I’ll be certain to shop around Dean. Two agents I spoke to so far in the Narellan area were asking 6.5%. As I said, I do know others with 5% arrangements that were put in place a couple of years ago so perhaps the agents all met at the pub and decided its time for a price hike. Given there has been some turn over in properties lately is probably…[Read more]

Thanks Benny.

I am buying properties at the moment so I haven’t got to the stage of actually haggling on the management rate yet.
One property in the deep southwest of Sydney in an area where median rents are about $450pw and there the agent is asking the 6.5% I mentioned.

The other one is in Fortitude Valley and is let for $460pw. That’s where…[Read more]

I guess I’m comparing Bris v Syd.
You can see it as 2% or you can see it as 23.5% depending on your point of view. Basically it is another weeks rent you loose.
In 1999, last time I had an IP (in Syd), they were only asking 5%, and there was no GST to put on top back then. What has happened that made the management of properties that much harder for them?