What makes us different?
Whether you have just bought an investment property, are in the process of building one, or you’re just plain sick and tired of your property manager not doing their job, you’re looking for the same thing that every smart property investor needs and wants.
The best property management agency there is.
Research is so important when selecting a property management agency so we want to congratulate you on doing your homework and checking out what we have to offer.
So, what does make us different to all the rest?
We don’t sell properties
Sales people sell homes. Property management specialists rent homes. We might be in the same industry but our fields of expertise are vastly different.
Sales offices tend to “dabble” in property management and often rely on the regular income to prop up the agency when the sales market stagnates.
When selling property is the predominant role of the business, the property management department is the poor cousin who receives very little attention, time or consideration.
At Welcome Home Rentals, we LOVE managing rental properties and we have no interest in sales. Our clients’ investment is our number one priority.
We value quality, not quantity
It can be tempting to choose a large agency, perhaps even a franchise. They have more properties so they have more experience, right?
Wrong!
Large agencies have usually become large by purchasing the rent roll, sometimes multiple rent rolls. They haven’t had to earn it with hard work and because they haven’t grown slowly, their processes have never adapted to the size. There’s not the same care factor and it can be difficult to speak with one person who knows everything about your property.
Some agencies are obsessed with being the largest and having more properties than any other. Because they accept anything and everything, they typically spend far more time chasing rent arrears and attending court hearings which means less time on you, and your investment…
At Welcome Home Rentals, we are very selective about the quality of properties that we look after – we don’t manage dumps and therefore, we don’t attract the wrong types of tenants. In a nutshell, this allows us more time, energy and resources to spend on what we should be doing – maximising your return and making sure that your experience is problem free.
Our advertisements look better
Long gone are the days of tenants calling into the office to pick up a black and white copy of the rental list. Everything is digital and quality does matter.
The way in which your property is marketed has a massive impact on how quickly your property is rented, how much rent you can achieve and the quality of tenant you attract. Prospective tenants will decide for, or against, your home without even driving by.
At Welcome Home Rentals, we only use a professional photographer and we write quality descriptive advertisements. See the difference for yourself now by visiting realestate.com.
We have zero tolerance for rent arrears
Why should you have to wait for your money??? Tenants know when their rent is due.
So why don’t all tenants pay on time?
There are a range of reasons, some quite genuine. We once had a tenant who accidentally paid her power bill twice and the power company took 6 weeks to return the double payment to her.
The habitual late payers are different. These tenants pay late for one reason. Because they can. Because their property manager is not following up.
At Welcome Home Rentals, we monitor rent arrears DAILY. If a tenant doesn’t pay, we make contact on day 1. Because we own the business, our income relies solely on yours – therefore, if you don’t get paid, we don’t get paid – rent arrears are not acceptable.
We pay you more often
We believe your money belongs in your bank and on a regular basis. Rather than conduct monthly, or twice monthly disbursements, we disburse your money to you every second Friday.
We have chosen Fridays as this day is less likely to be a public holiday, it is the day most tenants pay their rent and fortnightly payments are more likely to be a consistent amount, and definitely easier to track for you as to when you’ll be getting paid.
At Welcome Home Rentals, you will receive a minimum of 2 more payments per year than with most other agencies.
We conduct thorough inspections
A routine inspection is our opportunity to spot damage, lack of cleaning, and any maintenance required as well as any that may arise in the near future.
A common complaint we hear from clients of other agencies is that inspections are done poorly and in some cases, they aren’t carried out at all.
We had a client who was advised by her previous agent that her property was “Clean and tidy, lawns mowed” The property manager had clearly forgotten that the client was attending the property for maintenance the following day. When the client arrived, the grass was 2 feet high. An inspection had never been done at all.
At Welcome Home Rentals, we schedule inspections for every 16 weeks – and yes, you can come along! We spend approximately 20 to 30 minutes going through your property. We check for any leaking S-bends, whether showers, ovens, air conditioners, rangehoods and exhaust fans are clean. We test lights and fans and look for any cracked or broken glass. We search for signs of mould and any damage that may be covered up – mats can hide stains on carpet and sometimes an oddly placed picture can be covering up a hole in the wall.
Our clients are personally invited to every inspection – they very rarely do and are ecstatic with the comprehensive colour report with photographs that we send through within 48 hours of conducting the inspection.
Our entry inspections are second to none
The entry condition inspection, report and photographs is your only hope of being able to prove with absolute certainty what condition your property was in prior to the beginning of the tenancy.
Over the years we have taken over a number of properties previously managed by other agents where the entry report simply marked each item as “Clean” and we’ve even experienced some cases where no inspection was carried out at all.
At Welcome Home Rentals we spend hours in your home. We note the colours, textures, materials, brands, model numbers and serial numbers of each and every item.
In addition to pages and pages of reporting, we take between 800 and 2,000 time and date stamped photographs on an SLR camera at high resolution. Inside drawers, numerous angles of walls and carpets, behind curtains, garage floors, gardens, you name it, we happy-snap it.
Whilst the written word can be open to interpretation, a photo cannot lie. As a result of our careful and consistent reporting, rarely do our tenancies end in front of a tribunal. Tenants cannot argue when we have photographic evidence.
We communicate with you constantly
This one is pretty basic but it’s shocking how many times we receive calls from frustrated clients wanting to move to our agency because their property manager won’t respond to calls or emails.
Typically we hear things such as:
- Nobody returns my calls
- I sent an email a week ago and I’ve heard nothing
- My property manager is on holidays and nobody can tell me anything
- I asked for something to be fixed a month ago and it still hasn’t been done
At Welcome Home Rentals we believe that everything we know, you should know about. We realise you’re busy so our office policy is to include you on all email correspondence with your tenants and you have access to your very own portal for repairs called Maintenance Manager.
Your property is managed by the OWNERS
No, you don’t get assigned to a property manager, you’re right up front with the owners of the business.
Staff turnover in property management agencies can be continual and often leads to frustration for investors. Constantly hearing that Jenny doesn’t work here anymore or Rebecca is on maternity leave can leave you wondering who you’ll be dealing with now.
Although we are naturally sad if one of our team decides to leave, they don’t take your rental property history with them. 90% of the time, you’ll hear directly from Grant and Kylie themselves and the other 10% is always under their direction and supervision.
