Q
Given the lower vacancy rates and as a landlord , is it wise for me to give my vacant properties to an estate agent ?
On the listed REIT that I seat on , we look after 4,5 000 rental units in the affordable market and this particular list of REITs brought its property management inhouse . So , we are seeing a lot of institutional landlords out there bringing their property management in house and managing it themselves . And they bring the opportunity to have an estate agent manage your property portfolio on your behalf .
So , it really depends on what you are looking for , you could even have a hybrid of both options , meaning ; you could outsource the securing and sourcing of your tenant to an estate agent where we are seeing that these estate agents do have more foot traffic through the door and they have a wider spread of tenants that they can present to your property . Essentially , you could
A
PROPERTY ADVICE
MICHELLE DICKENS TPN
outsource the sourcing of a tenant to an agent and bring the management back in house , yourself , if you want to collect the rentals and if you want to take over the management component of that property portfolio . It also depends on the access to the property - how close are you to your properties and how quickly can your tenants out of your properties .
Q
As people are mostly working from home , and being close to work is less of a requirement from tenants , what new location criteria should an investor currently use ?
In a survey , conducted by TPN , which focused on the needs of tenants or residential property buyers and renters and the tenants were quite clear that they needed affordability in their properties more than anything . The second element which tenants wanted more was safety and this has been a concern for a while as tenants need to feel safe and secure in their rental properties . The third most concerned
A about element from tenants is the distance between home and work , school and shops . So , there might be other best selling points for property owners like affordability and safety , but we are not yet on a completely work from home environment , so it is not yet time to say we are chucking out the distance element from the selling point of rental properties .
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine JULY 2021 5