How we find you the best tenant!
Please find below an explanation of how we use our proven lettings process to get you the right tenant at the best price, without leaving you exposed to vacancy. We have formulated this process based on ten years of experience in the rental market.
Your property manager will oversee the process of finding you a new tenant using the help of our lettings agent. We have the property manager and the letting agent on call to carry out the viewings as it gives us a much broader period to offer viewings that suit possible tenants. For example, we carry out weekend viewings which most agents do not.
The process should take no longer than four weeks, and to best reduce vacancy; we should aim to find a tenant in the first two weeks. Note: if your property is new to the market or the tenant gives us additional notice, we will list it within five weeks. However, if you have an existing tenant, they only have to provide us with four weeks’ notice under the RTA. This guide is written on the basis you have four weeks’ notice as this will be the most common situation.
The rental market is driven by presentation and price.
The property should have the lawns mowed, the house washed (if required), and generally be as presentable as possible. We will let you know if there are items we think are holding back the property. Professional photos are beneficial to maximise your online presentation.
We appraise the property and list it at the rent at the upper end of the range.
We list the property with set viewing times, and we request prospective tenants let us know if they do not suit so we can work around them as well. Suitable attendees are sent an application form along with a follow-up to generate interest and applications.
Your property manager will call you every Friday to update you on the viewings and any feedback from the people who have been through the property. At this time, they will discuss the pricing strategy for the upcoming week. While there is no one size fits all approach, to maximise the overall return on investment, it is important to consider lowering the price in the middle of the second week if we have not received a suitable application or the correct amount of interest. To see a strong application come through, we should be seeing 4 – 6 groups attending each viewing. Your property manager may discuss lowering the price further or making other changes in the third/fourth week if we do not see enough interest from the market.
Each week our PM team meets to review each listing to ensure all of the property managers have a full view of how the market is acting at any given time.
Your property manager will be in contact with you as soon as we receive a suitable application for your property. We act on an application immediately. We will review and send you a copy along with a key summary of why we think they are a good fit for you. Your property manager will then call you to discuss and get your approval.
We then carry out our comprehensive background, reference and credit checks. If these are passed, we immediately offer the tenancy to the tenant. If there is anything out of the ordinary in the background checks, then your property manager will be back in touch to discuss.
While the tenancy is being negotiated, we continue to carry out viewings until the prospective tenant has accepted the offer, this way if the application falls through we are continuing to source you a suitable replacement.
Once the agreement has been signed, you will receive a signed copy for your records and we remove the listing from trade me.
We then document the interest, viewings and attendance for your property so we have this on file for the next time we need to run this process. This helps us ensure we are listing your property at the right
price each time.
Frequently asked questions
Why is your advertising strategy only to lower the price as time progresses?
Our strategy is built around
Presentation, Process and Price.
We aim to have your presentation at its highest level right from the start. If you are able to make improvements to the property presentation during the above process that can increase your response from the market without having to drop the price.
• Professional photography
• Virtual staging
• Repainting
• House washing
• Premium listing on trade me
These items add value to your presentation.
Our process is to ensure that we engage with all prospective tenants and drive as many into the viewings as possible. We also offer weekend viewings, and after hours to suit them. We follow up with attendees and seek feedback. We use market-leading software to ensure that the application and
viewing process for the prospective tenant is as seamless as possible.
This leaves us with price, which has a large impact on the interest you receive from the market. This is actually the last lever that we use to try and get your property rented but it might be the one we discuss with you each week, as it makes up the final step in getting you the right tenant for your property.
Why don’t you use realestate.co.nz?
We have used this website in the past and the exposure was minimal. Trade me have implemented tools that assist with scheduling the viewings, reminding tenants to attend and providing a much easier experience for the prospective tenant. This has increased our attendance at viewings which has, in turn, increased the number of applications.
Realestate.co.nz at the time of writing (11/3/2021) has only 45% of the listings that are on trade me for the North Shore and Auckland. The listings that are on realestate.co.nz are also ALL on trade me (source: comparison of Takapuna suburb)
You would be better off to spend your marketing dollars on professional photos than a second listing on realestate.co.nz
We now rented over 1000 properties without placing a single ad on realestate.co.nz.
Do you use For Rent signs?
For Rent signs are commonly used as marketing tools for the agency rather than the property itself. We are more than happy to arrange this for you but we have found that investing in a Trade Me premium listing or professional photos will generate more meaningful interest for your property. Our experience with signs as that they often draw in low-quality prospects (tyre kickers, nosey neighbours and people with unrealistic expectations around price) and are only useful if your property gets a significant amount of foot traffic.
