Welcome to our new monthly column, ‘Dear Nick’. Each month I’ll take a support question a manager has sent me, and share the advice. This month’s question comes from J. A new manager who joined our agency last year. He writes:
Dear Nick,
I have 3 vacancies. All are break lease. I have an obligation to mitigate the loss for each of the properties.
However I also have a newly available property (tenant recently moved out) and these listings tend to get more inquires since its ad is more recent. As a result ex tenant who moved our first ends up paying more rent than moved out last, even though the properties are identical.
Thanks, J. Maroochydore QLD
Hi J,
Thanks for your question.
In a break lease situation you’re legally required to ensure the listing is advertised for the same rent that the property was leased for. What I would suggest is you explain to the lease breaker, what you just explained to me, and strongly suggest they consider UPGRADE marketing. Our recent case study (which you can read here: https://theonsitemanager.com.au/news/feature-listing-upgrade-value-quantified-a-case-study/ ) presents very compelling evidence that a FEATURE upgraded listing (costs about $150 depending on the suburb) will fill within 7 days, a standard listing takes a month on average (even longer if the ad is old), these guys are paying the rent every week till it fills… which is costing them thousands of dollars. if *I* were in their shoes, it would be a no-brainer – I’d take the highest upgrade available, it may be $300 or thereabouts, but that’s really only a couple of days of lost rent and it would absolutely save them thousands of dollars in rent. Also remember that an upgraded listing lasts 1 month, so even if you fill the lease in the first week, you can continue to use that upgrade on your other 2 break-leases for the remainder of the month and get them filled also – you could possibly even split the cost between the three units so the lease breakers don’t have to shell out as much.
You can get accurate pricing, brochures, and previews of all upgrades available by opening your listing on TheOnsiteManager in edit mode, make sure you open the address panel first and check the address is correct, and then click CAMPAIGN UPGRADES, it will show you realtime pricing for all upgrade options. You can print and download brochures to give to your owners or tenants explaining the benefits and features, and book and pay for upgrades, all from this panel.
Good luck!
Nick