Kallangur Rental

Hello,

Warning! There might be a rant in my post. Please leave this post now if you are not interested in rants.

I have a 3/2/2 vacant in Kallangur at the moment because of a break lease. PM is advertising for new tenants but we have not received a single application for last 4 weeks now at the same rent. The rent has now been reduced by $15 but still nothing. Now this might be because of excess stock in the area at the moment but I think it is the PM's fault too as they are not being proactive. I want the place to be rented as soon as possible even if we have to reduce the rent heavily but PM is not reducing it too much. They are waiting for the applications and don't call them back for feedback too. I want them to find out why a prospect did not apply if they liked the place during an open house so we can action accordingly but PM has no feedback. My idea is that we should try to negotiate the rent if they like the place but PM is clueless.

What do you guys suggest? Should I try with a different PM immediately.

 

I would think so. Cut your losses. 4 weeks is a long time! Property investing is a business.

The question is though - will you get a tenant easily anyway now that we are heading into the holiday season.

Talk to other PM's to see what they think may be the issue. It sounds like a property size people do rent in the area. Is it conveniently located?

 

Try a new PM, they can't control the rental market but it is their job to return calls and provide advice. You should have received a comparative market report and have an idea of rents recently achieved along with feedback. The feedback should include number of enquries both email and phone, applications, and internet traffic. Are they returning calls? Ask someone you trust to make a phone enquiry.

Is the property priced correctly? I would do my own research and advise the pm immediately what rent you would like to offer. One week free might be cheaper for you than a big rent drop.

 

You don't say much about your property. What rent are you asking? How old is it? What condition is it in?

If it is an older property - does it need a bit of a spruce up?

Vacancy rates are a little high in Kallangur and you have nearby Mango Hill & North Lakes to compete with. Your property needs to be at the right price but it needs to be in good condition - particularly when you are competing with many other properties.

 

I experienced the same thing with my T/H in Wynnum. My place is decent enough and not far from the Esplanade but due to increased supply and low interest rates the market had softened quite considerably.
The best advice given to me is 'sitting around and hoping is not a plan'.

Perhaps review the pictures being used as part of the ad. This can make a big difference. A trick that is sometimes used as well is agents will sometimes drop the ad for a week and re-list the week after. This gives the illusion your place is a new listing. I'm not sure why but it seems the masses tend to ignore older listings.

I had to drop my rent from $430 to $400/w. In hindsight I would've just gave 1 week free as @HUGH72 has mentioned.

Another thing to keep in mind is if the agent is conducting open homes, what times are these being held? If you are with a big name they usually wont go the extra mile and pay their staff OT to show a home after 5pm.
Problem with this is the tenant you are looking for hopefully has a job right? Well not much chance they will make it to the open home prior so I would look for a PM who is willing to conduct opens around 530pm-630pm.
This does seem to be the sweet spot (after work and prior to dinner) whereby you will get the most chance of people attending.
From experience it seems like only the good independent PM's will offer this as part of their service.

There are a few good ones on this forum.
You can PM me for the ones I use if you want.

The situation you're in is no fun, but take solace in the fact we've all been there.
Hang in there, it can't rain all the time.

Best of luck
BB

 

This is a break lease. I think I should my money back from the insurance if outgoing tenant does not cough it out?

Good point. I should ask them to do a report and adjust the rent. It is currently advertised at 340pw. Was on 355 originally. Interestingly a very similar place in the next street has recently been advertised at 355pw.

Rent disclosed up here. Condition is good (according to PM) as the outgoing tenant has left the property in decent condition. It is an 8 years old property, nothing is wrong with it.

PM sent.

 

Question is, is my agreement with the agency now broken since the tenant has left? I had a one month notice if I wanted to part ways which I guess does not stand now.

 

I don't think it matters whether or not you have a tenant in the property. The 30 days notice is for management of the property regardless if it is tenanted.
What you can do is request the current PM relinquish the 30 day notice period. They are in no way obliged to though. I've heard the big agents will mostly wait out the full 30 days. Independent PM's could go either way depending on what the reason for transfer. Also, whether or not the property is easy to manage will influence the PM's decision.

I had a break lease for property nearby. Outgoing tenant has to pay for re-let fee. It should be taken from their bond if they refuse to pay.
Although best to check with current/future PM.

 

Yes they have to. But they have not paid the last two weeks rent too.

 

I experienced the same issue back few months ago for my kallangur IP. Received no application after 4 weeks of advertising, and the lack of communication from the PM was driving me insane, I told her to reduce rent but she refused to. I end up switching to new PM and adjust the price, and got rented out within a week after that.

PM me if you want to get contact. Good luck

 

PM'ed

 

I would most certainly be talking with another agency quite promptly - as my trust in the current would be shot by now. Good luck!

 

Another question guys,

since this is a break lease and the outgoing tenant is missing 2 weeks rent as well, when would you claim the missing rent from the insurance company? Its been a few weeks now that the PM is advertising the property and we will probably get the missing rent from the bond but he hasn't mentioned the insurance claim yet for the vacancy.

Would you just claim it from the insurance or wait for the tenant to pay their dues?

 

I was looking at some data and it appears Kallangur has quite a high vacancy rate, significantly above surrounding areas. Why is this suburb such an anomaly?

 

Hi there,
What was the end result?
What Property Managers did you end up going with and are you still happy with them?
I have investments in Kallangur and looking to change....

 

old story... but the PM eventually found a tenant at a significantly lower rent. Not something I wanted but had no choice at the time. But I changed the PM after that anyway because of low service standards... it was bowmaker realty if you want to know.

i am happy with the new PM so far. they found a new tenant for my property at a higher rent.

bowmakers were clueless... they even lost my case with the tribunal after tenant broke the lease

 

Kallangur seems to be suffering from oversupply of investment properties and not that great demand.

 

Not anymore apparently...

 

Current vacancy rate @ 3.8% and a .4% growth in rents over the last 3 years suggest market is still pretty flat

 

Is that for all properties including units? What about houses only