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Essential Information For Landlords

Property management is all about trust. It takes a lot of trust and confidence to delegate your property to a second party.

The real estate industry is hardly one to boast such quality; however open house realty would like to outline what we do differently that engenders trust with our current landlords

To begin with, we look after your property as if it were our own.

Our Policy
All prospective tenants are accompanied to inspect properties. They must complete a detailed application form and supply 100 points identification. We thoroughly check references from employers and previous lessors to establish the applicant’s character and reliability... and all this before application interview.

We are committed to conducting a full inspection every 6 months without fail. Following each inspection you will be provided with a written report, including digital photos
detailing the general condition of the property, the manner in which tenants are maintaining the property, any immediate maintenance required and any recommendations in the foreseeable future.

Peace of Mind
With recent legislation changes in Queensland giving tenants more rights than owners, it is important to choose the right management so that your interests are protected.

At open house realty our attention to detail and rigorous application process will guarantee your peace of mind as we promise to place only quality tenants so that the security of your asset is guaranteed. Our strict application process will match your property with the right tenant giving you back the control of your asset!

At open house realty you can be assured your property is in good hands with our industry trained management team who attend ongoing training to keep up with the market.

Zero vacancy policy
Our ZERO vacancy policy consists of a strategic process whereby minimum time of vacancy is experienced between tenancies in your rental property. Our property management team will be happy to discuss this process with you should you wish to capitalise on this unique process.

Rental inspections 7days til 7pm
We show tenants through vacant properties 7days a week till 7pm.

When we take on the responsibility of looking after your property we take our job very seriously. Your property is an asset of great value and needs the utmost care and attention in its management to ensure that the greatest possible return is realised.

One of the challenges we face every day is communicating effectively with our clients. In an effort to keep you informed this information is designed to let you know what to expect from our office as well as what to expect from your property and some general information about the recent changes in the Property Management world.

Preparing your property for rent | What to expect during the tenancy

Preparing your property for rent

In preparing your property for the rental market there are a few things that will make a great deal of difference to the rent-ability of your property. These range from large things such as adding decks or internal painting, to smaller things such as fans or air conditioning. Remember that what you look for in a property to purchase is often a vastly different thing to what you look for when you are renting.

Cleaning:
When it comes to new tenants presenting them with a clean property is essential. Firstly because the appeal of your home will be greatly increased when it is clean and fresh, and secondly because we can only expect tenants to return the property to us in the state that we gave it to them. The best solution is to clean your property or have it cleaned before we start showing people through. (Remember we will always accompany prospective tenants to view your property.) This leaves a good impression after inspections and also allows us to have people move in on short notice.

Improvements:
There are always lots of improvements you can make to a property but only some that will increase your rental return or the rent-ability of your property. You need to look at your home from the perspective of someone who cannot change things about the property without permission. Things that add value include fans/air conditioning, dishwashers, white goods, painting and anything that improves visibly the standard of living that the home offers. Put simply it needs to be visible and usable.

Maintenance:
Maintenance is one of the necessaries with any investment property. This includes anything that needs fixing to maintain the home in good working order. The priorities are things that protect the safety or security of the tenant or the property. In a lot of cases these things need to be fixed in order to legally continue letting the property. Thank-you in advance for your understanding when we call you with an issue of maintenance, we assure you we will do all we can to minimise expense to you while still remaining within the bounds of the law.

What to expect in the first month:
With any new tenant there will be teething problems after they first move in to your property. The key is to deal with these issues quickly and effectively so as to have the tenant happily settled as soon as possible. Please expect some maintenance in the first month as there always is. After that initial period in most cases we can settle down and start getting returns from the investment.

 

What to expect during the tenancy

Payments & Statements:
It is stated on your agreement that you will receive one statement at the end of each month. Most of our new clients are taking advantage of our processes and are being paid twice monthly. Although payments are made twice monthly, only one monthly statement will be sent out. The benefit of this is again to free up time to more efficiently manage your property. Tenants tend to pay in irregular amounts and at uneven intervals, so expect some of your payments to be large and others to be zero. We will always pay you all that we have at the time when we disburse everyone.
This is important to remember if you are trying to work out why no money was deposited into your bank.

Quarterly Inspections:
As with any property manager who is doing their job, we will carry out a quarterly inspection of your property. The purpose of these inspections is to view the property and check that any damage has been reported. This is also a chance to chat with the tenant and find any information about the property that might be useful to us as caretakers. If you wish to join us for any of these inspections please let us know so we can arrange a time to meet you.

Lease renewals:
When the time comes to renew the lease, we will first look at the current lease and insert any special conditions that are still valid. We will then do an analysis of the market to determine if the property would benefit from a rental increase taking into account general price movements, the likelihood of the tenants leaving when we increase the rent and the benefit/loss to you in each scenario. You are often better to have a tenant stay in the property paying the same rent than have the property vacant for a few weeks waiting for the tenant who will pay a premium.

The Internet:
The Internet has played an increasing role over last twelve months and is now responsible for more than 80% of the tenant enquiry. The other 20% coming from the newspaper, signs and walk-in traffic. This has led to a far greater focus on our Internet activities. Response time for most emails is now down to four hours during business hours.

Note on Pricing:

• The modern tenant is far more educated prior to contacting an agent, they know prices and make quick, accurate comparisons during inspections.
• The up side to this is that these people know what they want and upon finding it have no hesitation.
• The down side is that if a property is over priced there are fewer uneducated prospective tenants to rent it.
• Quite often the phone will not even ring because the tenant has made a decision on value based on the comparisons they found on the Internet.
• What this means to us is that the way our properties present on the Internet is very important to how fast we find a quality tenant.
• What it means to you is that it is very important that you price properties realistically on the Internet so as to get the maximum inquiries and therefore have the largest selection of tenant’s possible.

Securing your investment:
We want you to be as happy and comfortable with us looking after your property as possible. This means we need to take all precautions to secure your investment.

With even the best screening processes there will be tenants that do not honour the agreement they have signed. As most of you understand, there is a formal process that we follow to recover lost money if a tenant does the wrong thing. Unfortunately this process, even when followed to the letter is slow and will very rarely recover all the funds owed.

It is for this reason that we promote landlord insurance. This will protect you against damage that a tenant may cause over and above what is covered by bond, and also cover you for loss of rental income for varying times depending on the circumstances.

The cost is equivalent to $4.50 per week and gives you the peace of mind you deserve. We are fast approaching the time where we will not be able to take on properties that are not covered by some form of landlord insurance. We are aware that most owners are covered these days and strongly urge you to join them if you haven’t already.

In conclusion:
In closing I would like to take the opportunity to personally thank you for trusting us to manage your investment. As I stated before when it comes to your investment we take our job very seriously.

Over time you will no doubt come to know many of our people and come also to a better understanding of the way we do things at Open House Realty.

We are a little different and always looking for ways to provide better service to you. I hope this information answers some of your questions but if not, Please contact us so we can help.

Have a great Day

Tavis Callard
General Manager

P.S. We love to hear from you about the things we are doing well, as well as any new ideas on how we could improve our business. All correspondence is greatly appreciated, as this is the only way we know how to better help you. Hear from you soon...