Blog

Pro-active Property Manager succeeds in tough rental landscape

Every Property Manager will easily recognise the snapshot above is from Domain’s website. From 12/09/18. It’s current. This is Sydney’s rental market right now.

I’d hazard a guess that most of our current generation of Property Managers have never experienced a market as difficult as this in which to let property. Stills Properties has been around a while and I can remember the bad old days of 2006 when we all struggled to let property across the board.

Thinking back on those difficult times I wanted to share some thoughts on how we, as Property Managers and Agents, might help ourselves and our clients through the current difficulties.

Let’s all be more Pro-active in our search for reliable tenants!

Continue reading…

Managing you own Investment Property – why would you?

What price a headache?

“Save money,” they say.  “It’s easy,” they say.  “Anyone can do it,” they say.  On the face of it, ‘they’ appear to have a point.  On the face of it!  Scratch the Investment Property surface however and there’s a whole untold story behind those glib statements.

Time is Money

At Stills Properties we get it – property investors want to make money, not spend it.  But how valuable is your time?  The old adage ‘time is money’ never rang more true than when it comes to managing your own investment property, because how much of your family time are you prepared to commit to:

* Dealing with late-paying tenants?
* Evicting a bad tenant?
* Finding a new tenant when the current one leaves?
* Performing regular property inspections?
* Organising necessary repairs?
* Keeping up-to-date with applicable legislation?

Continue reading…

Pet-friendly landlords can earn more in rent

Landlords – consider the pet-friendly route to a 10-15% rent premium!

If you have an investment property then you have an interest in the real estate market. If you have an interest in the real estate market then you’ll be fully aware of changes in recent months. The long-running seller’s market suddenly switched to a buyer’s market with prices sliding steadily over a few months.

A buyer’s market in sales translates to a tenant’s market in rentals. The pool of potential tenants decreases as more people opt to take advantage of falling prices and buy their own home. Add to this the enormous number of new apartments going up everywhere you look and supply is beginning to outstrip demand by some margin. Tenants have more to choose from and they’re becoming more selective and demanding.

Continue reading…

Apartment or House: Which is the better investment?

Buying your first investment property–whether an apartment or house is an exciting time. But how do you know which type of property is the better investment?

As with all investments, it depends.

The best place to start is to first figure out your property investment strategy: are you looking an apartment or house for capital growth or cash flow?

Continue reading…

Illegal Subletting: The Issues and Risks for Property Owners

In suburbs across every Australian capital city, and in almost every major holiday destination along the East Coast, you can find a short-term rental property listed through Airbnb.

Most of these short-term rentals are being listed by the property owner, either an investor or owner-occupier, but increasingly tenants are illegally subletting a room or the whole property, unbeknown to the owner.

Continue reading…