property management in rural area

hi Milen007

i live in Stawell Vic 240km west of Melbourne, i have properties in the Latrobe Valley 140km east of Melbourne and i haven’t been inside since i bought them in 1997. i also have properties in adelaide which i have only seen from the outside since i bought them 6 years ago. i don’t feel the need to see them the agents keep me informed, (i hope?). maybe i’m slack.
regards westan

Hi milen007
We inspect atleast some of our properties every year. We Have most of them with the one manager but still like to make sure he is keeping the places to our liking. Especially in the start it is a good idea to do inspections more often until you build a good relation with the PM and he understands what you want. Our place in Darwin we only visit about every 3 years but we still see it occasionally. We also rent ourselves which gives us the other side sure it is a pain when they do regular inspections and the owner drops in but we have lived in places where in PM never does inspections great for us but I wonder what they tell the owner. Remember it is your place not theirs you need to make sure every thing is OK
Oh and ours are atleast 1000kms being rural or city shouldnt matter
Erika

Hi,

I recommend you do bi-annual property inspections to ensure your property is functioning as expected.

Here’s a thought… even if you self manage, perhaps you could pay a local rental manager a once off fee to complete a condition report for you or to report back with any problems.

Remember that time is precious – and if you pat $150 to save 3 hrs of travel + the time on the ground doing the inspection… it sounds like value to me.

On that note, it would pay to actually go to the area at least once a year to get a feel for any changes to the community/area in terms of price, infrastructure etc.

Regards,

Steve McKnight

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Remember that success comes from doing things differently.
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It’s best to come along to the inspection and inspect the property for yourself, once in a while.

I read the previous report and then went to inspect the property along with my property manager and I found there were a lot of things that were not reported. Little things that could have been done to make your tenants happy to keep on renting or make the tenants keeping the property in a better shape.

In case of distance and the troubles to get there, you can claim all of it on tax ie. travel, accommodation, etc. It’s just like having a weekend away, fully paid.

Spending a couple of hours to inspect the houses, get to know your tenants (may be), a better rapport with your property manager(s) and the rest of the time fishing or site see-ing. It’s great for you and it’s great for the whole family.

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Hi all,
I own properties in melb.suburbs and western rural and have found property managers in the rural areas very good.
For one thing, they usually have less properties on their books to care for compared to the big ger city offices.
They have a good handle on the local demographics and can be invaluable for investing advice.

Another thing is they quite often know or know somebody who knows prospective tenants, thus making better informed decisions about who to rent your valuable asset to.

For the small fee they charge,(tax deductable) I reckon it’s the best deal going.

I would think a once a year visit or in between tenants is plenty.Just keep in regular contact with yor managing agent.
Bye,
Joff

Hi, just want to tell you a story you hopefully will enjoy about PM in Amsterdam, where I come from, now we are on the topic of inspections. Because there is and has always been a housing shortage, most people have a lifelong lease. If you want to move, you’ve gotta find someone through papers/internent who wants to swap houses with you. My brother has just been doing this.

No property manager ever cares about inspecting the place, in fact I think it is unheard of. My mum has been living in the same unit for 60 years, has never had an inspection in her life. No-one I know ever had an inspection. You can do whatever you like. My mum has renovated her house, banged a wall out to make the living room bigger since she didn’t need the 3rd bedroom. (Well when the next tenant rents this place they might just put a wall back in if they desire another bedroom). THis is how it works over there. Carpets, curtains, stoves, everything is supplied by the tenant. The place comes empty when you rent it. Many people pay the previous owner (the one you swap with) for things like floorboards etc. They make up their own deals, swap stoves or BYO etc.

The first time I heard about property inspections is when I came to Australia and rented. I couldn’t believe they checked if you didn’t hang up pictures!!! No nail in the wall allowed??? I really couldn’t believe it! We hated renting here so much!

Now we own our own home and are starting to invest, I can see the other side. I don’t want tenants banging nails in walls whereever they like! Gee people can change! I find it funny now, that in Amsterdam everybody can do whatever they like, there are no vacancies anyway.
The strange thing is, that almost all tenants (everyone I know at least) look after their properties as if they were their own homes.

Yes the landlords are repairing things, and maintaining it if necessary, e.g. painting verandahs, but many tenants are taking this task upon themselves, same for improvements. People are putting beautiful floorboards down, improving a garden etc.
I think it’s great that different countries have grown different ‘rules’, it keeps things in perspective.