You can’t have successful property investment without tenants but
too many landlords pay scant regard to their tenants – to their financial
detriment.
I’m sure you’re aware, one of the keys to property investment
success is cash flow and that generally comes from your tenants paying rent for
your property over the long term.
Many property investors– opt to manage their properties themselves
While some may be able to fulfill this role successfully, in my
experience, there are many rules and regulations, not to mention variables such
as human emotions, that makes this option hard.
The better path to take is to use a professional property
management platform such as RealRenta.com.au as
looking after investment properties is what they do best and their fees are
relatively small (and tax-deductible!) compared to Property managers and the
value of your portfolio.
What are
some of the attributes of a good landlord?
There are rules in each state and territory which protect the rights and responsibilities of both tenants and landlords.
The legislation generally sets out the required notice periods that must be
strictly adhered too if you want to inspect, repair or simply visit your
investment property.
Not understanding and sticking to these notice periods means
landlords can be left in a less than favorable legal position if the tenant,
in turn, breaches their lease agreement.
Property management platforms like RealRenta.com.au are just that – they
are professional online software platforms, that follow the rules for you and
you can communicate with your tenant through the platform and stops you from crossing
the line into "friend territory” because it usually won’t result in a
favorable outcome.
Such an
attachment can result in landlords being too picky about how their tenants
live, including how they choose to furnish the property for example, tenants have a legal right to quiet enjoyment and can almost do anything they
want as long as it isn’t illegal or causes damage to the property.
Remember having Investment properties is a business and you need
to treat it that way and not get emotional about anything the tenant does. Bond
and insurance will cover most rent arrears and damage if any, as 99% of tenants
are good but that 1% are the ones we all hear about the most.
One of my biggest bugbears about landlords is how frustratingly
slow they can be to fix repairs around their properties.
If there are problems with your property then, of course, it
makes sense to address these as promptly as possible to not only maintain a
good standard but also because most repairs are tax-deductible and can be
covered under regulation, if it’s an emergency repair, for example.
While every landlord wants long-term tenants, it’s important to
not let the weekly rent freeze at an under-market value rate.
This may result in catch-up rent hikes which will do nothing to
impress your tenant and may actually motivate them to shift to somewhere more
affordable.
So, there are plenty of ways that you can be a good landlord,
RealRenta has all the tools that a property manager
has, but at over ¼ the cost of a property manager.
Join now and the cost is less than a cup of coffee a
week to manage your rental property
RealRenta also has a free vision, so why not check it
out
Jason Gwerder
Tuesday, 13 April 2021
