We caught up with a long-term RentBetter, Mel, to talk about her journey to self-management and why she decided to make the switch.

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Mel Y. - RentBetter Customer

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Mel is a young mum of two, and after being fed up with excess management costs and breakdowns in communication, decided to self-manage her properties and has never looked back.

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How long have you been a self-managed landlord, and what made you decide to do it yourself?

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‍I decided to start self-managing our properties about 2 years ago after having used an agent for about 15 years. I was pregnant with my second baby, and my doctor had recommended me to stay on bed rest towards the end. While I had the time, I started reviewing our bills and paperwork and noticed a few extra ‘admin’ fees from the agent which seemed out of the ordinary.

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After questioning the agent, they couldn’t explain what these fees were. To add to this, I spoke directly to the tenants who had explained there had been a number of communication issues with the agent. We were on the brink of losing the tenant at that point, and that’s when I decided I would simply take over the lease myself. I really just wanted to streamline the process and keep our tenants happy so that they’d stay in the property.

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It just made so much sense to self-manage the property, without having to go through a middle man.

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‍What made you decide to use RentBetter to help you self-manage your investment property?

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‍We had another one of our properties listed on Airbnb and were looking to transfer it to a longer-term executive lease. I started shopping around for an agency that could deal with this, but these agencies were charging about a 20% management fee for a furnished property as opposed to the normal 7.5% fee. That didn’t sit right with me. That’s when I came across RentBetter and decided to give it a go. The cost savings were huge!

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‍What would you say are the key benefits of the RentBetter platform?

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‍I think the biggest advantage for me is the time-saving and the control you have over the process. The second property I listed with RentBetter, within 4 days I had 22 enquiries and had secured a great tenant! I don’t think I would have been able to do that with an agent. With RentBetter, you alone are responsible - you don’t have to rely on a third party.

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All the key steps are all on the platform and you’re supported through the whole process - tenant background checks, lease overviews. You’re never left wondering what it is you need to do next to meet all the legal requirements.

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Once the tenant is set up it’s essentially all automated. Your tenant can make enquiries through the platform as well, so you don’t have to deal directly with them if you don’t want to. It also just gives me peace of mind knowing that everything is recorded and all in the one place.

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‍Would you encourage other landlords to self-manage their properties with RentBetter?

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‍Absolutely - I’d highly recommend it to anyone thinking about self-managing their property! RentBetter is more than willing to answer any questions you have along the way and make the process so easy.