Is your agent close closed over Christmas and do you have a vacant property?

I'm an agent. I've worked for one agency, owned two and been involved in one other and none of them have fully closed down over Christmas. In fact, even with skeleton staff and a closed office, the number-one priority is letting what is currently vacant so as to not have landlord have to bear that extra two weeks of dead time over Christmas.

So I'm curious if their are any landlords out there who have been told, "sorry we're closed" while your property sits without any prospect of being rented over Christmas. And I'm more curious about what your agent has said to you about why they think it's ok to not show properties.

 

Good Point Warren,
I have received an email saying that a 'previous ' property manager will be closed ( as will the whole agency) for three weeks...
Go figure!

 

Yes most close down for a week or 2.

Im working straight through, got places to lease.

 

I’m “closed” from today - but I currently have two properties available for lease, these will still be shown via private inspection over the break and I’m still working tomorrow and back on the 4th to start opens instead of the 6th.

My assistant is off completely and I won’t be working constantly, but an hour or two here and there to keep things moving and of course opening vacant properties. I think everyone needs time off, but I don’t think it’s fair for your clients to lose weeks’ worth of rent because of it.

 

As an investor I would be so frustrated if my agent was closed for 3 weeks while I had a vacancy. It would possibly make be consider a different agent.

As a property manager its business as usual, I am holding opens tomorrow for a vacancy and listing another vacancy next week. I'm still getting a good level of enquiry from the market.

 

I would be very annoyed if I had a PM who would allow my property to be vacant before Christmas. Not very smart to allow leases to finish in Nov-Dec. I make sure all my leases expire in January or February, this is the best time to fill a vacancy. If someone wants to sign a lease in Nov or Dec then I would offer them a 13 or 14 month lease.

 

Owner-Operator, never closed, phone always on 24/7. Most franchised offices are closed outside of standard business hours, some may have an 'on call' person, whether they take the role seriously or not is a different story.

 

Really how many people look for homes between Christmas and New Year? The more desperate people?

I would wear the weekend lost looking for a tennant. As above I should have timed my leases ending better.

 

Yes I'm quite surprised the above PMs on this forum don't use common sense and have leases that are due around Christmas time.

 

Yea no one should. Its not always controllable though, eg most of my current available properties are either break leases or evictions. When we get people for them, we'll offer different duration leases so they don't come up again this time next year.

 

That's good you offer different duration on new leases so they don't come up before Christmas. I find it hard to believe experienced property managers here have ignored my salient point about timing when leases end.

Edit:All PMs here shouldn't have their leases ending before Christmas.

 

I have two properties, one settled in December and the other is a lease break. I don’t have leases expiring in December, but unfortunately you can’t control everything.

 

Slightly different, strata property issue came up today and the strata company has gone on holidays till 6th Dec. I called the emergency number for the Statra company and they said this is not an emergency.

I checked it out myself, basically the ceiling plasterboard has come away from the support beam, a single bolt/screw was keeping them together and that came away with the weight of the man hole.

I checked it all out, definitely not a hole in the roof, no water damage, no animals running around in the roof cavity causing issues... (it was quite windy last night though) so it will stay like this with my amateur masking tape job hokding it in place/making it a little more visibly appealing till after everybody gets back.
Quite a shock for the tenant to see... and for me.

Btw, not a new apartment, its 20 years old.

 

Absolutely, would never set a fixed term agreement to end between December and mid-Jan, however one of my vacancies is a property purchase that just settled last week, and my other is a lease I set to end at the end of Jan however tenants have vacated early (purchased their own home & continuing to pay rent) so I am advertising to minimise vacancy for both owner and old tenant.

 

PM's can't prevent Christmas vacancies. Consider this:
- Landlord buys property in Sep, settles mid Nov.
- PM finds tenant in Dec. Aware of the timing, offers 13 month lease
- 13 months later, the tenant does not want a new fixed term so they go periodic (we can't force them otherwise)
- Then on Dec 1 11 months later, they give 28 days notice
That's totally their choice. But it's cool, because good agents will deal with it

 

Picked up a new listing few weeks back- handed over the keys today just before Christmas (6 month lease to start with this one, owner wanted to see how the tenants went, if they want to renew after that, 12 or 7 month lease). No Vacancies for me (next available home is the 17th of Jan, owner's moving out 10th of Jan and taking the week to clean). Even so, will be making private inspections over the holidays for that one to try and get in early. Good tenants generally have to give 28 days notice and no one likes to pay double rent so you do what you can.

 

Instead of starting a new thread, thought I’d reignite this one and see how it goes.

Looking to purchase a new PPoR that would settle on 14 December 2020. We would be converting our current property to an IP.

We don’t want a long period waiting for a vacancy and paying two mortgages with the vacant one not bringing in revenue.

Calling on anybody’s experience and/ opinion, would you:

a) negotiate delayed settlement until Jan 2021

b) proceed as 14 December and try and line a tenant up prior to Christmas 2021

Rental property is in Hunters Hill Sydney. Not dependent on students or employees of any nearby industry. Real mix of tenants, mostly retired/ professionals and most without young families.

 

I’ll suggest make it easier on yourself and delay till next year.

 

It pretty much cuts both ways - everyone wants to be settled in before Christmas or not for weeks afterwards. The vendors will need a compelling reason to settle post Christmas.

What are the penalties if you don't settle on the day and the vendor serves notice to complete?

 

What is the fear of this Christmas break? There are only four (?) bank holidays.

I've moved / taken on a lease as a tenant once in the christmas - new year gap. Sure, I'd rather be at the beach but it's no big deal.

The problem I've personally had is that property management firms seem to close down for what seems like two or three weeks rather than just the bank holidays.

I think the whole myth of people not wanting to rent a property over the Christmas break has become a self fulfilling prophecy by the mere fact they are unable to actually do so.