Self Management - Advertising & Tradespeople network

I am considering dipping my toe in the water of 'self-management' for just one IP initially and see how it goes before I consider it for others.

The key areas that have stopped me from trying this historically have been because of;

* advertising
* tradespeople network

Where have people typically advertised when re-letting?

Where have you sourced tradespeople network (eg plumbers or electricians, general handymen) when required?
 
Do you live near the IP? If so, just use the tradies you would call for your own place.

We advertise on rentfind.com.au and Gumtree and the local paper, which is where most of the answers come from.
 
Hi Wylie,

I haven't heard of rentfind.com.au before. What sort of response do you get from that sight?

We find that the local paper works best normally but we have been advertising one property now for weeks with little response. So much for the 0.3% vacancy rates - I reckon it more like 30% :(

Cheers,

Bazza
 
You could always get a local agent just to let the property then you manage it from there.

Self managing isn't really for me, but I suspect Buzz that you'd be fairly good at it.
 
Hi Wylie,

I haven't heard of rentfind.com.au before. What sort of response do you get from that sight?

We find that the local paper works best normally but we have been advertising one property now for weeks with little response. So much for the 0.3% vacancy rates - I reckon it more like 30% :(

Cheers,

Bazza

We were steered towards rendfind.com.au by a member of Somersoft (thank you :)). It doesn't get the traffic of the big sites but we have had calls from it. I have had two emails from Gumtree, but most of our success comes from the Saturday newspaper.

We also wonder where the queues of renters are :rolleyes:. We had two responses to our last rent advert, quite underwhelming :p.

Both people were real contenders, and both told us that the price we were asking was pretty much "on the money". One lot had three small children and had one more house to look at. They called back to say it was a slightly bigger house and they chose it over ours.

The other applicants were mother and daughter who had queen sized beds and many queenslanders have smaller bedroom 2 and 3 so they didn't take our place. They said that there were some houses they wouldn't have let their dog stay in, but people were still wanting high rent.
 
G'Day Wylie,

Do not believe all the media that you read.

I have a rule of thumb. 5 groups inspect no application then the price is too ambitious.

If tenants are inspecting your property and renting others then they are seeing better value in the other properties.

Traditionally this is a slower time of the year in the rental market. The main priority at the moment is to get the property rented. With a number of our new properties(new landlords) that we rented last month we only took leases up till 1st Feb 2009 (Jan & Feb is the busiest time of the year in most rental markets) Please Note: if we had taken 6 month or 12 month lease it would have put us in a quiet time again next year. If the tenants were looking for a longer term lease, then we would put leases through until 1st Feb 2010 with a rental increase in place on the 1st July 2009 (be careful to use the right lease & conditions for this)

The tenants do have choice out there and the properties that rent the quickest with the most applications( then you have the choice of the best tenant) are the properties that are advertised very close to market value. ( just like the sales market at the moment, the only properties that are selling is the ones that the buyers believe the owners have realistic market prices.)
 
I recently advertised in the local and the Sat paper and got around 6 people enquire.

The following week advertised in the paper only, on Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat (Sat free :D) and got over 20 inquiries over the week, with around half ringing from out of the area.

The tenants we picked came from approx. 20 km away and rang on the Wed. I clearly got the impression they wanted, new, clean and reasonably priced, and were obviously prepared to move away from family and friends to get it.

If your rent is at the bottom end of the market, I would recommend wider coverage than what your local paper does, especially if the vacancy rate in your areas is not very low.

As Jason stated, price realistically because tenants (especially better tenants that know they have little problems getting a place ) will compare places and price.
 
We find that the class of tenant isn't as good as before. All the applications that we have had so far can't prove income or are on benefits. Or, they are a group of young people some with jobs that want to share. Plus they all have dogs.

Where are all the normal families?

Cheers,

Bazza
 
I believe we are priced correctly, the two tenants who really liked the place but had size issues both told us the price was comparable to others they were looking at. The couple with three littlies spent considerable time there. They were not just being nice, but were mentally fitting their furniture to the house. To be perfectly honest, three littlies in our IP would get tight if they stayed any length of time. Second and third bedrooms in queenslanders are not known to be generous in size.

The second mum and daughter group were the ones who said they were horrified at how some houses were presented. I am assuming these may be privately managed houses, but not sure.

We are asking $20 more than we were getting six months ago, when local agents who had it listed for rent priced it, so not worried about the price, but we would rather forego the $20 increase and have a tenant rather than have it empty.

I find it hard to get my head around why anybody would rent our three bedroom old queenslander (albeit in good condition and clean) when they could rent four bedrooms with an ensuite if they moved 15km further out, possibly with a pool thrown in. I suppose it all comes down to "position" and proximity to the city and good public transport.

I just don't see the renting frenzy that the media is reporting. I believe this is more an inner Sydney "thing".

We plan to take a four month lease to get us back into January (with a six month option offered so they don't think they will be asked to leave in January).
 
Rented tonight to the ONLY couple who came through. They found the advert on Gumtree, which was a last minute thought for me to put the advert on.

We did have a couple today who were also keen, but wanted to look at another two houses. Didn't hear back, but they had two teenagers, so a bigger house would probably have won them over.

I did get a call during the open house, but that was the only other interest tonight.

No issues with the price at all, loved the house, loved the yard and happy to sign up on the spot.
 
I have had good success with gumtree but I think nothing beats www.realestate.com.au which is of no help to the self managing.

Maybe pay an agent for access to www.realestate.com.au

If you can find an agent who will do it for you. We have been asked but dont do it.... this is one of the benefits of using an agent. And you also cant take the agency details off the add so reception ends up feilding calls for the private landlord... then if the LL doesn't return a call we get the blasting... Plus if the property is in poor condition, LL has a list of unreasonable clauses attached etc it reflects poorly on the agency.
 
If you can find an agent who will do it for you. We have been asked but dont do it.... this is one of the benefits of using an agent. And you also cant take the agency details off the add so reception ends up feilding calls for the private landlord... then if the LL doesn't return a call we get the blasting... Plus if the property is in poor condition, LL has a list of unreasonable clauses attached etc it reflects poorly on the agency.

Yes I imagine if there is no pre existng relationship the agent would be reluctant. Mine is an existing out of area agent who already manages multiple properties for me so she likes to be nice to me :)
 
Some agents will do a "list only" deal at a competitive rate whereby they list the porperty on RE.COM and refer all enquiries to you.
They are not easy to find, but keep doing the ring around and eventually you will find one. Here in Adelaide, the going rate is around $120 or so, from memory.
As far as tradies go, just try to build up a list of reliable ones from referals from other people or agents in the area. Good, reliable ones are not easy to find, but once found are gold.
 
Buzz nothing to be worried about, riding my first bike was scary one apon atime, but with practice, and time, is was ok, not the best bike rider in the world , but i can ride better than those who never tried!
 
Yes I imagine if there is no pre existng relationship the agent would be reluctant. Mine is an existing out of area agent who already manages multiple properties for me so she likes to be nice to me :)

Oh yes for an existing landlord out of area - no problem!!! Just quietly Goanna you sound like a great landlord - wish you were one of ours!!

I think a private landlord in my area would struggle finding an agent to list only... most dont even do casual lets anymore we are one of the only ones that do.
 
Have you shopped around for a good PM? With property sales down, real estate agents are getting back behind their management again for protection so you should be able to get a good deal, remember you can negotiate!
For the time you spend putting ads in papers, or on low hit websites you could have your property exposed on one of the better sites.
What is your time worth to you? How much time do you really spend dealing with your IP? PM's have lists of people to call when an IP becomes vacant.
Let someone take care of it who does it for a living, dont wait to get burned before you do something.
 
Buzz,

If the reason for you considering self-managing is purely financial make sure you run your numbers before doing so.

We looked at managing our properties a few months back and based on our present financial circomstances it was actually going to cost us more to hold the properties if we self-managed than by them being with an agent. I used the PIAFPU software and was very surprised by this.
 
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