Hi there, Am a relatively new forumer on BP. Was wondering, for those who own property in BC/Vancouver area, do you use a property manager/management company as advised by the numerous podcasts? And if so, which management company/person do you recommend? I currently have an older property in the lougheed area, but within walking distance from Lougheed Skytrain Station. Thank you!! Josh

I use property management but my properties are not in GVRD so I don't have a recommendation for you. I Google'd up a list of about 10 and called each one for a quick chat about rates, their company, and whether they might specialize in particular types of investments (single/multi family, vacation, AirBnB, etc). You may find many property management companies are found as arms of real estate brokerages.

I did my own management for a while early on when I had only a couple of places and it was nice to learn what the day to day challenges were.

@Joshua Ng

Hey Josh,

What type of property is it. SF or condo?  I agree with Buu, if your volume isn’t too much, self managing should be fine. It also comes down to you though too. How well you deal with certain types of people, getting calls at all hours, creating networks so you can quickly have the resources needed to calm a problem.  Those all play into it. Also knowing the laws is a major factor. Don’t wanna do a rent increase incorrectly, or worse make misteps with late payments or problem tenants. 

If it’s a condo, they’re usually pretty easy, older homes have problems, but depending on how you’ve got it set up, you may not run into an issue for months, so paying someone $$$ for nothing kills me. 

I recommend you find a solid pm handy man type person and employ them on a hourly basis when needed. Pay em through e transfer and it’s easy stuff.  If you’re comfortable sourcing tenants, then you really just need a reliable handy man to look at or fix the small crap that comes up from time to time. Even if the jobs too big for them, they’ll still be able to point you in the right direction and often times, the good ones will have resources they can suggest. 

Jason

Hi Buu and Jason,

Thank you so much for your replies. It's an apartment, so a condo(?) I'm guessing. I'm currently in the process of contacting property management firms as I'm currently a student and and the property belongs to my parents. Just helping them out and seeing if it's more worth it to rent it out or flip it. 

The strata of the property does have a manager as well, but there is an issue with the apartment that we have get the strata/property manager to fix, but it's been a year and they have not done anything about it.

Was wondering what your thoughts are on such properties when the strata/property manager is not doing anything about spalling concrete in the balcony. Would it be advisable for us to do our own repairs?

Hi Joshua, similar to how tenants and landlords can file disputes with the Residential Tenancy Branch, strata owners can file disputes with The Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) for certain strata matters. On the CRT website, one type of dispute they will look at is "issues of financial responsibility for repairs and the choice of bids for services."

Since your property is a part of a strata corporation, I would suggest finding a property manager from a brokerage that also offers strata management services. Their agents may be more familiar with strata operations.

Do you/your parents have a language preference? Feel free to message me and I can suggest a few to you.