Advice, help or suggestions on other ways I can pull my hair out?

[Peta]

Dear Brains Trust,

I am replying to a post by Ausprop in a thread titled 'What should a PM be doing?

To be prefectly honest, I dont know what the deal is....

Im a first timer and have headed the advice of the agent. You might remember previous threads - I had a 6 bedroom property in Bathurst I wanted to rent by room with one agent (the only one who does rent by room) for $140/wk (inc utilities) who I have since given the flick as their service was non-existent. The new agents are at least nice but the timing was all wrong as I have missed my niche market - uni students who have all found accomodation now.

As I had it set up for rent by room it needed to be fully equipped so I have supplied everything (inc cutlery and crockery etc etc etc $8000 later) - so depressing.

So now I have a 6 bedroom house FULL of furniture and no tenant. Normal families dont want furtniture! The agent started off by saying it will rent for $660/wk as 6 beds - yeah whatever! I went along with it for a while until other properties rented and mine didnt. I requested they change it to available as 4, 5 or 6 beds - they suggested $450/wk furnished.

That was about 6 weeks ago. I am now looking at having to lock up the nice new rooms downstairs to store all the furniture and let it go as 4 beds 2 ba and not the 6 I spent money turing it into! I dont really want to sell the furniture as most of it was brand new - another huge loss. I have all outgoings and nothing coming in.

I am getting mighty sick of 2 minute noodles and people who say 'relax, it will work out' - its not their money, time or stress - appologies to those of you who might be considering saying something to this effect in a reply to this thread - Ive heard it all before and just want it to come true! SORRY, Im really not being nasty or bitchy, just terribly stressed!

Help or any advice much appreciated!

Peta

 

[Perp]

OK, firstly, rest assured that I don't think you'd have totally missed the boat with regards to students seeking rooms. But get onto this promptly! Some of the out-of-towners come to stay with relatives or in a homestay for a few weeks while they find their feet, then look for somewhere to stay. I've got 13 bedrooms of my 16 bedroom student accommodation full (the other 3 I could have filled but am still waiting on a retrospective BA). But the RE agent is still getting plenty of queries from Brisbane students as late as today.

I think you have to rent each room individually; I don't think there's any way you'll find somebody to take on 4 or more rooms and have the hassle of subletting themselves. I don't know if $140 is the right price or not as I don't know the Bathurst market. Have you done research yourself?

Have you looked on the accommodation of the uni's website, and checked what other rooms are renting for? Are you advertising there? Are you listed under share accommodation on realestate.com.au? (Can be done by private individuals, $30/month from memory) Are you advertising in the local paper? Do you have flyers up on the uni noticeboards? Have you paid a student to spend a day handing out flyers? Do you include photos of your shiny new furniture in all these ads?

I know you've got a PM, but they're simply not as motivated to fill those rooms as you are. I suggest you muster your enthusiasm and energy for a "big push" this week and get this sucker filled up and generating cashflow for you.

 

[kathryn d]

Last year we provided what no other in our town does.(furnished bachelor suites with everything provided, just like you)
Our renvovations finished 3 weeks after college started!!!
We purposely made our rents low, just to fill the place up.
As each tenant left, we have increased the rent, a lot!!!

We have Fixed term Leases, and let the tenant decide how long they want.One woman wanted it for 2 months, but ended up staying 6 months.
As Ozperk says, short term travellers may be your answer for this year.

I know when we plan on travelling back to Aus this year, I'd rather stay at these type of places than stay with relatives.

Advertise everywhere. Do you have a sign on your lawn? (if allowed) Is it something you can look after yourself?
It really isn't that hard.

 

[redsquash]

I would be contacting the accommodation officer at the various institutes in Bathurst.
I know it sounds difficult , but you may have to lower your rental if you really think you have missed the boat.

student's will make friends and want to change accommodation as the semester progresses. second semester is a long way off. You may have missed the boat, but did you research the market or just hope things would pan out.
The idea in principle sounds great but for such a small campus I would want to know the market really well before taking on the task .

If it was Sydney Melb or Brisbane I think you would be on a winner.

 

[The Y-man]

As I had it set up for rent by room it needed to be fully equipped so I have supplied everything (inc cutlery and crockery etc etc etc $8000 later) - so depressing.

Just a note for "next time" - when we used to do this, all our furnishings, crockery and cutlery (other than matresses) came from the Salvo's store.... let's face it - they may go missing after one semester....


My main suggesiton would be to visit the town, go to the uni's etc, and look at the notice boards. Post your ad up, but have a look at the competition - you will need to adjust accordingly.


Baseline fallback - declare failed project and sell..... especially if it is costing you to hold (monetary and phsycologically).


Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[Twitch]

Contact the student unions for the different campus' in town. They will have someone who deals with accommodation requests and are probably almost as keen to talk to you as you are to them.

Given the (in)competance of the PM and the distance factor you need one of the students in the house to be "your man". I'd suggest 1/2 price rent and in return they deal with the maintence/repairs/showing prospective people through. Ie, some of the PM functions.

I own a student house and it is a lot of work. Do-able, but lots of work.