How to find a tenant for your investment property

You might have a great tenant renting your investment property currently, but no doubt tenants don’t stay forever. Renters rent because of the flexibility, and it’s only natural that even your best tenants leave.

This means that finding a new tenant is something every investment property owner must be prepared to do. Of course, you could outsource it to a property manager – but for investors who want to have most visibility and control, here’s what to do.

Step 1: Prepare your property

A clean will help attract tenants. Particularly if you’ve had your last tenant for a long time, there will be some wear and tear. Many of the preparations are minor and you could probably do them yourself even if you don’t have experience. It could be loosening a stuck window or just replacing some curtains. 

This doesn’t mean you have to renovate the whole house. Renovating every time you need a tenant would be too much, but you should do at least enough to make the property condition well presented and in-line with the rest of the market. 

Once you have prepared your property, take some good photos of your property and write up a good description of the property.

Step 2: Setting the rent

Another aspect of you need to consider is how much rent you should charge. Your previous rental price is a good starting point, however it might not be reflective of current market prices. The best thing to do is research the average rental price and see what other properties similar to yours are listed for.

Step 3: Publish your listing

There are a number of ways you could publish your listing. Most obviously are the two biggest portals Realestate.com.au and Domain. Unfortunately, Realestate.com.au offers no direct advertisements through their website, unless you have an account offered only to licensed real estate agents with them. This leaves Domain, which does allow you to advertise on their website. It’ll cost over $200 to list with Domain alone. 

Fortunately, there is a way around this. Platforms like Rentdesk lets you publish your listing on Realestate.com.au and Domain, for the price of listing on Domain alone. 

Don’t forget to consider other ways to get the word out. Facebook is one example. Join your local buy/sell/swap group.  It’s free to advertise on and you get a captive audience. 

Step 4: Run an open house

Run an open house to give prospective tenants a chance to look at your property. At the open house, greet your tenants, and gather their details. Let them inspect the property, and answer any questions they have. They are qualifying your property, at the same time, use this opportunity to understand what they are looking for. Questions like ‘when do you plan on moving in’, or ‘what do you think’ can provide immediate insights. As people leave the open house you should thank them and ensure that they know how to apply for an application.

Step 5: Finalise your lease

Following your open house, hopefully you will receive a good number of applications for you to choose from. All that’s left to do is finalise the lease. Prepare a lease agreement, ensuring it meets all regulatory requirements. Sign the lease and have the successful application sign the list. Congratulations, you’ve now found a new tenant.

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