Owner and Operater Sharon Trafford relocated from the UK in 2003, after having my second child and being a full time mother I started investing in the NZ residential property market, my current investment portfolio is based in South Auckland, multiple income properties (two houses on one site). When settling on these properties I inherited sitting tenants but learnt very quickly from this and made a point of requesting vacant possession on the remaining ones. From day one it was always my intention to manage my own tenants, although strongly advised by my Property Mentor that it was not a good idea, I was determined to prove him wrong even though I had a very busy lifestyle by working on sites in a startup company Renovate to Profit Limited, being a mother to two very active children and running a very busy household.
My greatest passion’s in property and this comes from the heart and not the head, my wealth of knowledge comes from being a hands on landlord and running a very successful maintenance and renovation company predominantly for Property Investors and Owner Occupiers. I find landlords are too easily handing over their properties to Property Management companies without carrying out background checks on them, usually it all comes down to their fees and what the Landlord can afford, remember the old saying “you get what you pay for”.
Dealing with existing tenants and finding new tenants in South Auckland has proved to be very interesting. In the early days I had no problems going to my sites collecting overdue rent, or coming to some kind of agreement with the tenant to vacate the premises. I’ve had a house trashed by some very unsavoury tenants costing me thousands of dollars worth of damage, tenants that have abandoned my properties and heads going through a number of my walls and so on and so on. But not once in the whole time I’ve had to deal with these situations did I ever throw in the towel, now I can confidently say to Landlord’s if you want a good Property Manager, choose me.
Having had these situations arise has made me a smarter and more wiser landlord, which is why Landlord Doctor is offering a competitive Property Management Service. My checks are more thorough and I’ve learnt to listen to my gut instinct, if something tells me somethings not right then I don’t go through with it. The tenants I currently have some of them have been with me since day one and their extended families have moved into my other rentals, whilst I have also had phonecalls from previous tenants asking if I have any available rentals so they can take. That’s what you call being an outstanding landlord. Businesses are successful through repeat business and word of mouth. This is the same, tenants remember you for being a great landlord and providing nice places for them to live.
