaky fees to the structure of an agreements in the Adelaide property management industry.

It is a common practice to advertise a management fee of 8.8% (or other significantly low numbers), this number is kept as low as possible so that the service appears to be the best value for money.

However, as is often the case with great sounding offers, there are certainly conditions that then apply.

The 8.8% constitutes their “management fee”, however the prices that they have not necessarily explained are:

• inspection fees ($100 per year, based on $25 per inspection, with 4 inspections)
• letting fees ( 2.2 weeks of rent)
• admin fees ( $120 per year, based on $10 per month)
• advertising fees ($200 )
• and sometimes even more!

The 8.8% sounds great, but once the complete list of fees are added up, we see that it is actually closer to 15.27%!

Making a More Transparent and Straight Forward Fee Structure

Here at Activate Property we believe that the best service we can give you is complete transparency and upfront information about what you will be charged.

When you are coordinating your books for the year, and formulating your budget, the last thing you want is for one of these hidden fees to suddenly knock all of your calculations and planning into complete unexpected madness!

We choose to offer a flat fee, with no other extra costs or charges EVER!

This flat fee is 11% (including GST) of the rental value, with no upfront fees, no aditonal fees, no admin fees, no advertising fees, no other fees what so ever!

Putting It Into Perspective

Lets say that you own an investment property and you decide that you want to rent it out for $360 per week.