When it comes to residential property management, there are definitive rules that must be followed in order to ensure landlords don’t end up facing a cantankerous residential tenancy tribunal judge!

One of the areas that can create confusion is lease renewals and termination of tenancies and exactly what rights and responsibilities both the tenant and landlord have. Even though this might seem like a straightforward process, landlords must dot all “i’s” and cross all “t’s” in order to prevent any future complications.   [Read more...]

Whilst investors are enjoying the fruits of an extremely tight rental market at present, with historically low vacancy rates across all capital cities, this is no time for landlords to become complacent about the upkeep of their investment or over-confident about keeping their property occupied.

Spending a bit of time and money sprucing up your investment can make a big difference when it comes to re-letting and minimising vacancies between tenants. Not only will a home that’s well cared for reduce the likelihood of it sitting empty for long periods of time, it will have the added benefit of attracting better quality tenants willing to pay a little extra for top-shelf presentation.

Essentially, some small and inexpensive improvements can give your property that point of difference and make it stand out form the crowd. [Read more...]

One of the realities of Property Management is that people move house and tenants move on.  Wouldn’t life be easier for all of us if once settled in a property, tenants were happy to stay for longer periods?  Not so – that’s just the way life is.

Now with low vacancy rates tenants are moving less frequently but when one of our landlords recently asked me what we do as property managers when a tenant vacates, I thought it would be worth sharing this information with others.

As a property manager, it is important that we fulfil two key objectives on behalf of our landlords. [Read more...]

Put some furniture into your investment property and get higher rents and some extra depreciation allowances. On the surface it sounds like a simple and a smart thing to do, but in general I don’t recommend that investors furnish their rental properties. We have found furnished investment properties more trouble than they are worth. [Read more...]

Once considered the domain of those who couldn’t afford the Great Australian Dream of home ownership, renting is now becoming a fashionable lifestyle choice that the younger generation are happily embracing.

Many in the Generation X’s and Gen Y’s age groups are consciously opting to rent, and often paying close to what it costs to own a home in the suburbs each week to do so and are not renting just because of escalating house prices.

With a youthful zest for life, a growing number of young professional couples and singles are being lured to the trendy inner city cafe scene.

Rather than being tied down with a hefty mortgage they are enjoying the freedom of renting along with the potential to enjoy more expendable income on other luxuries. [Read more...]

While rents are rising and this is music to an investor’s ears, it is still important to focus on the yield your property is delivering.

I advise our clients to try and improve the cash flow on their properties. To do this you have to do one of three things;

1. Increase your rental income
2. Decrease your expenses
3. Decrease the length of your vacancies

So, how do you go about doing these? Here’s a checklist worth considering to bulletproof your yield, no matter what the rental market is doing; [Read more...]