Long vacant period; Slow rental market?

next time you feel like painting don't choose what seems to be lilac?

I don't think there are many males comfortable renting a feminine coloured house.

Other than that I wouldn't want to spend any more on a unit that rents for $300 a week.

Consider:
- offering one or two weeks rent free at the current rate
- agreeing to consider pets (a small dog or cat would be ok in a unit)
- I saw one place offer a free Ipad mini with a lease signing.

 

Have you spoken to other agencies for their opinions

 

The photos seem fine. As others have mentioned, are open homes being done by your agent? On weekend? By inspection aswell? If you were to drop the rent and you would be getting less rent then before, that's a shame, but imagine how much lower you would have had to reduce it if you didn't renovate. I'd say your best bet would be to drop the rent.

 

I know how to use google so it took a second to find the ad.
There are only a few reviews for the agency but they are far from glowing and all stem around being hard to contact and not returning calls.

And

 

Sounds like you have found the answer for Chunho01. No inspections, crap agency who don't return calls

 

There seems to be a lot of properties listed to rent in the burb and surrounds. From other posts about the burb it's had an over saturation of investors, and therefore an oversupply of rentals. The cheapest comparables start at $270. Although a couple look like crime scenes.

I'd be getting a new PM pronto and if it doesn't rent in a week I'd reduce the price to $300 so it falls in another search band.

 

We had to drop our rate to pre-renovation rental price in Brisbane a month ago. The difference is we dropped it as soon as we realised the market was crap, so the property did not go stale. Unfortunately this is just part of the deal with owning an IP. No point getting emotional... every week without rent takes many weeks at the higher rate to recover. We put our tenants on a 6month lease and figure we can raise it a little during the hot time of year (Jan/Feb).

 

From a quick search of the area it looks like it's worth $320 and the agent is the problem. Pretty hard to rent a place if the agent doesn't return calls or do opens.

But yeah, if after changing agents it doesn't rent quickly I'd be taking your advice. Can then slowly bump up the rent.

 

IMO the whole idea of a rental property going stale is a bit overstated. Sure, sales listings go stale, rental listings, not so much.

I like your style though. You simply have to accept what the market is prepared to rent for and get someone in ASAP. Once someone's in you can jack up the rent. Market rent is never a definite price - it's a range.

Lots of LLs like to keep rent a little low for existing tenants. I disagree. I have existing tenants at the high end of market rent and reduce to the low end of market rent on a vacate to get it filled quickly.

 

You are probably right about the stale thing... but I guess we were very keen not to go another week without rent!

 

Rightly so. It seems most LLs can't work a calculator!

 

Thats a good idea, I'm probably guilty of keeping the rent at the lower end of the market for existing tenants especially if they are looking after the property.

 

There's no relationship between rent rate and the tenant looking after the property.

If I was the OP I'd get someone in at $300 pronto. Each week holding out for an extra $20 is many weeks rent! Assuming no change in market rents I'd get the rent up to, or exceeding, $320 within 18 months.

 

I agree with your first point but when you have exceptional tenants how actually add value, paint etc when approved you want to keep them. In this case I am reluctant to increase the rent to the top of what the the market will bear.
For your average tenants or worse I act a little differently

 

Find out how quickly your PM responds to inquiries and if your property has been listed at market value via a recently undertaken comparative rental assessment.

If the price listed is at market value and the PM follows up asap on leads via emailing inquirers a rental application to complete or meeting applicants onsite asap (inspection by appointment at a time that works into applicants work and family commitments) then the property from my experience rents expediently.

 

If the tenant has painted the place they actually have more invested (non-financial) in the place and are more reluctant to move and will cop rent increases. However for that sort of tenant I would probably keep the rent at the lower end of market range.

 

The photos could be much better.. more light! for a start.. anything looking dark inside never impresses.

 

The vacancy rate @ 3020 is 2.8%