I asked Siany, our former landlords who are in your situation (i.e. they're living in Australia & have had to hire a property managing company) Here's what she said:
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We've actually changed property management firms to Nova Property Management at the beginning of the year. We had some problems on with the communications from Johnson's Property & Management, and he also gave Leigh (Sean's old neighbour) some difficulty over a repair that she had requested. I don't have any questions about their recordkeeping, but they weren't always prompt in their acquittals either (e.g. would hold onto cheques if major repairs were needed, rather than contacting owner for preferred payment/input/warning their mortgage payment might not go through).

Nova is better on this front and also seems better at turning rental properties around quickly and has. To the best of my knowledge they are good at responding to maintenance requests also as they have a 24 hour phone answer-y person. Our agent there is Brent Sanders 907 522 1332, who is very good about answering questions promptly. We haven't had any major repairs, so I can't comment on their performance on that front, but they seem pretty professional.
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hope that helps!

Stay away from Nova. Whatever you do, stay away from Nova. They are all smiles, and very friendly yes... BUT, when it comes time to have any work done, they will send their unskilled laborers to hang sheet-rock, change locks, etc... and then charge as if t were a professional craftsman. After having spent a year abroad, I came back to find repair jobs that looked awful. After Nova took over, they wrote with a permanent black marker (the giant kind with a chisel tip) NOVA PROPERTY MANAGEMENT on the rent drop off box we have.

-They waited over a week to send someone out to check on a leaking water heater. I only found out about it because I had a tenant look me up in the muni records. Nova told them I was too cheap to fix it!

-A tenant called to have a leaking toilet fixed...Nova fixed it, 3 weeks later. I was billed for 6 + hours of only driving time to my location---as it took them multiple attempts at finding a leak-----this is where hiring licensed professionals is important.

-I found out after inspecting the lease agreements they have, that they retain 4 - 500 dollars for apartment cleaning. But every time the apartment was cleaned, it was by a minimum wage person. Why pay a professional rate, and then have a 18 year old working minimum wage do the job.

-Their lease agreements exceed the State of Alaska maximums for late rent charges.

-After a year or so of having them manage the property, I fired them. It took me 3 weeks to get all of the keys. They just couldn't seem to find those laundry keys....

-The last months rent was only partially collected from the tenants, when I asked them about it, the response I got was something to the effect of "well, we didn't charge you for it..."

Basically, if you want a property management firm to do the absolute bare minimum of collect the rent, and trash your place, Nova is for you.

Why do you have to live so many time zones away!? I called this morning (your evening). If you need me to take care of things I'd be happy to help as long as you'd like.