Landlord Services

Reasons why you should choose Better Homes Realty to Lease & Manage your Investment Property

Better Homes Realtys services include:

Better Homes Realty look for the right tenant.

We have extensive experience in marketing and can expose your property to the widest possible number of prospective tenants by utilising:

Our specialist staff are totally focused on finding the best tenant in the quickest possible time.

At Better Homes Realty our job is to get the best possible tenant for your investment property by the following these general guidelines:

a) stability in employment
b) satisfaction that the tenant is financially capable of paying the required rent
c) verifying that the tenant will maintain your property to the standard required.

A detailed screening process is applied to all prospective tenants and all references are carefully checked.

Once the tenant has been interviewed and approved for your property, we will arrange the signing of the Residential Tenancy Agreement and the lodgement of the Rental Bond as well as the handing over of the keys.

All documentation is carefully checked for accuracy to ensure the owners legal rights are protected.

Prior to the signing of a Residential Tenancy Agreement, we carry out a carefully detailed condition report. The initial inspection report is referred to at the end of the tenancy to ensure that the tenants Rental Bond is accurately disbursed.

Included in our management fee are (2) two periodic inspections of your property per year. Each time your property is inspected it is automatically diarised for the next inspection. Following a periodic inspection, we forward you a written report detailing the condition and recommend routine maintenance or optional work such as repainting or carpeting.

Immediately after the tenant has vacated the property, we will conduct a thorough inspection to determine the refund of the tenants Rental Bond.

Paying rent is hassle free for our tenants with a variety of payment options to choose from. They get the option that suits them best by choosing to pay rent using their Bank Account, Credit Card or Debit Card.

This system gets the tenant into the habit of paying rent automatically and tends to reduce rental arrears.
We also accept direct debit payment and payment by cheque but NO CASH payment is acceptable.

We print an arrears report daily, so that the tenants who fail to pay their rent on time, for whatever reason, are contacted on a constant basis. Those that do not respond are served with a warning letter, explaining that if they fail to pay, or do not contact us to make arrangements to pay, they will be served with a Termination Notice which gives them fourteen days to vacate.

This is usually sufficient incentive to get most tenants to pay their rent. However, should this warning letter fail to bring results, we will contact you to discuss the matter as to whether to proceed with the termination of the tenancy.

We monitor repairs very closely. We act on repairs according to your instructions in the Management Agency Agreement. Should any repair of more urgent nature be reported, such as no hot water, we will attend to this as soon as possible, as it is an essential service. We maintain complete records of maintenance carried out to your property for future reference. Repairs carried out on your behalf are paid for from the rent monies held in Trust. Full details of the repairs are printed on your monthly Rent Statements with a copy of the relevant invoices attached for your reference.

From the rent collected on your behalf, we can arrange payments of all the standard property outgoings as you instruct in the Management Agency Agreement. Such accounts could include Council Rates and Strata Levies. With reference to Water Rates, we will automatically invoice the tenant for any water usage charges, where the property is separately metered.

We ensure you enjoy full market rental for your property. We regularly assess the rental on your property taking into account factors such as current market rents of similar properties, the vacancy factor in the area, the general condition of the property, the quality of the tenant and the length of their tenancy. Where we see that a rent increase can be justified, we will advise you and seek your instructions.

It is our duty as your Managing Agent to ensure that the tenants are well informed as to what is expected of them under the Tenancy Agreement. From the regular mowing of lawns, to the payment of rent in advance, to the behaviour of visitors to the property or the control of noise, we manage the tenant for you, ensuring, as much as is possible, that the terms of the Tenancy Agreement are complied with.

Each month we prepare and forward you a detailed monthly Rent Statement for your property. The Statement details the rent period, the rent collected and any disbursements made on your behalf. Your rent monies can be electronically deposited into a nominated account or alternatively a cheque attached to your Statement.

Disputes between landlords and tenants are not uncommon, but if handled with professionalism and diplomacy, most can be solved expediently.

Most disputes arise over rent increases, repairs and rental bond matters. Initially of course, the property manager acts as negotiator in discussions between the landlord and tenant. If all avenues are exhausted, and the parties have not been able to agree, it may be necessary to apply for a Residential Tenancies Tribunal hearing. The Tribunal is an independent third party which will hear the dispute and make a decision on the matter.

We, as your agent can represent you at the hearing, preparing the case from start to finish. Preparation may include obtaining quotes and taking photos of the property (in case of bond disputes) or researching rental market comparisons in the case of disputes over rent increases. The findings of the Residential Tenancies Tribunal are final, and may not always be to your satisfaction, so it is almost always beneficial to try and solve the problem in its early stages. . There is an application Fee to pay if we are the applicant to the Tribunal.  There is also an hourly fee for our time as per our Management Agreement.

As an effective service organisation we should always be available when you want to talk to us.

Our office is open 6 days a week and all of our Property Managers & Leasing Consultants carry mobile phones.

Our office is well established and enjoys an  enviable sales reputation.  We are achieving excellent results and prices for our clients.

We will provide, if you require, a written market price opinion of your property at no cost or obligation to you.

It is our duty to ensure that all of the requirements of the various pieces of Government legislation relevant to property investment are complied with.

We will also advise you on the legal aspects of property insurance, if required.

Everyone in our Property Management Team is regularly kept up to date with the latest legal and market information from the Institute and with statistics from the Rental Bond Board as well as updates from the Residential Tenancies Tribunal.

All members of our Property Management Team are put through a structured on-going professional development program to ensure that their knowledge and skills are always at the peak of the industry.

Our commitment to you is to look after your property as if it was our own.