API Blog :: Have your say!

Hands up if you’ve ever just rented a property to a new tenant and the hot water system blows up? How about this one, new tenant moves in and no one can find the mailbox key?

BY EMILY SIM

It’s true, maintenance is a reality of being a landlord… but it doesn’t have to equal pain. I think the key to this is understanding what shape your property is actually in safety and building wise.

I’ve seen many older investment properties in better shape than brand new ones. Brand new means exactly that. Imagine a block of luxury apartments operate perfectly until every apartment has a new occupant actually move in. The lifts get a workout, the size of the waste pipes is tested as every occupant has their washing machine running for days and the security roller door on the under ground carpark is literally going up and down every three minutes to accommodate removalist vans. This is often the reason new buildings require so much warranty work in the beginning and that’s bad news for tenanted property.

How do you find out what shape your property is in?

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Let’s start with the bottom line: is your investment growing more because of the expertise of your property management company?

BY EMILY SIM

We all know it’s a good idea to have an investment property, just as we know we should spread our investment risk by diversifying, but it’s fair to say there’s more to managing property than collecting rent and organising maintenance.

The basic expectation for a landlord paying management fees should be a relationship with their property manager or the principal of the business and a business plan for how their investment property can grow in capital value for them.

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