Property
Management & Maintenance
All under one roof.

Happy couple shaking hands with real estate agent after signing contract at his office

ABOUT THE THIRD HAND

Easy Living. Smart Thinking.

Property management and property maintenance are both essential elements of managing your investment – so we’ve brought them under one roof to make your life easier. A third hand, if you will, to manage everything to do with your property.

WHAT WE DO​

Your Property. Our Business.

Property Management

We’ll find you a tenant, maintain your property, improve the value of your investment and ensure you’re getting the optimum rent. Oh, and we’ll make EOFY easy for you too.

Property Maintenance

Subscription property maintenance with your own concierge, or a helping hand to support your own property maintenance? Either way, we’ve got you covered.

One Subscription for all your Property Maintenance

WHO WE HELP

In need of A Third Hand?

Owner Occupiers

Owner Occupiers

Got a love hate relationship with DIY?


There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who like DIY, and those who don’t. Well, you get the idea, but whether you love it or loathe it, we can help with your property maintenance.
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Property Investors

Property Investors

Why you should trust us to look after your property


With over 30 years’ of property management and property maintenance experience we’ve seen it all, learned a lot and continue to learn every day – and - we’ve built our entire business, around you.
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Questions and Answers

Frequently Asked Questions

Hello! Well done, you’ve found our hidden little Q&A about property management and property
maintenance, and we’re pretty sure your first question will be…
Well, it helps people find our website online, and if your reading this, looks like it worked!
First established in December 1996, you might say we’ve been round the block a few times, unlike a lot of the newer ‘hybrid real state’ models around at the moment. In short, we’ve been managing property for longer than we care to remember!
Yes, our Real Estate licence number is 953746. Property owners shouldn’t deal with anyone in this industry who doesn’t have an official Real Estate licence number.

To make it easier for our clients, and to reduce the overall cost for our clients too. We’ve done this by charging as little as possible for day-to-day tasks, and when we need to secure a new tenant, or perform a market review, for example – there’s a separate cost for that.

Traditional property managers have built these ‘extra’ costs into the pricing whether you use them or not. We decided to go a different way, and our clients benefit tremendously.

We can manage the investment side of your property from anywhere, however our property managers are all based in Sydney, because they need to be able to drop round to your property at a moment’s notice. For property management to be done properly, you really need boots on the street. To find out if your suburb is covered contact us here, or give us a call on 02 9586 0000.

Most property managers have a 30 day termination period, but there should be no additional costs to switch property managers. If your current property managers insists, however, just let us know. We’ll provide you with an official termination letter, and can even take over the whole proceedings from there on, if you want.
Yes you can change managers, and if you need a hand just let us know. Investing in property shouldn’t be hard for owners, it should be easy! And it is, when you have an extra hand.

Investing in real estate can deliver income to the owners on a monthly basis, when you rent your properties out, and over time as the property appreciates and you eventually sell your investment. Having a happy tenant means your ongoing costs are lower, and your property is looked after better too – so we consider a happy tenant one of the most important parts of the picture. In fact, our entire business model has been developed to achieve exactly this.

Helping owners, and making investing in real estate as easy possible. For example, our tenants enjoy minimal interruptions because our property managers are able to do repairs on the spot, while they’re performing an inspection. We also have a raft of services available to make their lives easier, such as cleaning, general maintenance education and even help with relocating when the time comes.

It’s an essential part of our overall service, combining property management and property maintenance under one roof. The workshop is where we take care of a lot of repairs, and also store items to be repurposed at a later date. This provides a saving for owners, they won’t find anywhere else.
If you’ve inspected one of our rental properties and want to proceed, juts let us know and we’ll send you an application link. You’ll be guide through the entire process, and we’ll be in touch along the way too.
We’ll look after you better than any other property manager will. That means we’ll actually look after the place, stay on top of all the maintenance tasks and you won’t have a different repair person round there every other month. We’ll even give you hand keeping your home clean if you like, and when it’s time to move on, we’ll give you a hand moving.
A good property manager will manage the administration side of an owners property, ensure you get the right kind of tenants in your rental, while keeping the property owners informed of all management issues, at all times. If you’re looking at investing in additional properties, most property managers will not be able to help you secure another real estate investment, but at the Third Hand, we’ll give you a hand with that, of course, and all your property maintenance needs too.
In general, a property manager will charge you a percentage of the rental property income, however a lot of the property management services they’re charging the owners for, are hardly every used in the ongoing management of the property. We’d strongly advise looking into this closely before engaging a new property manager. At the Third Hand, you’ll probably find our costs a bit lower than most, as we don’t charge for what we don’t do in regards to the management of your property, or properties.
In a word, yes, a tenant living in a rental property can request the management be changed to a new property manager. Normally, the management agreement between the owners, and the existing property manager only runs month to month, while the agreement with the tenant in the rental property lasts for a longer fixed term.

If your property manager is pretty bad at, well, the management of your property then you’re very much entitled to change property managers without further delay. It’s pretty simple really, all you should have to do is cancel the management agreement in writing, usually with 30 days’ notice, and then it’s over to your new property managers from there.
If you want to know more, and what to watch out for, we’ve written a blog all about it right here.

Property management services are generally a fixed percentage of the rental income, however they may be negotiable in some cases. All you have to do is ask, and see if your property manager can, perhaps, remove some of the property management services that you’ll seldom use. Instead of all that hassle, however, you could just ask us to take over the management of your property. Our fees are probably lower for a start, because we’ve already removed what you don’t need.
Property managers, and owners, do have the right to enter a rental property however there are certain conditions they have to comply with. Tenants have a right to reasonable peace, comfort and privacy while living in a rental and the law determines when, how often and how much notice is required before you’re allowed to enter the property. For example, seven days’ notice is required before you can inspect a rental property, and even then, no more than four times in a 12 month period. In an emergency, however, or to carry out urgent repairs like a gas leak or a burst water pipe, you’re allowed to enter properties without advance notice.
In general, yes they can, as most property management agreements provide the right, and authority to begin eviction proceedings without even consulting the owners. This is fairly standard practice in the real estate industry, and nothing to be concerned about unless you’re living in a rental and causing a rucus!
It all depends on the size of the properties, how old they are and what condition they’re in when you decide to rent them out. In general, however, if the properties are less than 10 years old when you rent them out, it should cost you less than 1% of the cost of the properties. We include property maintenance as part of our service here at The Third Hand, however, so if you want someone to manage all of that for you, we can help, and probably at a considerable saving too.
Some will, some won’t. They’ll all help with managing properties, of course, but when you’re looking at investing in additional properties, then you may have to look for a buyer’s agent, or a real estate agent. At The Third Hand, however, we can help manage your properties, manage the maintenance, and help you find more properties too. We really are a one-stop- shop for owners in the real estate industry.
Investing in real estate is possible using your super, however there are strict rules around what you can, and cannot do. You’re best to consult your accountant, or a financial advisor for specific advice about investing in real estate, however one of the pre-requisites is that you need to have a self-managed super fund, or access to the first home super saver scheme. Once again, before investing in real estate ensure you consult your financial advisors.

Well, not really, but unfortunately a lot of them have lowered expectations quite considerably. If you’d like to find out what your property manager really should be doing, but probably isn’t, then we’ve put a whole checklist together for you, and you can download it right here.

We help owners with all aspects of property management, and maintenance, so investing in property becomes an easier prospect overall. We manage the tenant lifecycle, and also have a suite of services specifically developed to make investing in property a breeze, such as having all your end of financial year paperwork taken care of. EOFY, Easy!

Owners, and property managers do have the right to enter a property that’s being rented out in the case of an emergency, however it’s best to contact the emergency services first, and let us know afterwards.

EMERGENCY: 000
NSW SES: 132 500
Jemena (GAS) 131 909
Ausgrid 131 388

SUSTAINABLE LIVING​

An Easier way to Live sustainably

Sustainable living is easier than ever, saves you money and helps the environment at the same time. What’s not to like about that..?!

If you have any questions, We’re happy to help out

Working in the property industry for over three decades we’ve seen a lot of change. From boom to bust, technological disruption, pandemics and sky high interest rates, you name it.

Throughout all that change, however, there are three constants that always remain.