Securing the best tenant

Our philosophy is to find the best possible tenant in the quickest possible time to ensure that we are maximising your rental income.

However, if tenant demand is low, it is far better to have the property vacant an extra week than to approve ANY tenant just for the sake of having the property rented.

A tightening of the economic climate brings many social and financial factors that can impact on the management of rental properties. Tenants can find it harder to secure affordable housing, which can result in dishonesty on tenancy applications when applying for a rental property.

You can be confident that we are strict in our tenant selection process.  We are focused on securing tenants that will care for your property and pay the rent on time.

When we undertake the tenant application process we are thorough in our research process of the tenant. 

Following are a few of the areas and strategies that we take into consideration:

•     We verify their employment reference confirming the stability of their position and income by sighting wage slips.
•     We use the 30/70 rule as a guide to determine the tenant’s affordability of rental payments so they don’t overcommit. (30% of the household’s income is allocated to rent)
•     We avoid ringing listed mobiles and will conduct a telephone-number search of the employer’s business or previous landlord.
•     We verify previous rental references.  Real Estate references are often the most reliable.  If they have rented privately we will conduct a property search to confirm the owner of the property.
•        If they have travelled from interstate we will verify this with the address on their driver’s licence.
•    We will conduct a tenant default database search to see if they have defaulted as a tenant previously.
•    We will also look at other key factors such as how long they have resided at their previous property (long-term tenants are a better investment), whether they have pets and how many people wish to reside in the property.

While most tenants are honest in the application process, from experience there are still those who try to manipulate the process with false information. 

It is our duty of care to all landlords that we are thorough in our tenant selection process to ensure that your investment is protected. ■

Women powering the property market

Despite Australia enduring an up and down property market at present, it seems women are bucking the trend and leading the way in the search for prime real estate.

Research from realestate.com.au has revealed women are the power players when it comes to the property purchasing process.

Figures show women are currently accounting for two-thirds of visitors to the website and 87% are searching the site for property a minimum of three times per week (1).

From teenage to the twilight years, the research unearthed five distinct consumer segments that demonstrate the prominent role women play as ‘buyers’ or ‘drivers’ in the Australian property market.

The survey of 1260 female ‘active’ property seekers using realestate.com.au found five female segments were esentially the leaders in online property searches and determining a list of properties for consideration.

The segments, made up of First Home Buyers (25%), Upsizers (22%), Downsizers (7%), Lifestyle Seekers (27%) and Investors (17%), not surprisingly found a quarter of female online browsers were looking for their first home.

The survey also found:

Affordability was a major issue for First Home Buyers, with 67% looking to purchase a home under the $400,000 price range.

Around one in five active female property hunters were looking to upsize to a bigger or better home (Upsizers). Most were living in metro areas, from middle to higher income households and searching above the $500,000 price range.

Downsizers were the smallest of the five segments, representing just 7% of active female property hunters. Almost half (46%) were visiting the site daily to search for their ideal property.

More than one in four active female property hunters were primarily seeking a new lifestyle (Lifestyle Seekers) in a new area (rather than a bigger/smaller home, or first/investment property). The majority of lifestyle seekers were searching for properties in the $500,000 to $750,000 price range.

Female investors represented 17% of the active buyers searching on realestate.com.au. Around half were looking at properties under $400,000, with almost half of respondents (49%) indicating using the site to find out the ‘sold’ prices of properties.

The survey also revealed these consumer segments demonstrated significantly different search behaviours, using a range of tools such as property websites, mobile search and telephone enquiry to progress their interest in a property.

Source

A review of your home insurance

Home insurance is the most important protection that you can have for your investment property. If damage occurs from an unexpected fire, storm, flooding or burglary, you want to have peace of mind that you are financially covered.

In reviewing your home insurance we have taken the time to list some thought provoking questions:

• Is your property adequately insured? If your property was destroyed could you rebuild the property to the same standard?
• Is your property overinsured? Remember, you do not need to insure the land value. If you purchase a property for $500,000 it is going to include a portion of land value.
• Do you know what is considered building and what are contents within the property? Insurance companies may classify these differently, which can affect the insurable value for the building or contents. You need to find out what an air-conditioner, carpets, blinds, light fittings, security systems, etc. fall under.

Some insurance companies have a limit on how long they will cover a home while it remains vacant. Is your property covered if it is vacant?

We strongly recommend that you discuss these questions and ask further questions of your insurance company or broker to ensure that you are adequately covered