A Move In The Right Direction

I have just   on hold wanting to make an insurance claim for a client whose property has suffered some storm damage, and have just got the following recorded message “Our claims department is open 8am to 7pm Monday to Friday. Thank you.”

ummm…. well yes…. that’s simply fabulous! I am a little unsure what to make of it, but once the claim is settled, I will  be suggesting that none of our clients use this particular company - oh my lord, its ridiculous! I suppose its a way for this particular insurance company to save some money, but seriously now, sheesh! I guess its ine of those times when you a company starts seeing its customers as irritations as opposed to the people who pay them….

ok enough of my rant now.

Shayne Thurston

Lambton Property Management

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I thought I would write a bit about showing tenants through places to rent.  It’s something I enjoy and also something I believe can be easily done badly.

Some of the things I have seen various people or agents do that really don’t work well are:

1: Stand at the door and let everyone wander around on their own – This doesn’t let you ‘sell’ the place to them and also if the property is currently tenanted it allows people unfettered access to your current tenants goods. – This is bad, no two ways about it.

2: Talk on their cellphone and ignore the people who are looking around the place. – This has got to be one of the worst things you can do, it makes the prospective tenants feel like you don’t care.

3: Walk away from the house and sit in their car - Just bad.

You need feedback from prospective tenants. You need to know what they don’t like about the place, or what they do. You need to get a feel for whether they think the price is right, you need to know if they think the area is popular – you just need information. It helps you follow trends, it helps you set rents, it helps you know what tenants are expecting in properties.

Trends are important – they really are. I, for example, take a taxi ride every month in order to get the taxi drivers opinion on how things are going. They take hundreds of people around the city each and every week. Taxi drivers tend to also love to talk J The information they have about how confident people are feeling, how much money they are spending etc , is very valuable, and I think my $20 taxi ride is money well spent.

I seem to have drifted off about showings and more into the value of information in managing your rental prices. Next blog I promise I will go into good things to do when you show a place.

Shayne Thurston

Lambton Property Management

Shayne's blog, Thoughts and Opinions

In what I consider a great move, the government has announced over $300 million for insulation grants. This is great news. Tuesday morning at work will involve lots of conversations with insulation companies seeing how much of  a deal we can work on prices for insualtion to get costs to us for the properties we own and also our clients properties to be as close to the $1800 grant limit as possible. Wish me luck.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/budget-09/2454905/Housing-323m-for-warmer-homes#share

Shayne Thurston

Lambton Property Management

Shayne's blog, Various Things

It’s been an interesting time lately. Some places are taking time to rent, a higher number of tenants are slow in paying their rent, and the general mood of people we meet is more somber.

Part of what I do is monitor what’s being advertised for rent – whether by private landlords or other property management companies. I do this so we can see what places are being advertised, in what areas and at what price. This helps us set rent prices for properties we manage and also assists us greatly as we do rent reviews.  Over the last couple of months I have seen the same places being advertised and the rent asked for being dropped.

Normally at this time of year there are a lot less properties being advertised for rent. Tenants currently have a lot more choice in what they are looking at. On top of this, we have noticed more tenants are concerned about the rental prices – whether it be form their ability to pay if one of them was made redundant, to if they could afford it if a flatmate stopped paying. We have also seen a lot of people who are looking around at places, just in case their house sells and they need to rent something. And then on top of it, this is turning into a cold and wet winter.

Distressingly, I am also seeing some other companies advertising places at low rents from word go – this has the effect of lowering prospective tenants’ expectations of what they will need to pay for rent for either places in the same building or on the same street. This is something I find extremely frustrating and annoying.

With interest I have noticed that the number of flatmate positions being advertised continually increases, suggesting to me that there may be more people moving back home in order to save money or weather difficult times.

However, I do not believe its all doom and gloom. It is quite simply at the moment some short term fun and games. In, what will seem like no time at all, I believe things will start improving. The trick is to make sure that you go through the current fun in the best way possible. For some this may mean lowering the rent, for others it may mean offering some incentives, while some others won’t notice anything as their apartment is the one on the right, not on the left (makes no sense to me either, but it happens).

So, in closing, so I do not waffle too much, do what you have to in order to get through the next little bit in the best way possible and with the smallest amount of pain.

Shayne Thurston

Lambton Property Management

Shayne's blog, Thoughts and Opinions

Today I heard another excuse. We hear a lot of them. Some are just funny, some are just simply bad.

Today’s one was from a tenant who was asked about a hole in the wall we noticed during the inspection – the reply was “It just was like that one day”.

Some of the worst and best ones I have heard follow.

Relating to late rent payments:

“My dog ate it”
“I had to pay my bills”
“Oh, do I have to pay it”
“I spent it on presents”.

Relating to issues during inspections:

“The wind did it”
“My friends did it”
“My dog did it”
“My neighbor did it” (Yes there is a theme here)
“Oh, I never noticed that”

So thanks for letting me share one of the more frustrating and yet sometimes amusing aspects of what we do.

Shayne

Shayne Thurston
Lambton Property Management Ltd

Various Things