Forum Replies Created
Most of our policies are either with CommInsure or Rentcover, depending who has the cheapest price when adding the new house.
Sometimes even split it ie: building with CommInsure and LAndlord Insurance (including some contents for curtains, carpets etc) with Rentcover.
So far have not made any claims so don’t know how either are. But others on t his forum have siad they have claimed form Rentcover without any problems.
Marissa, you might like to do a search on insurance as I remember a previous thread about it, don’t know what it was called but coudl try Insurance and see what happens.
Regards
PKKaye Henry, good point. (The choice to lock up).
Will go buy a security door this week for rural IP! As a kid we lived semi rural and back door was never locked, but there was a lock and key if we’d have chosen to.
Ah yes, getting to know the townspeople helps. When renovating a PPOR in a rural town recently, the neighbour lent us a heater (as it was freezing), we gave her some left over guttering as she needed approx 1 meter.
She then found us a handyman when we hadn’t been able to. We gave her some leftover paint for her roof once we’d finsihed ours etc etc.
She couldn’t be more helpful and it has helped us break into the niche groups and get the tradespeople a bit quicker than our own attempts. It just took a bit of give and take to break in.
PK
We have also used agents to find us a tenant ie: a “To Let Only” agreement. In the past it has cost us 2 to 3 weeks rent to do this. Basically, they are able to check the bad tenants database etc which we can’t check ourselves. We then manage the property after that. So far we have always had good tenants through this arrangement, but we do have landlords insurance in the event that a tenant goes wrong.
There is nothing stopping the agent putting their listings first, however if your house if different in some way then it may appeal where other houses don’t. Many agents do this type of agreement in the hope that you may come back next time or you may run out of time to manage it yourself and then they hope you’ll hand it back over to them. If we ran out of time we would hand it back over to the agency that found the tenant as they have found us good tenants. Further, one agency said that if anything did go wrong we could go back to them for them to do the court documents or other paperwork if required (for a fee of course).
Dereck, your house does appear on the “Rent List” in an agencies window as they are still hired to rent it, just not manage it afterwards.
jsandso, jsut ring around the agents in the area and see if any will do it and at what cost. I’m personally happy for the cost to be a bit higher than a normal letting fee as don’t get the ongoing commissions.
Well, good luck.
PKI’d say heating and cooling knock it on the head. Security depends upon the town, some still don’t lock their back doors yet others steal your taps, go figure!
I have one tenant who rented our place because there was no lawn, he detested mowing lawns so that was his main reason for renting. He’s still there over two years later. We had another tenant who’s only requirement the whole time he rented was a particlar brand of Ant Killer. As he never asked for anything else to be done we obliged, it was a small price to pay to keep a good tenant.
So although demographics defines some areas of importance, each tenant is different too.
PK
Try closer but don’t rely on properties being listed on the net. Often you need to drive through the towns and check out the agent windows or if you feel closer towns have industry etc to help them survive then ring the agents in that town and ask for listing of what’s for sale and what it would rent for.
Be careful of ones that say “Owner will rent back” as sometimes they inflat the price of the house to include the rent they will then pay you back and then when they leav eyou may find the rent they were paying is also inflated compared to the actual going rate in the area, so check it our carefully.
Regards
PKThanks for the tip on “trade discounts”, will check that out next renovation.
Just a quick update on “Custom made venetians” – we found the cheapest pricing to be at “The Blind Spot” in Wangara and delivery was only 10 days too. (Our quote was supply only, we will install ourselves and save by doing so).
PK
Well, we sold our PPOR a year ago and purcahsed an new PPOR. We just saw our old PPOR advertised for $85,000 more than what we sold it for and we sold when there was limited houses on the market and it still took 3 months etc. We’ve been cheeky and sent a friend through to see what changes had been made and only the frout curtains were changed and one wall repainted (made a feature wall), so prices have either increased quite significantly over the year or it’s overpriced. We already know we had a terrible agent but don’t think it affected the price by that much.
Will be interesting to see what it actually sells for.
Other than that, I think the market is slower but not stopped.
PK
Thank you all, it’s nice to have confirmation that I hadn’t got it totally wrong. It didn’t sound right but he was adamant that they couldn’t deal with the body corporate, only the owner.
Looks like time to find a PM that will deal with my body corporate.
Thanks again.
PK.I’ve had none either.
I think you need to contact the Ministry of Comsumer Protections and Employment (used to be called the Ministry of Fair Trading). I think they have all the info you need.
PK
Marissa and Redwing,
I think you might actaully pay 9.35%, I think the 8.5% is before the GST is added. At least that’s how mine adds up.
Regards
PKPS. mmm… so which other state do we start in?
Yes you can claim for the second hand goods but you do still need proof a hand written receipt is fine as long as it states what it’s for, who it was purchased from, the amount paid etc. If I’ve purchased form the paper, I usually alos cut out the ad and attach it to the receipt as further proof. It then contains the phone number etc so if the ATO want to check they can contact the person themselves.
PK
Ok, an update on what I’ve found so far.
Windows – best place was Brajovichs’ salvage in Upper Swan. Huge range and reasonably priced compared to other yards I’d visited. Just make sure you’ve got time because there’s row upon row of windows.
Vanity, Bath, bath taps etc – new – were cheapest from Bunnings.
Didn’t do the ceiling fans and no londer intend to. When we found there was no insulation we bought some second hand from the quokka and put that in instead so that used up that part of the budget.
Tiles – World for Tiles in Malaga (alcove at rear of store has the “end of runs” ie: smaller quanitites that are left that they want to get rid of).
Fire Surrounds – Didn’t go there, painted the fireplaces instead in a fire resistant paint, some will still burn off due to the direct fire but would have been overcapitalising to get fire surrounds. However in my travels the place in Caversham was cheapest and he’d give a free lesson if you bought from him, can’t remeber the name but it’s the only one in Caversham in the yellow pages.
Venetian blinds – for standard size windows, then buying ready made off the shelf was cheapest in Spotlight but not much choice in colour by going that way and windows had to be standard size (their custom mades were not cheap), still the pricing started at $8.95 for a standard sized bathroom sized window. They had Holland blinds too. Unfortunatley the house we’re renovating was not standard size.
Paint – If your in the TWU union then you get discount on Bristol paint at Bristol Decorating Centres. If your in the RAC, you can get discount at Solver Decorating Centres. Bristol was cheapest though and it’s covered well and they can do most Dulus colours and the ones they couldn’t do then Solver could.
Laundry Sinks – There’s a small salvage yard at the back of Midland, near a Gull service station, cna’t remember the name right now, but when I do, I’ll update this thread, but they had a few at reasonable price. Are sitting in the weather though so would need a bit of cleaning up.
Ross’s Salvage was interesting, the one in Maylands had some cheap stuff but the one in Guildford didn’t, it was like a showroom setup and prices didn’t seem that special, so perhaps a case of shopping around.
Ron Smith Salvage in Landsdale had a good range of cupboard doors, if you need to replace a kitchen door or something like that.
Ok, that’s it for now.
PKIf you’ve narrowed your search to one or two ares then ring the councils as well, some are very helpful at giving info about their area.
It depends how long it’ll be empty while renovating.
Also depends if you are chasing insurance for the buildings, contents or both.
Many companies will cover the building if the period is less than 30 days, but if over 30 days then it gets harder. You could try SGIO, although you will pay a higher premium for it. We got insurance through CommInsure for the bulding however, they won’t cover theft if empty for more than 30 days.
The contents (ie: carpets, curtains, stoves etc) will be covered for up to 90 days days while empty by Rentcover ([email protected]).
Hopefully some of the others on this forum might have some better ideas, as I struggled with insurance for one of our places too and this was hte best I had come up with at the time.
Good question and good luck.
PKThanks, I’ve purchased it but have to wait for kids to be at school to listen to it. Looking forward to it. Glad to read this feedback though.
PK
Marrisa,
Stratco sell a 10x3m steel contruction for approx $1,800 but you have to do the council plans and erect it.
Alternatively the outdoor centre in the town I invested in, quoted $2,250 to supply, erect, do the plans and council approval bit. We’re going that way, it didn’t seem worth our while doing it ourselves for a difference of $450. Perhaps ring around places in the town with an estimate of the sizes you’d want and see what they estimate over the phone.
Regards
PKRedwing,
Why sign a new agreement, your old one is probably still sufficient, it usually says in it that once the original authority runs out, then the agreement continues until either party gives 21 days notice or something to that affect. Last time a managing agent sent me a new authoity out, I simply emailed them advising that I was happy with the current agreement and I would continue with that one unless they give 21 days notice that they no longer wish to be part of the agreement (and quoted the paragragh in the agreement that states this, of course) and guess what, I’ve not heard anything from them since and they are still charging me the orignal fees that I signed under.
If they give notice of the fee increasing then I’ll decide whether to stay or go.
Lastly with the letting and management fee increase, it may be that the orignal contract showed the prices without the GST and the new contract shows the prices with the GST included as the difference is exactly 10%.
Good luck.
PKBrilliant, thanks afloat.
