WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RENTING

Today’s rental climate means that there is a higher demand for rental properties, however, there is also an increasing shortage of available properties for rent.

This means that if you’re looking to rent, you have to be diligent in filling out your application, provide as much information as possible with your application and be prepared to sign a long term lease immediately upon acceptance of your application.

Quality tenants are snapped up by investors, both in the private, and managed rental sectors. References are a great tool in providing character and professional profiles, as well as rental history from previous landlords or Property Managers.

Here are a few of the things that you should consider when looking for a property to rent:

* Is the property suitable for your needs (do you have pets or small children that require fenced yards? Do you need to be close to public transport?)
* Are you readily available to inspect or move into a property?
* Have you provided as much information as possible with your application for the Landlord’s consideration?
* Do you have current references for the Landlord’s consideration?

The market is tight and rental accommodation is becoming more and more scarce.

Contact your local Professionals Office to find out more about renting through Professionals. You can find rental listings by clicking on the Rental tab in the search area at the top of this page.

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Securing the best tenant:

Our philosophy is to find the best possible tenant in the quickest possible time to ensure that we are maximizing your rental income.

However, if the tenant demand is low, it is far better to have the property vacant an extra week than to approve ANY tenant just for the sake of having the property rented.

A tightening of the economic climate brings many social and financial factors that can impact on the management of rental properties. The tenants can find it harder to secure affordable housing which can result in dishonesty on tenancy applications when applying for a rental property.

You can be confident that we are strict in our tenant selection process. We are focused on securing tenants that will care for your property and pay the rent on time.

When we undertake the tenant application process we are thorough in our research process of the tenant.

Following are a few of the ares and strategies that we take into  consideration:

• We verify their employment reference confirming the stability of their position and income by sighting wage slips.
• We use the 30/70 rule as a guide to determine the tenant’s affordability of rental payments so they don’t overcommit. (30% of the household’s income is allocated to rent).
• We avoid ringing listed mobiles and we will conduct a telephone number search of the employer’s business or previous landlord.
• We verify previous rental references. Real Estate references are often the most reliable. If they have rented privately we will conduct a property search to confirm the owner of the property.
• If they have travelled from interstate we will verify this with the address on their driver’s license.
• We will conduct a tenant default database search to see if they have defaulted as a tenant previously.
• We will also look at other key factors such as how long they have resided at their previous property (long-term tenants are a better investment), whether they have pets and how many people wish to reside in the property.
• While most tenants are honest in the application process, from experience there are still those who try to manipulate the process with false information.
• It is our duty of care to all landlords that we are thorough in our tenant selection process to ensure that your investment is protected.

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