Interesting thread – seems to be 2 in 1 – I can comment on the DHA properties as I currently own one I will leave the Westpac side alone.

We have 7 properties in our portfolio and to be frank we got sick of chasing the rental managers over rental reviews, property reviews, slow payers and high unauthorised maintenance costs. Not to mention one tenant catching her bed on fire the fire brigade promptly ruining the carpet, the tenant who called an electrician on Saturday to replace a fuse, and more.

DHA provided us with hassle free investing. Some features you may or not be aware of. Rent paid from the day of settlement straight into your bank account each month, regardless of vacancies, a rental guarantee for the 6, 9 or 12 year lease ( with additional 3 year option) a rental guarantee for the length of the lease will never go lower than the current rent Maintenance included in the management fee of 16.5%, so if a new hot water system is needed they pay for it, all damage by tenant underwritten by the DHA.

I orgininally thought the 16.5% management fee was high but this what I get, a park and forget investment with a guaranteed rental stream, all maintenance covered, the property re carpeted and re painted ( included in purchase price) at the end of the lease. I looked at my other property management fees – I encourage you to add it up, every 2-3 years your tenant moves, 1 month of no rent, advertising fees, release fees and potentially a lower rent agreed and on top of that no maintenance fees for 12 years.

As the property ages this adds up. In addition there is an independant market rental review Christmas each year – 2 out of the last 3 years I got a letter in the mail to say by the way your rent has gone up. My discussion with one of my other property managers goes like this – can we put the rent up $20 a week, it has been 4 years, she says well they will probably leave and then you have no rent for 2,3,4 weeks and you will probably have to settle for the same rent – you sure you want to do this, there is reletting and readvertising costs. As far as I concerned DHA can keep doing annual reviews and keep sending me the letters.

As a mortgage broker I have clients who have bought into DHA for other reasons – they live in isolated areas and want a no hassle investment, some are just starting and want to start with something safe, for me something in a high capital growth area that I could forget about the day to day running and just monitor returns. DHA has 10,000 investment properties around Australia.

If you are interested in any more info happy to oblige

Jane Slack-Smith
Investors Choice Mortgages
http://www.investorschoice.com.au