June Article Round Up

We are pretty close to the end of June and the tax deadline is pretty much here, so I hope all that stress is off the table. So now you have a few minutes to spare, you can re-read some of these interesting article I came across in June.

The Economic History of the Last 2,000 Years in 1 Little Graph:

Property Management Scam: Reminder

I very much doubt it's a large problem, but it is always good to be aware. When you deal with a great property management company, it's hard to believe that there are those out there without integrity. We like to consider ourselves one of the great ones, but here's a few key things to look out for if you think you might be involved in a scam.

Now a scam is different to being a bad property manager. A bad property manager will not return calls, will leave maintenance issues lingering and will have poor people skills. A scam artist on the other hand, aren't property managers at all, and see the opportunity to fleece the unwise. The scammer will try and rent a property to potential tenants (sometimes to multiple tenants), collect the first and last months rent, plus maybe some other fees (e.g. pet deposits) then disappear along with your money.

Rating Tenants.

I recently came across a service called ratetenant.com  It is only applicable in the US and Canada, but I thought it was an interesting concept.

What it allows you to do is to search information about potential tenants (both commercial and residential). It allows property management companies and landlords to type in the person's name and find out if they have a good, bad or ugly rental history.  Following on from this, you would update this tenant's history with your own feedback during and after their tenancy. The service is not designed to replace credit history or background searches, but to capitalise on technology to verify information.

3 Key Mistakes when Buying Property

When you invested in property, was it smooth sailing? Did you have any regrets or concerns, or did you make a major mistake? This is aimed mainly at buying your primary residence, but you need to keep them all in mind when you are looking at purchasing investment properties.

It's not uncommon to make mistakes when buying a property, especially when it's your first time out, but a few common mistakes that you can avoid with some forethought are:

Renovate or Move?

There are many reasons to renovate and there are many reasons to move. In general, the goal for most people is to upgrade to a better residence, so that later on you can sell it and make some money. In times of a down market, financial experts tell us to upgrade into a different house when prices are low, but it appears that advice is not always heeded.

When the market looks bleak, potential sellers look at all the costs that are involved - agents costs, marketing and legal fees and the big one- taking a loss on the property. So rather than dive in and sell, or rent it out and buy a new primary residence, more and more people are thinking along the lines of:  'Well this place is not so bad, we can renovate and add that bathroom and bedroom and in the future it will be worth more.'

Article Round-Up

During May I came across some interesting articles and blogposts, here are a few that I wanted to revisit.

Where Students go Real Estate Follows:

 

"According to a recent Jones Lang LaSalle report entitled “International student destinations redefining the world of real estate investment”, the nine top destinations in the world for international students are also tops in terms of being real estate investment destinations for both residential and commercial properties."

Australia had 2 cities in the list - Sydney and Melbourne.

Lots of Ways to Increase Your Rental Yield

You have a great property as an investment, but you want to increase the rental yield, how do you do it? Have a look online and you can find an 'endless' list of ideas to increase your investment property's rental yield.

Some seem contradictory, but it depends on your situation and what your property is like.

1. Increase the rent to market rate
2. Decrease the rent to reduce vacancy

How Do You Know If You Have a Great Property Manager?

Over the years I have written about Property Managers, what to look for, what property management is, checklists etc, but how do you know if you have a really great manager?

A property manager or property managment company is the key in maximising your investment property. You need it well cared for and to obtain maximum rents to make it a valuable long-term investment. To ensure that you get the most out of your investment you need a "Great Property Manager" but who is that person, or team? How do you know when you have struck gold?

Are We All Negatively Geared?

I couple of months ago I wrote a post about negatively geared properties and what it means. In recent weeks The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has released taxation statistics for the 2009/2010 financial year. 

A great summary of these statistics was written about here: RP data Research Blog.

Over the 2009/10 financial year there were 1,751,679 individuals that received rental income (owned investment property).  The number had increased by 3.5% from the previous financial year.  Of these 1,751,679 individuals, 1,110,922 individuals or 63% made a loss on their rental income; the remaining 37% of individuals turned a profit on their rental properties.

Property Apps

So how many mobile devices do you own? How many apps have you downloaded? What is your favourite How about your favourite property based apps?

I have come across a few that you might be interested in having a look at, or you may already use them. I'm sure there are a few that I missed. Let me know if there are some that I should add to the list, or tell me which one is the most effective.