Choose washable paint, choose a pale colour (magnolia or something similar) that won’t go out of fashion, keep to the same colour throughout the house … it makes the rooms seem light and spacious. Make sure you make a note in your files of the exact shade and brand, so in years to come you know exactly what you need for re-touching/re-painting. As you have already suggested, do the painting first.

Try MacLeays Bulk Store in Brompton for carpets, they often have large remnants (often enough for a house) being sold off for much less than the normal price. Or if you are down south, try Noarlunga Carpets on O’Sullivan Beach Rd, Lonsdale. Make sure any carpets have stainguard treatment. I tend to go for hardwearing berber style carpets that don’t tend to show marks and take a lot of wear.

Good luck!

I would just add that one of the first rules of negotiating is to ask for more than you believe the seller will give you. Then you can concede something that you didn’t really expect to get, and end up with exactly what you really wanted.

In this scenario, I suspect your buyers wanted $15K off the price, so told you the estimate to repair was $30K but that they would meet you halfway. This makes them look like good guys, yet had you agreed they would have ended up with the $15K they wanted all along. It could also explain why they did not produce a copy of the pest report for you to look at.

cheers, investorgirl

Yes, definitely only the portion of the month, until the new tenant moves in. I also believe that while you are responsible for the cost of advertising (which in your case seems excessively high) you should only be paying pro rata for the reletting fee. So if the agent charges $500 to the owner for reletting, and you only have 3 months left on your lease (i.e you have fulfilled 3/4 of your contract), you should only have to pay $125 (quarter of the fee). It should be worth pointing this out to the agent, regards investorgirl

“The Real Estate Rookie – practical advice for the first time residential property investor” by Teresa Wainwright. and published by Choice Books.

I have written this book to provide rookie investors with practical tips on what to look for and what to avoid in a rental property, how to arrange finance, formulate a winning offer, and lots more. I’ve also included interviews, not only with investors but also with tenants, which I believe is a first in a book of this type.

investorgirl