6 weeks and still no tenant QLD

Can someone give me feed back on what I have done wrong or how I can improve my situation? I have purchased a property in Clontarf (QLD). As I don't have much knowledge of QLD and I work over seas and very time poor, I have entrusted in the services of a Buyers agent thinking I would get the best guidance.

Settlement went through 19 April (5 weeks ago), was first said that it would easily rent for 355pw, I have just recently lowered the amount to $345pw, now I’m thinking I should lower it again.

The feed back I’m getting is that the living room is small; maybe I should put another room down stairs, there is a lot on the market in that price range…

Am I asking to much or maybe I should change agents.

Your feed back would be appreciated

Thank
Stephen
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-clontarf-404507796
 
Is the agent holding weekly opens and advertising it in the main places? If they are giving the property exposure and allowing people access to the property to view, then I don't think there's much more you can do but lower the rent. You can't make someone rent it at that price, and if all the potential tenants are being able to see that it's available, then changing agents won't necessarily change that.

I learnt quickly not to put too high a price on it, it will sit there vacant and cost you a lot more than if you just drop if $10 or $20 a week. So far you've lost say $2K. Also you will restrict your tenant selection, you might be lucky to get one application if it's priced too high (and that might be an undesireable one, desperate for anything they can get) and in desperation accept it. I'd rather it slightly lower with more options to choose from.

There might be things you can change later down the track to increase rent potential for later tenants, but for the time being I'd just be wanting it tenanted, and if that means lowering it a bit so be it. I was in a similiar situation, all the same comments - no safe yard for kids to play in. I dropped the rent a little bit, have great tenants with a teenage son so not an issue for them. And I do plan to fence the front yard to make it safe for young children for future tenants, but I just wanted to get some cashflow happening so was happy to accept $10 less.

Also I learnt don't necessarily listen to what agents quote in terms of rental potential. Selling agents will make it as high as possible obviously to make it attractive to you, but also property managers will give a range and I tend to believe the lower end, as they also are trying to get your business so want you to go with the most attractive amount. In my budget now on, I knock a bit off what they say is the expected rental return.
 
The house looks great and compared to other houses in the area,it seems to be priced right.Even allows pets :p
Try advertising for first week free and perhaps that will get it rented.
If that doesn't work drop the rent by $10.
 
I own a property in Margate and Deception Bay.

Both areas have an issue with vacancy as there is a lot around.

I have rented Margate but my Deception Bay property is still currently vacant.

Cheers
Sash

Can someone give me feed back on what I have done wrong or how I can improve my situation? I have purchased a property in Clontarf (QLD). As I don't have much knowledge of QLD and I work over seas and very time poor, I have entrusted in the services of a Buyers agent thinking I would get the best guidance.

Settlement went through 19 April (5 weeks ago), was first said that it would easily rent for 355pw, I have just recently lowered the amount to $345pw, now I’m thinking I should lower it again.

The feed back I’m getting is that the living room is small; maybe I should put another room down stairs, there is a lot on the market in that price range…

Am I asking to much or maybe I should change agents.

Your feed back would be appreciated

Thank
Stephen
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-clontarf-404507796
 
I'll drop another 10 dollars

Thanks for the feed back, good to hear that there isn't to much wrong in the situation. I'll drop the rent again by $10 and see how I go from there. I was just getting a bit worried because of the fact it's been 5 weeks, thats not including the two weeks we started advertising before I got ownership.

I guess 2k loss so far from income isn't much compaired to what's happening on the stock market

Stephen
 
Thanks for the feed back, good to hear that there isn't to much wrong in the situation. I'll drop the rent again by $10 and see how I go from there. I was just getting a bit worried because of the fact it's been 5 weeks, thats not including the two weeks we started advertising before I got ownership.

I guess 2k loss so far from income isn't much compaired to what's happening on the stock market

Stephen

Stephen, get the dill PM to spell the street name right. Anyone trying to google to get a street view, check the neighbour's houses, or get directions, will be obfuscated. I'd actually demand the PM discount their letting fee for erroneous and incompetent advertising.

Drop the rent anyways and get someone is asap. Just put em on a 6mth lease only and whack it up as much as the market will bear towards year end. Sometimes if you miss the Dec-Feb letting period, it is hard to get a new tenant at a top rate.

That's not a bad spot btw, so don't feel too bad. It is just a bit harder to get workers with good jobs that far out. And you certainly got a better deal than the second most recent sale in the street, no. 27.
 
It's had over 600 hits.......getting stale for rental.

I don't know the area nor have the time to search for comparable rents for you. If you (and your PM) have started too high for the market's pockets, no surprise at the result.

Have you considered dropping the rent to an amount that is not a multiple of 5 or 10. I often use a "9" in my figures. A bit like a $9.99 item, sounds better than ten dollars even though it rounds up.

If all else fails after the next rent drop, consider a week rent free rather than dropping rent even further. That way when lease is up, they are already on a higher amount rather than having saved the equivalent of say a weeks rent through a reduction alone

Gives you a better dollar/price base to increase rent from at that time depending upon market conditions.
 
Just sent an e-mail to the property manager and have lowered the rent down 10 dollars.
If nothing happens for another weeks, I'll consider the offer of a weeks free rent.

I'll also do the 9 dollar drop

have also mention to the agent about the spelling error.

I'm happy with the photos and pets allowed, that aloan I would have thought I'd have it rented real quick.
 
It's had over 600 hits.......getting stale for rental.

Good point, my property manager re took a couple of photos for mine and re-listed it as a new property after a few weeks with the new price so it would be fresh again. They did this at no charge to me. Perhaps ask them to re-list it so it shows up to everyone searching as a new listing.
 
stephen, the location of the agent ... arana hills .... is a long way from the location of the property ... how is the marketing ... opens ... access to the property being done. I am surprised that they are not talking to you regularly about what needs to be done to rent the property. Getting the till to ring, is important, and then getting the best you can follows. Good luck
 
stephen, the location of the agent ... arana hills .... is a long way from the location of the property ...


That's a good point,way to far to go and collect keys to have a look.
Perhaps a more local agent? Don't know how you could change now though?
 
I would be interested to hear from PM's what their experience is with the Brisbane north property market at the moment with regards to Rentals.

I am speaking with agents and getting my place appraised at the moment, and one of the PMs just told me that things are quite slow at the moment (more so than normal for this time of year) and that it is taking a lot more time to rent properties out. The reasons given were that there were a lot of properties available for rent at the moment so that tennants have a lot of choice. Maybe it is true, because I am very familiar with Clontarf area and am surprised that it is not renting quickly - but there is also a house similar to mine just around the corner (closer to town than Clontarf though) that has been listed for several weeks too and the price has now been dropped....making me nervous!

Having said that however, I was looking at buying properties over at Redcliffe over the past few years, and the rental returns were no where near what they are in the outer northern suburbs....the ratio/return compared to the purchase price was a lot lower (eg. if a property is $400K here you can get about $400/wk rent....Redcliffe a couple of years ago would have been low to mid?? $300's for a $400K property.) This may have changed a bit in the last 18mths or so though as I decided to stick closer to town for my property.
 
Your house look nice, but you need new pictures. These are way too dark.You want sunny and bright.

Also you may also want to just get someone in there for 6 months.

We had renovated a large house into 11 furnished bachelor suites and we completed 3 weeks after the start of college. We purposely kept the rent low for that first school year, just to fill the suites. The next year, we raised the rent on all of them :)

It's better to lower the rent, than not receive any.
 
Wow, just had a look at the vacancy rates in Clontarf - 4.5% which by today's standards is very high - lot's around on offer as others have said.

Also bear in mind that tenants generally do not like to look to be moving during the winter months (which we are heading into).

Offer a rent free period, drop the rent, is about all you can do to get a tenant for 6 months and then you can start to jack it up to market rates again.
 
Wow, just had a look at the vacancy rates in Clontarf - 4.5% which by today's standards is very high - lot's around on offer as others have said.

Also bear in mind that tenants generally do not like to look to be moving during the winter months (which we are heading into).

Offer a rent free period, drop the rent, is about all you can do to get a tenant for 6 months and then you can start to jack it up to market rates again.
Propertunity where did you look up the vacancy rate. I know there are some in the magazines (probably not up to date), just wondering where the professionals look.
 
i couldn't see a photo of the living area ... is it that open plan section off the kitchen that leads to the sliding door? if so, yes, it's very small.
 
Hi lizzie

Having viewed the property after purchasing it, I did notice that the living room is small.

The feed back I'm getting is that the living area is to small, well can’t do much about that;)

The kitchen is just off the living room, I don't know it that a positive or negative, (open plan)

just phone the property agent, I feel assured that she is doing her best as she understands my situation as she is also a property investor, I did question her about her office location, however this seems to be not a problem as one of the staff live in Redcliffe and opens the place for inspection on request.
Also she did say that she has no problems if I take the business to a local agent.

So the plan now is to take the house off the market for 12 hours and re-list it as a new listing, reduce the rent to 335pw and rewrite the ad.

I feel that she is doing her job at this stage and really it just the case that there is a lot of properties on the market at the moment.
 
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