Take control of your own financial destiny
Hi JNI,
One week is still early call, statistics show that residential rental properties, generally take 2 weeks to get it rented out, however, those are only stats, and you always must strive to better that.
Your goal as an investor, is not only to minimise you vacancies, but more importantly attract he 'best' tenant for your investment property.
Reducing your asking rental price may work, if you have set the rental price, above market value. But my question to you is, what will you do after 2, 3,4 weeks of no or little interest, will you keep lowering your rent? This is not a smart strategy, and the loser is you in the end. This $520 could be used to pay your property manager, insurance or other maintenance cost.
Also having it vacant, how much interest are you paying to the bank per day, that's coming out of your pocket? Not good too.
The question that your property manager may be lazy, maybe a reason, but in all honesty most agents are good, however, you should know best. Why did you choose this agent? Was it for their track record? recommendation from family or friends?
There is never a property that cannot be sold or leased out, if you focus on these 3 key fundamentals;
1. Price
2. Presentation
3. Marketing
We will assume, that you got the price right, as your property manager may of suggested that to you and from your knowledge of the building.
We will also assume that your apartment is clean and well presented, and this is reflected on the photos on the internet.
The most important part is 3. Marketing. My guess marketing is lacking, and its not the fault of your agent, they are doing the best they can, from the knowledge and time they have. Its just that you now have the control and the choice to do something about it!
At the moment, and what most investors do, they handball one of their biggest investments to someone else, who doesn't know as much about the property as you do, nor have as much vested interest to get it rented as you. Your agent is doing everything in traditional sense, whilst your sitting on the sidelines hoping they'll get you the result your after; A. getting it rented and B. with a 'good' tenant.
I always say, buying and renting begins on the interent, and if you haven't captured their interest from the word go, you will lose renters and buyers with a click of a mouse.
Just think about this, you are competing with all the other hundreds of 1 bedroom rental apartments in and around your given suburb.
You need to stand out, your listing must have lots of photos and a detailed description about the apartment and surrounding neighbourhood. You need to give them a reason, why your apartment is the best, and the number of bedrooms, or bathrooms with a couple of photos does not cut it anymore.
Your agent cannot do this for you because they don't know. Your the expert of your apartment, because your the only one that could answer these questions;
1. what improvements have you done
2. what are the views like?
3. what are all the appliances?
4. have you taken photos of all rooms in the apartment, and even include the storage areas?
5. what about describing the outside?
6. the neighbourhood?
7. the distances to amenities?
etc, etc - I can go an forever....
You need to tug at your "prospective tenants" emotion, and that can only be achieved by you, JMI, even if you hadn't lived there, then ask yourself, why did you buy this apartment? What had appealed to you?
My challenge to you...
Either you sit back, and hope that next week, you may get a tenant and can keep dropping your rent, whilst at the same time, you have to keep meeting your mortgage payments, week after week OR
you can start taking control of your financial destiny.
1. Leave your agent - let them do their thing. This should not bother you.
2. Take a few hours, and make a note of all the good things about your apartment. Step into the mind of your tenant, and think about why should they rent out your apartment?
3. Note down all the features of your apartment; heating, cooling, views, appliances etc
4. take note of the amenties, the neighbourhood the outside building etc
5. take more pictures; let the photos be the eyes of your tenant. They're going to see it anyway at inspection, so why should they start on the internet.
Then you can either build your own webpage, and post all these details or you can post it all for free on our website;
www.iPostcodes.com.au
> Unlimited description
> unlimited photos
> own dashboard, which you will see the stats of your listing
> send all enquiries to your agent with a click of a mouse button
Then the cool part is, once you got it rented, you can store it in your personal "archive" folder, so next time, it becomes available you can click "activate". So really you need to do the initial work only once.
You then give the unique link to your agent, to put it into their marketing materials, so now, when a potential renter, goes and checks out your apartment, they will now have an;
1. agent perspective
2. owner perspective
Your listing will stand out amongst the hundreds of your competitiors, and believe me, you would have now increased your chances so much more in getting your rental property rented out ASAP, plus have the ability to choose the best tenant for your property.
Every tenant that now calls your agent, or goes to an inspection, is already 50% qualified if not more. If you done a good job, they will only be there to confirm physically and pick up an application form to apply.
I have had my rental properties, signed up, without the tenants, physically inspecting, How cool is that!
I would also post in other free internet portals, like Gumtree. The more you expose on different platforms, the higher chance of finding the tenant.
Let me know how you go, and if you have any questions just write to me here, or if you you prefer you could send me a personal email, and I'll answer any questions you may have.
Too your success!
