While many investors put a huge amount of effort into finding their investment property, they rarely spend the time looking around for a good Perth Property Manager. A good property management team essentially offers the investor piece of mind that there biggest investment is in safe hands and reaching its full growth potential. Read More→
Archive for Landlord Resources – Page 2
Did you know…
In the past 17 years, 23 of 29 people electrocuted could have been saved if RCDs had been fitted to the power and light circuits? (DOC, Energy Safety)
New Regulations effective August 2009 require a minimum of two RCDs to be fitted in ALL residential premises at the ‘Point of Sale or Lease’.(DOC, EnergySafety)
Has your property been fitted with RCDs? If not you may be breaking the law. You are endangering your tenants and risk of legal liability.
If you are unsure whether you have RCDs installed, CHECK! Ensure that a qualified electrician has been used to install the RCDs and a certificate has been provided.
Once you have had them installed, EnergySafety recommends that each RCD should be tested every three months.
Testing
To test your RCDs press the ‘test’ button on the front of the device quickly and then release it. Ensure that there is an electrical supply, otherwise the RCD test will not work. When an RCD works all power is lost to the circuit protected by the RCD. To restore power simply move the “on/off” switch back to the “on” position. (Keep in mind that any appliances that need constant electricity will be reset.)
Once you have compliant RCDs installed, you will have peace of mind, and you can sleep well at night knowing that the safety of your most valuable asset is electrically compliant!
Below is an example of a Residential Current Device
ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE THIS IN YOUR METER BOX!
If you have not please give us a call or message below and we can recommend a good electrician in your area.
Who is this for?
Regardless of whether you are just starting out or if you are a seasoned property investor, we can help you develop a clear property strategy.
How can it help you?
- Give you deeper insight into where your property now sits in the rental and sale market.
- Develop a plan to improve the return and value of your property to unlock potentially hidden capital gains and cash flow.
- Take you through a step by step investing process to invest smarter.
- Work out the right strategy and property type and timing to add to your portfolio.
- Help you overcome any property investing obstacle that stands in your way.
What is the format?
Prior to your session we will get you to complete a fact find form which will give us a good background to discussing your property plans and how they fit into the 8 critical steps for property investing success shown below.
Recent feedback from other Perth Property investors…
“After a few bad investments we had lost our motivation and just weren’t moving ahead. After our Property Strategy Session with Jarrad we now have a clear picture of what needs to be done and the motivation to do it.” – Sue Martin
“Thoroughly impressed with the service you provide. Investors Edge have always gone that little bit extra to assist me in getting clear on the next steps to take with my portfolio.” – Andrew Palmer
“Jarrad was very insightful and together we hashed out some great ideas to take us forward in 2011, when initially I thought we were limited due to the stagnant market.”- Amanda Walkom
“It was a very insightful, informative and ‘personalised’ session that went one step further than information provided by other property sales/marketing experts.” – Jae Rhee
Availability
Each month we have limited places available strictly on a first come first served basis. Register your interest below and we will contact you with the available appointment times. We have flexibility to meet at your home or one of our offices (Osborne Park, West Perth, Kenwick), after hours or on weekends.
Managing your own tenants is not a job for the faint hearted as there are many things that can go wrong on the road to wealth.
Prevention is far better than cure and ensuring the tenant and property are tightly managed will minimise the chances of small issues becoming BIG costly problems.
Mr Jones brought his property to Investors Edge after he experienced his own private landlord nightmare. He was frustrated with having to manage his previous property manager so decided he would be better off doing it himself and saving the money. However in trying to save on the cost of professional management he nearly cost himself many thousands of dollars.
Every landlords worst nightmare
Can you imagine what it must be like to walk up to your property and upon entrance you are greeted with tape holding up the glass panelling beside the door. You proceed inside to find that the carpet has so many spots it looks like a Dalmatian dog, you continue through to the kitchen to find several kitchen cupboard doors unattached and propped up.
Things don’t get much better down the hall way, with spotty carpet continuing through the house entering into the first bedroom which smells of stale cigarettes…so bad you need to leave the room!
The third and final bedroom which once resembled a sweet child’s room now has a massive orange stain to the carpet and the paint has been pulled off the wall in several places.
You’re probably thinking things cannot get any worse, right? Wrong! Out the back the gardens are completely unkempt and overgrown .The pathways are full of sand & leaves and the built in BBQ is missing several tiles.
Where to begin?
Where do you begin, there is problems in just about every room of the house, a new tenant cannot move into this condition, who will cover the rent? How long will this all take to fix up? There are just so many things that flow through your mind.
Cleaning up the mess!
I was the property manager assigned to this mess but was eager for the challenge and to fight for our new landlord. A laborious job laid ahead of back and forth phone calls, negotiations, emails and final demands.
It started off with invoicing the old tenants listing all of the damages and rent for the period the property was uninhabitable with the total amount that has to be paid.
You are wondering what kind of a reaction you will get back. Will this ever get paid, will we end up in court, will they offer to pay $10 per week and be paying it back for the next 3 years.
Nightmare over
Two weeks pass and finally we start to make some ground with the previous tenants accepting responsibility. The first steps moving forward were the tenants signing the whole bond over, great! They have continued to make weekly payments at a decent amount and it will all be paid off in 3 months’ time.
The landlord can finally sigh a breath of relief and is ever thankful for the help of Investors Edge!
We have now leased the property to a quality tenant that we will be keeping a close eye on them to best ensure that this situation is prevented from happening again.
Don’t rent out another Perth property until you read this report on…
“The basics you NEED TO KNOW about being a Perth Landlord”
Denise Thompson, the 2010/11 REIWA Property Manager Of The Year and Principal/Licensee of Investors Edge Real Estate, is a fully licensed and insured Professional Real Estate Agent with over 15 years industry experience and the added bonus of an accounting background.
In this eye opening report, Denise reveals industry insider information on-
How to properly protect your property- What should be done to select the best tenants
- Everything you need to know about signing a lease
- How tenants should be managed
- When and how a lease can be ended
- What your obligations are as the landlord
- What are you tenants obligations
So get comfortable and get “The basics you NEED TO KNOW about being a Perth Landlord”
Simply enter your contact details below and we will immediately send you our BRAND NEW report – 100% FREE!
Learn the rules or lose the game!
When playing sport if you don’t know the rules, it’s very difficult to score and you can easily get penalised and ultimately lose the game.
As Perth property investors we need to know the rights of tenants so we can comply with the residential tenancy’s act or face fines and ruin your tenants enjoyment of your property… which will ultimately see them leave at the end of their lease.
Here I look at some of the critical areas that every investor needs to know about their tenants rights, they may seem obvious but we regularly find that landlords are unknowingly breaking them. Respecting their rights will see that you keep a good tenant for as long as possible.
Timely resolution of maintenance
Regardless of age every property requires ongoing maintenance to keep it at its best ensuring the value of your asset is also maintained. It is important to know that your Tenants also have the right for maintenance to be carried out in timely manner.
Tenants are entitled to a safe premises as well. For example it is unfair if the tenants have to wait for the leaking toilet to be fixed for three weeks. If something needs to be done it doesn’t make sense to delay doing it, that is what leads to unnecessary frustration as well as additional costs of water wastage over that period.
If investors place themselves in the tenants shoes it is much easier to understand their rights and how we would expect to be treated.
Carrying out rental price reviews that are justified by the market
When carrying out 6 monthly rent reviews it is important to note that should the tenant contest the increase, any increase needs to be justified by comparable properties that have rented in the suburb. The chattels provided with the property, the state of repair of the premises are also considered.
So it goes back to the point of having your property in good repair to achieve the top market rent at any time. It should also be noted that tenants need to be given 60 days notice for any 6 monthly rental review increase, therefore notice must be given 4 months into the lease.
Access to the premises
You may be the owner but once the property is leased, it is important to realise it then becomes someone’s home. For any access to the property appropriate notice must be given to the tenants, be it for maintenance or any other purpose.
We have had a tenant wake up on a Sunday morning to see someone in the yard fixing the retic in the front garden right beside their window. Needless to say it was quite a shock to the tenant. On other occasions owners that carry out their own maintenance decide to show up unannounced early on a Saturday morning expecting the tenant who has just worked night shift to be grateful for the wake up call.
So it is important to give notification and for it to be provided with reasonable time, it is another matter if the tenant when contacted are available but it would be unreasonable to ask them to be at the property at 11am when you have asked only 9am in that same morning, as they have their work and life to schedule as well.
Providing keys
Tenants have the right to have the premises reasonably secure and have keys to all the locks to the property. It is may seem a simple matter but window keys are vital for security and are required to be supplied. Every week we take on many new properties that don’t have a full set of keys and we insist that a full set a cut.
Want more information on tenant rights?
When an owner ensures he is meeting the rights of his tenants he can also fully expect the tenants to meet their obligations, getting best enjoyment out of the property and continuing their lease longer. Of course there are many other aspects to the residential tenancies act, for a full guide on Everything you need to know about being a Perth landlord, click here.
Do you have any further questions about tenant rights? Leave a reply below now and I will endeavor to answer.
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