The best place to compare your property to other properties
on the market is realestate.com.au or allhomes.com.au if you’re in the ACT.
When comparing your property with other properties on the
market, equally most important to the number of bedrooms and the presentation
of the property is the location of the property.
In terms of the location of the properties you're comparing
your property with, limit your scope to the same area as your property, the
closer the better, within the same street is the best. Limit your scope to a
5-kilometer radius.
Most tenants will want to live in an area close to the
amenities - like Schools, shops and public transport - so if your property is
situated in a location near these, this may give you an added advantage over
your competitors.
Now that you have started looking at the properties in the
same location as yours, we now need to take into consideration the attributes
of the property - the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and car spaces. Of the
three, I have found bedrooms to be the most important. So, when you're
surveying the area, start with properties with the same number of bedrooms
(also take into consideration the bathrooms and car spaces, while you're at
it).
Once you have a small list of properties, say 4 or 5, with a
similar number of bedrooms, bathrooms and car spaces in a similar location, you
may now start to narrow it down to 3 properties by looking into the finer
details of the property. In particular the age and condition of the kitchen and
bathrooms and so on from there.
You may decide to keep an eye on the market over a couple of
weeks to keep track of which properties are getting rented quickly, which have
lowered their rent and which ones have been listed for many weeks.
Once you've taken all these details into account, you will
have narrowed down your comparable to around two or three similar properties
within your area.
By now you should have a good indication of the rental value
but let’s try and narrow this down to achieve the price you will advertise your
property at, by considering your time frame.
From this point you're probably tossing over $20 here or
there per week. Have a think about your time frame you're working with. For
instance, if you need to have a tenant in the property and paying rent within a
few weeks, you may decide to take a conservative approach and set your rental
price slightly under your remaining comparable properties. However, on the
flipside if you have over 4 weeks you may take a little risk and set it on par
with the highest priced comparable, but I warn you, if you do not get enough
inquiries within the first week, then it is imperative that you reduce your
rental price so it’s more competitive with the others.
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Jason Gwerder
Friday, 15 November 2024
