Instructing a Saudi Property Manager From Abroad: The First 60 Days

What an overseas owner should set up in the two months after appointing a manager: authority limits, the inventory, the payment route, the reporting calendar and the first review.

Appointing a manager is the easy part. The value is created in the first sixty days, when you decide what they may do without asking, what they must tell you, where the money sits and how the asset is recorded. Owners who skip this period spend the next three years asking questions that should have been answered by a document. This is the sequence that closes it.

Before stage one

Start the moment the appointment is agreed and before the first rent is collected. Once money has flowed under informal arrangements, it becomes awkward to impose a process, and the manager will reasonably treat the early habits as the standard. Treat the first sixty days as part of the appointment, not as something after it.

• A signed management agreement, not an exchange of messages about scope.
• The name and contact details of the individual who will actually handle your asset.
• A bank arrangement that keeps rent separable from the manager's own funds.
• A decision on how much the manager may spend without your approval, as a figure.
• Your own copy of the title, the lease documents and any warranties or service contracts.

Stage 1: Set the authority limits in figures

Write down three numbers: what the manager may spend on a single repair without asking, what they may spend in a month in total, and the minimum rent and maximum incentive they may agree without your consent. Figures remove the most common friction, which is a manager waiting for approval on something trivial while a tenant waits for a plumber.

• Deliverable: A one-page authority schedule attached to the agreement.
• Owner: Owner, agreed with the manager.
• Approval gate: The manager has confirmed in writing that the limits are workable.

Stage 2: Commission a condition and inventory record

Require a dated photographic record of the property, room by room and plant by plant, with meter readings, serial numbers of major equipment and the state of finishes. This is the baseline against which every later claim about damage, wear or improvement is measured, and it is almost impossible to reconstruct afterwards.

• Deliverable: A dated condition report with photographs and an equipment schedule.
• Owner: Manager, reviewed and accepted by the owner.
• Approval gate: The owner has viewed the photographs and queried anything unclear.

Stage 3: Fix the money route

Decide where rent is received, who can move it, what is deducted at source and when the balance reaches you. Confirm that deductions are made against documents you will see rather than netted off silently. Cross-border transfers need the manager to hold correct details for you, and banks will ask for documentation on both sides, so settle the mechanics before the first collection.

• Deliverable: A written payment flow showing collection, deductions, timing and the route to the owner.
• Owner: Owner with the manager and the bank.
• Approval gate: A test transfer of a small amount has been completed successfully.

Stage 4: Register the leases and confirm the letting permissions

Require that every tenancy is documented and registered through the applicable system, with a copy to you, and confirm that the way you intend to let the property is permitted for your category of owner. Letting arrangements, registration requirements and the permissions attached to a particular use are regulated, so have the manager evidence compliance rather than assert it.

• Deliverable: Copies of every registered lease and written confirmation of the permissions relied on.
• Owner: Manager, verified by the owner's adviser.
• Approval gate: No tenancy is in place without a registered contract on file.

Stage 5: Agree the reporting calendar and its contents

Specify what arrives and when: a monthly statement with arrears and expenditure, a quarterly commentary on the asset and the local letting market, and an annual pack with the full account and a plan for the year. Agree the dates. A report that arrives when the manager has time is a report that stops arriving when there is bad news.

• Deliverable: A reporting calendar naming each item, its contents and its due date.
• Owner: Owner, confirmed by the manager.
• Approval gate: The first monthly statement arrives on its due date in the agreed format.

Stage 6: Establish the maintenance and compliance regime

List the recurring obligations: servicing of plant, safety checks, insurance renewal, municipal requirements applying to the property, and any service charge or owners association matters. Assign each one a date and an owner, and require the manager to report completion rather than only cost.

• Deliverable: An annual compliance and maintenance calendar with named responsibilities.
• Owner: Manager, approved by the owner.
• Approval gate: Every recurring obligation has a date and a named person.

Stage 7: Hold the sixty day review

Meet, remotely if necessary, and go through what actually happened: whether the limits worked, whether reports arrived, what the manager found that you did not know, and what they need from you. This conversation sets the tone for the relationship and is where most unspoken assumptions surface.

• Deliverable: A short written note of what changes and what stays.
• Owner: Owner and manager jointly.
• Approval gate: Any amendment to the authority schedule or reporting is recorded in writing.

Handovers between stages

The weakest handover is between the purchase team and the manager. Brokers, lawyers and valuers hold documents and knowledge that the manager needs, and nobody is responsible for passing them on. Make the transfer explicit: the title details, the lease history, the survey, the warranties, the service contracts and the contact details of the previous caretaker. The second weak handover happens inside the managing agent, when the person who won your instruction hands it to a colleague who was not in the conversation.

How you know it is finished

The sixty days are complete when the authority limits are signed, the condition record is in your own files, a test transfer has worked, every tenancy is registered, two monthly statements have arrived on time and the compliance calendar is populated. Confirm the registration and permission requirements with your adviser near the date you act, since the rules governing letting and ownership continue to be developed, and take any tax question on your rental income to a licensed adviser.

Domira builds the numbers on a Saudi property with you before you commit: rent and cost evidence, condition and capital expenditure, the appraisal and the sensitivities that decide whether the deal survives a bad year. The investment decision stays yours, and so does the advice of your licensed tax and legal advisers.