Advice for Managing Your Own Rental Property (DIY Landlord)
DIY Landlord Services with Arnold Property
From DIY repairs to managing tenants, we have all the landlord advice you need to make managing your own rental property simple.
At Arnold Property we can provide you with a personalised combination of property management services and advice to make managing your own rental property streamlined and stress-free.
Help from the experts to manage your own rental property
There are many advantages to managing your own property, with most DIY landlords choosing this path to save on overheads from property managers and maintain more hands-on involvement with their property. However, self-managing landlords often outsource one or more aspects of their property management. Often this comes down to a matter of time and practicality -- if you’re short on time or have multiple properties to manage, handling all the management tasks on your own can quickly become impractical.
At Arnold Property we offer a range of You can engage one, several or all of our services depending on your needs. Our services for DIY landlords include:
We can help match your property up with the right tenants through targeted, strategic advertising. We can place your property on our own website, Domain.com, Real estate.com and Rent.com, along with placing your property in window displays and internal office materials. You’ll also gain access to our large database of clients who subscribe to our regular property updates.
Many DIY landlords find it difficult to make time for conducting inspections with prospective tenants. DIY landlords often own properties outside their own hometown or city or struggle to fit inspections into their busy schedules. At Arnold Property we can conduct inspections at your property with prospective new tenants on your behalf.
We can provide all required documentation for your rental property including Tenancy Application forms and other tenancy documentation, specifically Residential Tenancy Agreements, Ingoing Condition Reports, Bond Lodgement forms. Plus, we can provide Digital Photos to support the ingoing condition report.
As well as providing all the required tenant documentation we can help with processing suitable applicants. We use the Australian tenancy database (TICA) along with advanced property information from RP Data and our relationships with fellow agents to find you the best possible tenants for your property.
When it comes time to end the lease we can complete the Final Inspection for you. Our property management team will take care of everything including preparing the property condition report.
We can handle the financial side of your property management by collecting and receipting advance rent and lodging rental bonds for you.
Get the help you need to manage your own rental property without the pricetag
We can deliver any combination of the above DIY landlord assistance services All fees are negotiable depending on the level of service you require. Should you decide to do everything yourself we can provide you with the most recent documentation to ensure your DIY landlord process is completely up-to-date. Please contact us for more information on how we can make managing your own rental property simple.
Steps to selling a house or rental property
When the time comes for you to sell your rental property, we’re here to help. Selling your rental property with Arnold Property is straightforward. Our experts will work with you to match you up with the right buyers and get you a great price on your property.
- Step 1 Identify your ideal buyer and take advantage of our database of active buyers
- Step 2 Target your potential buyers with expert marketing and advertising packages
- Step 3 Get an expert pre-sale report highlighting ways to maximise your home and garden
- Step 4 Sell your home for an amazing price!
Here are 10 useful tips we have put together for DIY landlords.
This list has been compiled from pitfalls some of our clients have encountered when managing their property privately.
- Don’t do it yourself, if the reason is to ‘save money’. In our experience it could end up costing you significantly more than what you might potentially save.
Real estate agents have access to a wide range of resources when it comes to conducting proper tenancy screenings. Screening out the bad tenants could save you a lot more money than a management fee if something was to go wrong. If you are looking to manage it yourself perhaps consider a ‘leasing only’ agreement to ensure an excellent tenant is selected, to help with a stress free management.
- Value your time that is, set an hourly rate for the time you will need to dedicate to the management of your property. Sometimes your hourly rate will exceed the cost of the weekly management fee.
Most management fees can be as low as approx. $3.00 a day, that’s less than a cup of coffee. If you are managing your property yourself ensure it is worth your time.
- Complete the Lease, Condition Report & photography accurately. This will protect you in a worst case scenario.
Remembering to complete a detailed ingoing report is important. This report is used when your tenant vacates and it begins the standard of how it should be returned (fair wear and tear considered) good photography during this time is also a high recommendation to prove what you are writing on your report is accurate. Knowing your rights is also very important, we recommend reading a lease and familiarising yourself with its clauses.
- Issue receipts for tenants rent & give the tenant a copy. Maintain a tenant ledger to avoid any possible dispute with the tenant.
This is very important. Keeping accurate records of all rent monies is a must. Putting it into some form of spread sheet may assist you in keeping records.
- Keep up to date with any changes to legislation. Eg Water efficiency, smoke alarms, material facts, blind cords etc
Over the years regulations change. Keeping up to date with these is important for all owners and agents alike.
- Don’t forget to do regular inspections. Tenants don’t always report maintenance. Make sure your maintenance is kept up to date.
Keeping on top of your maintenance is very important. Sometimes tenants won’t report certain items until it’s at a disrepair state, this could cost you more that it would have if it was repaired earlier. It’s also good to inspect the property to ensure your tenants are keeping it clean in tidy, remembering to give the required notice for access.
- Make sure you have Landlord protection Insurance which includes insuring yourself if you are doing your own maintenance.
Landlord insurance is highly recommended. This can also help you for loss of rent & property damage caused by tenants, if required.
- Don’t forget to regularly review the rent even if the tenant is good. Your outgoings will increase every year.
Reviewing the rent annually is a good idea. This isn’t to say the rent should be increased every year, but knowing your current market is beneficial to you.
- Build up a ‘sinking funds’ to cover unforeseen expenses such as stoves & HWS failure
We recommend you set aside funds for those unforeseen issues so you are not out of pocket, as most trades will request payment within 7 days from an owner as they will not have a 30 day account like most agencies.
- Don’t forget to collect your water usage
If your property is separately metered don’t forget you can claim the water usage component. Remembering to keep up to date with the current rate to charge per KL.
We wish you all the best with your investment, should you need assistance in lease only or property management in Newcastle don’t hesitate to contact our office.