Landlords, Tenants, Renting and Management (Page 11)

Information about renting units

If you are in the accommodation industry and have not heard of Airbnb you must have been living under a rock. The San Francisco-based home sharing juggernaut just keeps growing. It is affecting accommodation supply worldwide, but also in our little part of the planet. An indication of how quickly Airbnb has arrived is reflected in the most recent BCCM review recommendations. We received the recommendations last month to an issues paper released in December 2014. The topic of short term letting restrictions would have been a perfect addition to that options paper, but Airbnb was simply not on the radar when it was published.Read More →

Conventional wisdom in the real estate industry has always purported there are really only 2 property portals that ‘matter’: RealEstate.com.au and Domain.com.au. According to Roy Morgan, RealEstate.com.au enjoys 4.5M visitors per month, nationally, with 3.2M using Domain.com.au. Of that 3.2M Domain users, 2.2M use both Realestate.com.au and Domain.com.au. Michele Levine – CEO, Roy Morgan Research, says: “Of the one million people who access Domain and not Realestate.com.au in a four-week period, over 30% are Mid-Life Households, aged 45-65 with no children under 16 still at home. For Realestate.com.au, a similar proportion of its 2.3 million exclusive audience is Young Parents, aged under 45 and with kids. So this meansRead More →

Contributed By: Hynes Legal on

There are new requirements for smoke alarms in all dwellings (being houses or units) from 1 January this year. The rules are not retrospective but they will apply when a dwelling is relet (whether to a new or existing tenant). You can click here for the QFES summary and here for a more detailed explanation. The OFT also has a section on it. All property managers should make sure their clients are aware of the requirements to comply with the new rules. There is little doubt where liability would sit if there was a fire and the smoke alarms were not compliant.Read More →

Before I became software developer, I worked for several years in advertising. I was fortunate for the opportunity to work with the best advertising agencies in the country, playing a very small part in presenting some very large companies in Australia to market. Along the way, I learned a few lessons about marketing and advertising… one such lesson was imparted on me by a sagely old advertising photographer: Owning a camera doesn’t make you a photographer – it makes you a camera owner. The importance of photography cannot be emphasized enough – it’s a job that really ought to be left to a professional photographer ifRead More →

Many residential property managers have told us they simply want a property management system that does all the things they need, without the expensive price tag. Why pay for things you never use, right? At HiRUM we value industry feedback, this is why we developed HiRUM Front Desk for Residential. This provides residential property managers, or those with a rent roll, with all the essential tools they need to manage their business. From full trust accounting, to comprehensive office tools including integrated RTA forms1, we definitely have your needs covered. With NO Monthly fees and a very low one-off fee for set-up & training youRead More →

End of Month is called end of month for a reason ….to pay everyone at the end of the month. As a trust account trainer the most common question asked is “when do I do end of month?”. Some people are adamant that it should be done on the last day of the month as “that is the end of month” …others think it should be done on the first day of the month to include all of the transactions for the month prior; even if it is a weekend and others think that it needs to be done on the first business day ofRead More →

Your investment property could be at serious risk of damage with a new trend of tenants holiday letting rooms or the entire property through Airbnb on a per night basis. This can significantly increase the risk of damage and security of your property without the extra reward for you as the landlord. In other words your tenant could be making extra income from your property but you are wearing the risk. Legislation governing tenancy agreements is outdated as most of it was written before Airbnb existed. So you need to be proactive and start protecting yourself. Quick disclaimer first. I am not a lawyer soRead More →

We have all seen the show “Undercover Boss”. There have been two instances over the past 2 years that I have placed myself in the relief management/temp world as an “undercover boss”. What is it really like to be a relief manager? “Easy” you’d think. You just come in, do your job, leave at the end of the contract and get paid well. You are greatly mistaken. When I first put the feelers out about starting Real Strategix Relief Management Program it happened by sheer accident. As you quite possibly know I am a Trainer. I have over 15 years’ experience in all aspects ofRead More →

1form

When we initially activated 1Form for our managers almost a decade ago, we were shocked to be met with an overwhelming chorus of protests. Back in those days, managers were not impressed that they were receiving applications via 1Form and demanded we switch the service off again, at once! The objections ranged from inconvenience at having to use something “new”, to distrust of a 3rd party forwarding tenant information, to the complaint that they were “getting too many applications” for properties (Do you remember when getting too many rental applications was your biggest problem? What a time to be alive!) Of course this was 8-9 years agoRead More →

Finding a good relief manager is difficult, finding a great one is rare! I will ask you this, how much is your business worth in the hands of someone else? When we receive a phone call from a client requesting a relief manager and they ask how the process works, the one thing I am always upfront about is – “you will not be 100% satisfied as I guarantee they will do something incorrect” – this generally gets a gasp down the phone but I then explain the reason behind it is simple…. “they are not you”. You have run your resort for a numberRead More →

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