Finding new tenants- how soon do you advertise?

One of my tenants had advised my PM that they intended to vacate 2 months ago. They are not breaking a lease. My PM informed me straightaway and told me that they will look for someone closer to the date as vacancy rates are very low.

Today (Saturday), I suddenly remember and send an email to PM to ask for the details i.e. when is the move date etc. (I browsed online and couldn’t see any ads).

PM tells me that my tenants are moving out next Tuesday and that she has put the Ad online today with an open home scheduled for Wednesday (the day after my tenant moves out).

Has my PM left this too late? Perhaps she forgot? I am annoyed because I didn’t want to have any vacancy, especially with the market being this hot. By the time she does an open home and vets the applicants, it could be 2 weeks away before I get someone to move in. Are you allowed to show prospective tenants through with the existing tenant still there (maybe that’s why the timing is such?)

 

Your agent sucks!

Your agent should have started 2 weeks prior to the current ones moving out and do open homes on the weekend or private viewings on appointment whilst the tenants are still there.

Some tenants can be difficult though and they wont allow it but you can serve them a notice and they have no choice.

I've always done it 2 weeks before move out date and has always worked out for me over all these years and across 20+ house portfolio. Always get rented very quickly after they leave.

My most recent one I found new tenants with only 1 day in between for cleaning before the new tenants moved in. I actually made money because I got some bond monies back as well for some damage which I fixed after the new tenants already started paying me.

 

Between 2-6 weeks out, depends, there are many variables and factors. Things you won't know is how many prospective and/or pre-vetted tenants the Agent has in the pipeline waiting for a vacancy. Also, logically you'd think tenants would plan well in advance to look for a new place, in practice, surprisingly a lot leave it to the last minute - "oh hey our lease like ends next week, better find a new place" ha ha.

 

In my previous experience with other properties, it was about 2-4 weeks in advance, but some of those were break- leases so existing tenants were quite accommodating. I wasn’t sure if anything has changed with Covid.
I will just have to go with this ‘plan’ as it’s so close to the vacate date, but I’ll seriously consider switching PMs.

 

Could agree more with @thunderstrike888. Your PM cannot be so casual. No explanation is good enough really. You have a right to know and ask the agent & the agency’s principal the embarrassing question - Why was the property not advertised 1.5 months ago when a vacate notice was provided by the outgoing tenant.

You’ll have to be very lucky and a lot will have to flow through in tandem so that your property remains continuously tenanted in this situation. If your area is in high demand for tenants, perhaps it may help out easing the situation a little.

1. Potential tenant that comes in to your first inspection on Wednesday likes it & is willing to make on their application on the spot and further also wants to move in over the weekend.

Since the inspection is one day after your tenants move out, I wonder how will your PM find time to perform an exit checks for end of their tenancy & what if - the cleaning hasn’t been done up to the mark by outgoing tenants, would that leave sufficient time to have it done nicely before the inspection on Wednesday as that will impact the probability of getting a prospective tenant submit an application on the day.
2. Going by what I read so far, you’ll have to chase up with your PM to commence vetting their application same day and have an outcome within 24 hrs for you to consider & agree on a tenant.
3. Tenant signs off on Thursday/Friday & moves in over the weekend.

I’d be curious to see how it unfolds between Wednesday-Friday after yours tenants have left on Tuesday.

The one thing you could consider lure a prospective tenant to get the lease started before the weekend (once vetted completely by the agent) is by offering a 10%discount to your rent if you would like and commence with a 6 month lease, you can revise the rent after 6 months to the market rates. It is a loss you will agree taking on at the start, but atleast will allow you get someone in by the dates you want & property remains tenanted continuously. If you do the maths you won’t be out of pocket by much (I think)

Weeks will quickly go by if you are not getting people through the door for inspection, before you realise you need to drop your rent.

Probably no harm if you go down the route of sacking your current agency today, just make sure you don’t get them to charge you for advertising & get them to waive the waiting period based on the foolish error they’ve made which has left a bad taste for you. On the other hand, engage a reputed PM who is available to collect keys the same day & use the days prior to end of your tenancy to review & line up some of the advertising & other tenancy exit formality to help you pull through this situation.

Happy to recommend if you like to send me a DM and advise of your property location as I don’t know if they would service your area.

 

I like to start inspections 4 weeks out in order to minimise vacancy, but it depends on a number of factors including:
- relationship with the tenant
- how it is presented
- current Covid situation
- level of disruption

We remind tenants when they start a tenancy that we would like access for inspections at least 14 days prior and generally have no issues.

 

I ask my existing tenants for 4 weeks notice, then I advertise within that week. 9/10 times there is 0 vacant days.

 

Thanks for your comments everyone. I am now very annoyed at how my PM has handled this.
I did send her an email yesterday to ask why there was a delay in advertising. She said this is how she’s been doing it and has had great success. Property is in high demand according to her.

I will keep everyone informed on what happens next week. Unfortunately, this property is in regional NSW, so there are not many choices available when it comes to a PM agency. I will do a ring around on Monday (tomorrow) with some other agencies and see how I go.

 

Everyone's experiences and market are different, but I think we can all agree that advertising only a week in advance is a bit slack/late. Has the tenant ever been messy, disagreeable or in any way likely to cause a problem with advertising while insitu?

In a stable market we'd advertise around 4wks out. I know some agents will do as far as 6wks but I feel this alienates too many in the market during your best period of enquiry (first two weeks). Right now we're finding at least two weeks is enough to lock someone in without any vacancy because of the hot market, though we'll advertise sooner if we can.

 

Thanks Tom. The PM advertised 3 days prior to the existing tenant vacating, and only one of those days was a business day, so not even a week in advance. I suspect the PM forgot until my reminder email on the weekend.
And no, the tenant has been excellent and gave plenty of notice, so I don't think he would have had any issues for prospective tenants to view the property.

 

Update:

On Monday, I rang a couple of local agencies to work out what the market is like and how they go about advertising for new tenants.
The first one I rang said that due to covid, they only advertise a week out as there is no point doing it earlier if they have no access to the property. At this point, I was thinking maybe they do things differently in this part of NSW .
But after speaking to a couple more, nope- advertising is done as soon as possible, preferably 3-4 weeks out. This means that my PM has definitely dropped the ball.

In the meantime, since the ad went online (Saturday), my PM started sending me application forms on prospective tenants. I wasn't impressed with the quality initially, but on the Tuesday, got a few good applications.

Tuesday- Vacating tenant hands back keys at 5pm.

Wednesday (yesterday) morning- PM tells me that the tenant had left the property in good shape and professionally cleaned (thank gosh, no more delays). She has viewings lined up all day today and will let me know how it goes. She also tells me that she has done all the background checks with the prospective tenants. I tell her my top 2 preferences.

Wednesday midday- my top preference came to the open home and wants the property.

Wednesday arvo- Bond and 2 weeks rent is paid, 12 month tenancy agreement signed, move in date this Friday. At this point, I am over the moon. Only 2 days vacancy period, with a good quality tenant!

Thursday (today)- 2 of the agencies I spoke to on Monday (who I am thinking about switching over to) has sent me their fees etc., plus their appraisal for the property.
My property was advertised $20-30 below market rate . Perhaps it's my fault for not checking online myself, but normally, I just trust my PM's advice.

Anyway, suffice to say, I will be changing agencies as soon as possible.

Thanks again for all your helpful comments.

 

That probably has a big factor as to why it got leased so quickly. $30 per week below market will attract many renters thats for sure. Its not much money over 12 months. I'd be OK with it as long as the new tenants where good and maintain the house.

Glad you had minimal times between tenants. Good result I'd say for what it is.

 

Yeah, I am okay with it. It’s not a huge amount of money in the big scheme, but this was my opportunity to get the property back to market value, so I am a little annoyed.

 

That's crap especially with the recent lockdown chaos. I'd personally look for a new PM.

We are leasing and selling by having videos taken at properties with tenants/owners not wanting people through. They shouldn't be using the lockdown as an excuse.

As Mel said 4 weeks is the sweet spot for rentals for online advertising. Before putting online they should be going through their tenant database though.

 

Take the valuation with a grain of salt.

it is easy after the fact for a PM to say, ‘oh I would have gotten you an extra $30 p/w’. You will never know as the question was never asked.

It’s a tactic used to poison the current pm.