Landlord's Message from Milton Rendell - September 2017
As each year ticks past I look at where we have been and where we are going, as I think we all do in our own way and as I have mentioned before the going forward has been a massive challenge for many in the current economic conditions presented to us here in Western Australia. The number of vacant properties has stayed at some of the highest levels I have seen in my career in recent times and like most we have been looking at more and more ways to find tenants. The real challenge has been the talk of lower rents and of course the unemployment levels which our state has one of the highest.
The additional challenge is that our under twenty-fives are not finding work which is usually a good cross section of our potential new tenants. I have been told the real rate for them is around thirteen percent and is after they consider anyone with a minimum of one day’s work so it is obviously in real terms much higher. Now the only thing I can share with you that makes me believe this is true is the number of people I know who have children that have moved home or are not moving out and as a parent you probably relate to this. In some areas the number of vacant properties are in the hundreds which affects rent returns as landlords compete for tenants.
The changes in property management in the last twenty years have been huge and the Residential Tenancy Act hasn’t really, in many ways, kept pace. My belief is bonds are far too low and we have some timelines which are too long to protect landlords when exiting a tenant but this is all a discussion for another day. It has been a rocky road to be honest for us all when coupled with a slow economy. I remember back in the eighties, tenants came to the office paid a small bond, gave ID, took the keys, went and viewed the property themselves then returned the keys and said that will do. Now I am not too sure anyone would trust that system and that it would work in today’s society.
How tenants look for property has changed. There is such a variety of sources and keeping up with it is a huge challenge. You see very little in papers most is on the internet and we are seeing social media as a huge part of the things we need to do going forward. So the list has grown and spread the effectiveness of some of the media. We aim to mix our promotions through as many media’s as possible but funny enough in the Midland area, walk-in potential tenants are still very much one of the large sources we have. Recently we have added Snapchat to our marketing and have been using both Instagram and Facebook to target areas and demographic groups for potential tenants with mixture of results for some time. Social media is very much part of our platform for finding business in this modern age but we still get results from local papers which is more specialised to an area however this could be a combination of all the media’s as well through increased exposure. If you are active on any of those social media platforms, we encourage you to like and follow us.
Spring is in the air now so traditionally people starting moving so we will be out there pushing to see what we can create for our landlords. Persistence, Patience and Procedure we see as the best way to deliver results and is discussed within the team all the time. As you would know yourself when you are in the people business there are plenty of regular surprises. In real estate we deal with people but ultimately we are aiming to deliver lifestyle choices to the individual we are dealing with and they will decide on what they think is best for them. We can only influence so far. I personally as does the team, appreciate your feedback to us and entrusting us with your real estate needs and if we can help you in any way let us know.
We are currently working on a new program on seeing how we can get more referrals for tenants in the form of a reward system or referral appreciation gift to encourage friends and past clients to refer more potential tenants our way. Please if you have any suggestions love to hear them. I see it as a possible extension to our social media platform we will be working on it in the coming weeks and will let you know if we can see it being viable for the future.
Thank you once again and all the best from our team.
Milton Rendell, CEO & Managing Director
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