Archive for the ‘Property Investment’ Category

Most investors agree that successful ownership of residential rental property is all about maximising long term net income.

“Novice investors and property managers often simplify what is a complex interplay of forces and focus on the amount of rent being achieved right now,” Monika Bonet, Principal of Raine & Horne Glenelg said. “Because tenant harmony is a crucial part of the income equation, most experts agree that setting rent at 95% of market value usually achieves a higher income long-term than holding out for a 100% or more. Tenants paying top dollar are more likely to be finicky about the standard of the property, and make more demands for repairs and improvements. Furthermore they tend to start looking around to see what else is available for the money and move on if they find better value.”

Ms. Bonet said that the more often a property is vacant, especially if the advertised rent is high, the more chance there is of vacancy and loss of income.

“Even a few weeks vacancy per year can significantly reduce the investor’s return, thereby requiring an even higher rent to make up for it and setting a negative pattern in motion,” Ms. Bonet said.

According to Ms. Bonet a related factor that is often poorly handled by novice investors is the market rent review.

“Property investment managers carry out market rent reviews on a regular basis and the rents are raised according to supply and demand,” Ms. Bonet said. “Novice investors often think the best approach to raising the rent is to make frequent small increases, but these are seen by tenants as penny pinching and lead to disharmony, increased demands for repairs and higher vacancy over the long-term. Experts say that in most cases rent increases should occur when market indicators show that a 5% increase is warranted.”

Ms. Bonet said that experienced property managers report that the most stable income and long term optimum return is gained by investors who follow the advice of the experts they have selected to manage their investments.

This blog post is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

Houses have changed a lot since the 1940′s. So has the way we live in them. The emphasis is on space and flexibility with kitchen / living areas flowing onto rear gardens or terraces.

“Houses have turned back to front,” Monika Bonet, Principal of Raine & Horne Glenelg said.

“The focus is no longer on a formal “front parlour” or how the house looks from the street. Increasing density of living has made people more aware of the need for privacy.

 The result?

 Living and entertaining areas are now concentrated in the back areas of the house. Guests are even allowed into food preparation areas that would have been taboo in previous eras.”

According to Ms. Bonet, one of the reasons for the turnaround is that there are more women in the work force than ever before.

“Working women don’t want to come home to solitary confinement behind the kitchen sink,” Ms. Bonet said. “Family members share the cooking and guests and chefs make merry while the cooking is in progress.”

 Ms. Bonet said the kitchen has coped by becoming more of a showplace. Technology has made cooking easier and devices such as the extractor fan keep odours from permeating open plan living spaces.

“House size is the most striking change in the last half century,” Ms. Bonet said. “Families are smaller, yet houses are twice as big as 1940′s houses – they’ve gone from one hundred to one hundred and eighty square metres. Kids nowadays wouldn’t dream of sharing a bedroom. There’s more internal space per head of population, yet we expect to move on to something better every seven years or so.”

According to Ms. Bonet today’s home owners are more mobile, both geographically and socially. While most of our parents lived all their life in one place, we view houses as stepping stones to better investment and lifestyle benefits.

“The motor car, highways, immigration, technology, feminism and the pill have all had an impact on housing structures,” Ms. Bonet said. “Houses reflect both technological and lifestyle changes. Modern owners have less sense of home as the family seat, belonging to the family for a lifetime or even for generations. The modern home is an asset which, adroitly managed, can move us up the social ladder.”

This blog post was brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

Everybody knows how to check a tenant’s references. Don’t they? After all, secure tenancy forms the foundation of successful investment.

 ”In fact, it’s often a case of a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” Monika Bonet, Principal of Raine & Horne Glenelg said. “Many people don’t know which questions to ask and how to analyse the information they end up with. Investors need to feel confident their property manager is experienced – after all maximising investment income is entirely dependent upon keeping arrears, vacancies and repairs and maintenance to a minimum and yield and capital appreciation at a maximum.”

Ms. Bonet said that two most important background checks are previous rental history and employment record.

“This sounds straightforward but there are many traps for the inexperienced – it comes down to knowing what the information means in terms of tenant performance,” Ms. Bonet said. “For example tenants might pay their rent up to date upon vacating but might have been a problem during the tenancy. Or someone might be in full time employment for many years and still not be a good tenant. One or two factors are insufficient to build up a profile of the prospective tenant. But too much information might see someone turning away potentially good tenants and ending up with a longer vacancy. Landlords managing for themselves often get too involved to be impartial.”

 According to Ms. Bonet the mistake most inexperienced people make is to rely on personal references.

 ”In all my years of managing property I have never seen a bad personal reference,” Ms. Bonet said. “Friends and relatives just don’t write negative things about those close to them and even if they do prospective tenants are not going to offer bad references to landlords or agents.”

This blog post is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

Watch this youtube video, and discover how you double your tax return on your investment property…

This video is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

Most people who have just bought or sold a property have a lot of specialised market knowledge they have gained over the weeks and months of being heavily involved in their local marketplace. How can they keep this market knowledge current so that they always know market trends and price movements?

Many residential property buyers and sellers keep up-to-date with what is happening in their local market in a way that places them under no obligation to become a client of the agent who provides the information. At Raine & Horne Glenelg we have an email newsletter with information about prices currently being achieved in our local area, as well as more general advice about the  real estate market. There are articles with useful information for people at every stage of the buying and selling process, from first home buyers, to novice property investors, from the young couple who is struggling to get a deposit together for their first property, to the person who doesn’t know how to go about buying at Auction.  

If you don’t already subscribe to one or several such newsletters and you wish to do so, simply visit the Raine and Horne Glenelg to subscribe to your…

FREE Newsletter

 … your subscription will be put on our email list to receive our newsletter.  

And don’t worry there is an ‘Unsubscribe’ facility, just in case you change your mind and no longer wish to receive the information we send you.

This blog post is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

Are you lucky enough to be buying a brand new apartment in a brand new apartment complex?

Most apartment buyers think their headaches are over once they have done all the legwork to find the right apartment, paid the final settlement payment and moved in all their furniture. But sometimes this is when the real headaches start.

Many buyers of new apartments find that, for a few weeks after they move in, they suffer unexplained tiredness and headaches. They search for a cause in their lifestyle and can’t find one. Often what is happening is something called ‘off-gassing’, common in brand new apartments.

The reason for ‘off-gassing’ is that there are residual fumes from lacquers, paints, sealants and glues. In a new apartment, every surface, joints or seal is releasing fumes into a fairly confined space. Air-conditioned apartments are often the biggest problem because the same air is being re-used and simply keeps coming back into the room.

If you are about to move into a new apartment, makes sure you insist that it has a chance to have windows and doors open so that the fresh air can circulate and carry off the fumes. If you are already installed and realise that this may be happening to you, just make sure you open the place up for a few days to dispel the gasses that are making you feel sick.

This blog post is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts.

Watch this Video to hear from Raine & Horne SA’s CEO Kevin Magee, to find out what is happening in the SA Real Estate Market in March 2011.

This blog post and video is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts

Adelaide renters are paying $15 a week more compared with this time last year and can expect further rises.

Real Estate Institute of SA figures show the median weekly rent in Adelaide hit $310 in the December quarter, up 5.1 per cent on the $295 weekly median from the 2009 December quarter.

Industry experts attributed the increasing rents to a tight market and interest rate rises.

The rise in weekly rent came despite a 5.5 per cent increase during the past year in the number of properties available for lease.

REISA president Greg Nybo said the rises were to be expected in Adelaide’s rental market, where the vacancy rate had hovered at or below 1 per cent for much of the past year.

“What we are now starting to see is the reality of a very, very tight rental market,” Mr Nybo said.

“When you have so many people looking for a limited product, rents are going to go up accordingly.

“A lot of landlords have also adjusted their rents with increases in interest rates and ongoing price rises for utilities.”

Statewide, the median weekly rent increased 5.5 per cent during the past year to $290. Mr Nybo said the larger statewide increase could be reflective of the state’s expanding mining sector and a mostly strong year for farmers.

“If the job is there and people are moving to the country for employment in mining or agriculture, it’s going to make for limited stock, which again means higher rents,” he said.

Mr Nybo said that with interest rate rises forecast for this year and no sign of demand letting up, similar increases in rent could be expected in 2011.

 Property Investors: Are you getting the right rent for your property in this market?  Find out what rent you should be getting…

Simply enter your property details and we will email you a free appraisal as to what your Glenelg or Western Coastal investment property should be renting for.

 Click here for an appraisal form

This blog post is brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management experts.

Source: Adelaide Now

Watch this video … to get the latest in the South Australian Property Market Updates

This video is to brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Experts

For Adelaide to become a more vibrant and sustainable city, we need to stop the urban sprawl.

Did you know that Adelaide covers the same area as London? The major difference being that London has a population of 7 Million whilst Adelaide has a population of just 1 Million.

So what does this mean for our kids…

Gone are the days that we condemn our kids to migrating to the outer suburbs, to find the cheapest block of land, or house & land package that they can afford to purchase as a first homeowner.  And in the process condemn them to owning two vehicles to commute to work and raise a family to commute to school and leasure.

At last we have a sustainable plan for Adelaide, which provides us with a direction on population and how our city will grow.

Watch this Youtube Video about Adelaide’s 30 Year Plan…

So how does the 30 Year Greater Adelaide Plan change the future for our kids… 

The first step is what is happening now with our $2 Billion Public Transport Infrastructure Upgrade.

This investment is all about improving our public transport with modern new electrified passenger trains, trams and modern buses which integrate into our train and tram network. The next step once our public transport network is upgraded, is to encourage urban consolidation along our major public transport corridors, which means we will lessen our reliance on vehicles as our sole form of transport.

How will the 30 Year Greater Adelaide Plan encourage urban consolidation?

The 30 Year Greater Adelaide Plan, announce the intention of our Government to encourage higher density housing along our major publice transport routes by relaxing Council Planning policies 800 metres either side of major public transport routes.

So if I was a Property Investor… where should I purchase property for future growth?

Obviosly 800 metres either side of the major established train and tram lines!

This story was brought to you by Raine & Horne Glenelg, your Glenelg Real Estate Agents and Glenelg Property Management Specialists.