Beware Discount Management
A few years ago I warned our clients of the dangers of discount firms that have entered the Vancouver rental management market. Unfortunately this trend has continued, so I’m repeating this message, particularly if you are an owner who doesn’t live in Canada, and are looking for suite management here in Vancouver today.
More and more competition is coming into our marketplace as people try and steal market share away from established professional companies like ourselves. The reality is that to maintain a quality staff, in a quality premise, in the right location, to provide all the goods and services and the experience, the licensing, banking and accounting requirements. it is very difficult for us to have our prices at any lower place than they are.
For the rate of service that we offer we are extremely competitive and very very reasonable in our rates. We’ve cut them, actually, to the bone.
Just to give you an example of the sort of service that we offer this week there was a common area leak in one of our suites. I’ve had a property manager visiting that property, including weekends (because it’s currently vacant), to make sure that the work that the plumbers have done is holding, and that there isn’t any further damage. This is an hour to an hour and a half every day that we are putting into this property. When you think about it, what our team rents out for on an hourly basis, we are going to lose money on this particular client for at least six months probably, maybe more. But that’s part of our job and part of what we say we’re going to do.
We’re reliable, we’re honest and we do the right thing all the time. That’s what you’re getting with us: you’re getting a 24/7 insurance policy. You have somebody in Vancouver who’s going to be looking after your property with the same sort of interest that you would look after it yourself. We treat your property as if it was our own.
Beware of the discount people. A lot of their prices are misleading. They say they’re going to charge a minimum number and then there are all these upcharges and hidden charges that they add on to every single thing.
Our fees are very simple. We have a monthly fee. We have a leasing fee. And there is a small extra fee for taking the responsibility of the non-resident tax and dealing with all the accounting issues. And that’s it. We don’t charge for extra leases if the tenant stays on. We don’t charge for repairs. We don’t charge for anything whatsoever. If we can get you wholesale prices on appliances, wholesale prices from trades, we pass those savings on to you. We don’t upcharge on anything. I know some people will call a plumber and add on a $50 service charge. If they go and buy some appliances they’ll try and buy them wholesale and sell them to you at a retail price. And so it goes on.
We don’t do that. We’re very very fair. And, as I say, the accounting, and the costs of having the annual audit and to be complying completely with the rules takes at least half of whatever we take from any client in commission on a monthly basis. The rules are so stringent, if we’re actually following the proper rules that are set out by the Real Estate Act.
As I said, some people are circumnavigating that, not having proper trust accounts, and these are things that you have to be very careful of.
Do you really want to trust your million dollar investment to somebody who’s kind of fly-by-night? It just boggles the mind. We’re not going anywhere. We just paid a million dollars for this office: we’re sitting on Pender Street in downtown Coal Harbour, the best part of the city of Vancouver.
We’ve been in business for over 15 years and I’ve been personally in the business for over 30 years in Vancouver. We’re here to stay, and we’re here to look after your property to the best and highest professional level that we can.
