How long till a property goes ‘stale’

Currently renting out our first IP in Melbourne.

How long do you think it should take for a property to be let from the date of advertising and at what point does the property go stale on RE.com?

Asking because I have a newly renovated property that has been on the market for 2 weeks (professional photos, rent amount recommended by PM).

No applications so far and PM recommends wait another OFI before reducing asking amount.

Curious to hear others experience.

 

Firstly, look at why isn't it renting? Generally these are the main two factors - 1) price, 2) marketing. If you've got professional photos and half-decent written advert, that's usually ok, so it just leaves your price point.

Premium advertising - paying more for a bigger ad that has more prominent position on the search sites; 50 here 50 there, at the end of the day prospective tenants are searching by attributes first and foremost (bedrooms, bathrooms, car spaces, pets, etc), they'll scroll and find your ad, provided there's only a few pages. What I've found with rental listings because the cost to have a premium ad is pretty cheap, everyone is doing it, no real difference to not having one.

I think it's important vendors get comfortable with a minimum value they want from a property and don't drop below it, it may take time unfortunately but I'm a strong believer if you don't value it tenants won't either, so try and hold your ground on price point. All you can do is keep holding regular inspections and your Agent should be available to show people on short notice - in this day and age everyone wants it now and people don't want to wait, largely because everyone is so busy, their time is precious, if you can respect that it pays dividends.

 

Thank you - that is great advice! I’ll keep you updated how the campaign goes.

 

I have just been through this exact scenario. I had professional photos taken, was fairly happy with the ad, had organised the same agency that manages another property of mine (different PM though). They assured me that the property which was closer to a CBD than the other and their office wouldn't be an issue to manage. I went with them probably because I knew them. I had 9 groups through in 2.5 weeks, no applications, reduced rent rate from their recommendation twice and still nothing. I got jack of this and was put in touch with a PM who runs his own show and only manages property (no sales). From the get go he was super proactive. On Monday at 1pm I multi listed it with him and by 5.15pm he had a tenant that paid the deposit and signed the application all on the same day and locked it all in. I couldn't believe it. I totally believe in seeking other opinions when you feel it goes stale. Sometimes its not anything to do with the property but with the PM marketing it. Ive found (not all) if some are paid a wage to work 9-5pm that is all you will get out of them. If they are building their own empire they want to make every contact/client count.

 

my first ip has been up on realestate.com for 2 weeks now. Its competing with 5 other rentals in the same estate, 3 of them are directly on both side of house. Pm is asking 540. 4 people looked at it 4 said no lol. My interest only loan runs out end of nov, hopefully i have someone by then because the repayment price jump is scary. my partner is saying what have you done just means cant buy shares for a while.

 

Do tenants try bargain with pm?

 

Possibly it's your asking price, though I don't know.

I've always been happy to rent my places a little below other comparables and I've never struggled to get a decent tenant ever. At the end of the day I'm not trying to make a killing from the rent, just want good tenants to look after my asset as it grows.

 

I didn't know they would be rentals. Ausbuild don't like to many investors in one community. I was told they would b spread out

 

We dropped our asking price by $10 and managed to find tenants two weeks later. Different market though (Melbourne) so YMMV.

 

If you have direct competition- be the first to lease at $10pw less. You make it back easily by leasing first while the more expensive properties lose a week or two more in rent.

Make sure it’s direct competition though.

We just had this scenario- 3 properties in the same street. All the same except one had air con. Other two did not. We dropped the rent to $10pw below the property with a/c and had it leased the same week. The other non a/c property... still sitting there.

 

my brand new ip hit 2 months of vacancy. Have lowered the rent to be $5 lower then other houses near me. still nothing. I guess the reason is its nearly xmas?

 

We had a couple interest but told them wanted to increase rent $10 within the year, they couldnt of run away faster lol. Guess that is a bad idea?

 

If you wanted to show us the advert, maybe we could take a look and provide feedback? It couldn't hurt.

Also, depending on the area - your add could be stale. Point Cook for example at times can have 300 properties on line - 20 properties per page - that's 15 pages on realestate.com.au. how many people look through all the new houses (a lot of them same same) and make their way back to page 15?

One option is to pay for a renewal of the advert to put you back on top. Your property manager should have offered this by now (depending on the market of course- no point if there's 10 properties in your suburb / area).

 

yeah they paid for it themselves and arent going to charge pm fees for 3 months