Inner west property management

How we begin

Before we sign an agency agreement we visit your property and appraise just as we would if we were about to sell it. (Of course, even before this visit, we’ve researched your property and the homes around it.) We go through the property room by room, discuss our process in detail with you, complete a condition report and draw up an agency agreement.

How we manage tenants

Firstly, when we hold inspections for a rental property we treat it as if we were selling it. Our inspections run for the full half hour and we point out the positive features of the property to prospective tenants. (Of course we’re also assessing them as we do this!).

However we don’t allow the agent handling the inspection to do the first review of tenant applications – these must be done objectively against our employment, rental history and capacity to pay criteria.

Once we develop a short list, the inspection agent has their input and we proceed with the rest of the checking. You can read more about our tenant screening process in our free Investor Management Kit.

How we manage money

Of course reservation fees, bonds, and cleared funds need to be in place before we release the keys to a tenant. However after that the next thing to manage is the rent.

All our rents are paid by direct debit scheduled to run before the due date. This gives us advance warning of any dishonours and time to fix them. Direct debit also helps us collect those finicky amounts of money for utility bills that tend to drive property owners bananas. It also helps us manage shared households – but more on this and the detail of our tenant payment management system in our free Investor Management Kit.

How we manage maintenance

We use a team of hand picked, tried and trusted, fully licensed tradespeople to handle any maintenance that needs to be done at your property. We also coordinate larger scale value-adding works.

How we assist with tax

Of course we have a trust account system that provides monthly and end of year statements. These are available to you via a secure zone on our website so that you can access them immediately that the end of month and year rolls over, as well as at any time after that of course. We go a step further though, and arrange for a depreciation schedule if you’d like it, using one of our trusted partners.

How we help you grow your equity

It’s at this stage that we can really leverage our integrated real estate sales and property management approach.
We look at three key areas at the end of each twelve month period:

1. The condition of the property
2. The current rent
3. Potential for more major improvements and equity growth

After our annual review we produce an inspection report. We also let the tenant know that there’ll be a rent increase
and invite them to suggest what the new rent should be.

We then do a comparative market analysis – just as we would if we were selling it – take into account the tenant’s suggested new rent, and recommend to you both the new rent and any maintenance that’s needed. If it’s warranted and you have sufficient equity, we also suggest the more major improvements you could make to grow the value of your equity in the property. You can find out more about how we grow your investment property value in our free Investor Management Kit.

How we help you grow your property investment portfolio

While over 1.7 million Australians own an investment property the majority own just the one. Of course a good spread of assets in your portfolio is wise, but if you’d like to add properties to your investment portfolio, then we can help.

We provide free suburb profiles, property specific comparative market analysis once you have a property short list, and easy access to key consultants needed to deeply assess the property and manage the legals. We’ll even negotiate the price with the vendor if you’d like. You can find out more about how we help in our free Investor Management Kit or the Property Investor Handbook.