This is the 43rd article of the author @ Mumu Sangao, welcome to forward and reprint, but please retain all complete information, including this part. I hope you can read this article verbatim, and reading verbatim is an important skill for everyone.
Today I continue to share some Australian investment housing management experience, first write some general concepts and ideas, and my own case study will be put at the end.
Investment houses often receive repair requests, what should I do?
Friends who bought a detached house as an investment house may often receive repair requests from intermediaries or tenants.
What is a repair request?
That is, the things in the house are broken or old, old, the tenant contacts the landlord himself, or the tenant contacts the landlord through the intermediary to request repair or replacement.
The maintenance request of the apartment (Apartment) may be a little less, because the Australian apartment project will charge a high management fee every year, so most of the maintenance, such as the elevator is broken, is the property directly spent money to repair, the total cost is shared with the owner, let the owner pay, will not send a message to ask the owner every time.
If the appliances in the house are broken and need to be replaced, it is still up to the landlord himself to make a decision.
My detached house (House), just bought the first few years is fine, but since 2019, I have received requests from intermediaries, such as broken air conditioning, broken water pipes, broken door locks, broken floor heating, broken fence fences in the yard, broken windows, broken garage electric doors, etc., anyway, every time there are various reasons.
My first tenant was the original owner of the house, and our story was simple: he sold the house, I bought his house, he just needed to rent, I just needed a tenant, so I rented the house directly to him.
This saves a lot of trouble, he doesn't have to move, I don't need to advertise to find tenants, he still lives in the original house, paying me rent on a monthly basis.
The first tenant, almost no maintenance applications, I think the reason is that he lives in his previous house, is familiar with everything, relatively cherished, relatively small loss in all aspects, and does not have so high expectations and requirements for room facilities.
Later he moved away, replaced by a new tenant, I calculated, in 2019 in the house maintenance of this piece has cost 4000-5000 Australian dollars, large costs of thousands of dollars, such as changing an air conditioning system, more than 2500 Australian dollars, small costs are also tens, hundreds of dollars, such as changing a glass 120 Australian dollars.
In contrast, the maintenance cost of domestic investment houses is really low, almost negligible.
In Beijing, for example, only once a year, the property fee is paid, the heating fee (less than 2,000 yuan) is paid, and the other costs are gone. If it is a southern city, you may even save the heating cost.
Australian rental housing, how to deal with similar situations?
What must be repaired and what can be refused.
First of all, we all face a psychological problem, that is, many friends will think that it is unlucky to receive a repair application from a tenant or agent, or will wonder if the agent or tenant has come to fool me in order to cheat money?
I personally think that such an idea is very normal, and the reasoning is reasonable, I believe that there must be unscrupulous agents who will work with repair masters to make money through maintenance under various pretexts, or there are more disgusting agents who join forces with garbage tenants to pit the landlord's money.
But I would like to say that so far, I and my friends who have investment houses around me have not encountered such a disgusting intermediary.
So try to think in the bright side, don't always think about those negative situations.
Don't always have persecution paranoia, after all, there are not so many people who want to harm you.
In other words, if you want to make money, is there anything that is not annoying?
Making money will be a little troublesome, since it is to buy an investment house, maintenance and maintenance are normal expenses, even if it is the operating cost of doing business.
Moreover, everyone should understand a fact, because most people buy houses and invest in second-hand houses or old houses, and since they are second-hand houses, especially second-hand houses with a relatively old age, it is easy to have such and such a situation.
At the beginning of the house, when you look at the house, choose a house, and buy a house, you must be mentally prepared, and when you buy, you must have the psychological preparation to spend money on maintenance.
And the independent house (House) to spend money to maintain, not a single house problem, on the Internet, WeChat group to see everyone's discussion, almost every household will encounter such a problem.
Although everyone will complain and complain, they are all used to it.
If you buy a new house, it is all new, the maintenance cost is certainly much lower, and it must save a lot of worries, but it must be admitted that the new house is expensive.
The new house, the word "new", proves that there is a premium. There is a premium for everything new, new cars, new homes, new marriages, new furniture, new renovations and so on.
We invest in real estate, in order to make money, the lower the price when buying, the higher the profit, we do not pay a premium for the new house.
The price of the second-hand house bought is 30% lower than that of the surrounding new house, and the rental return rate is almost the same, so the 30% saved is profit.
Therefore, when we receive the application for repair, don't reflex as soon as we hear the news, who is going to pit you, there is no need for this.
Under normal circumstances, no one pits you, it may be that things are broken, and it is time to change them when they fall into disrepair.
Old house repair is normal, there are so many household appliances in a house, there will always be bad this, bad that, some tenants are too lazy to say, get by and live, some tenants have requirements for the quality of life, unwilling to be on the line, so it is also very normal to propose maintenance.
If we suspect that the tenant or agent is doing something wrong, then as a landlord we can ask ourselves to take a look and see what is going on with what they are applying for repairs? Is it bad or bad?
Finding a good tenant is very important, the previous articles and videos have also shared, looking for tenants to find a normal professional, stable work, with a fixed income or economic resources, such a person is relatively high quality, it is not easy to damage the house, the probability of rent arrears is relatively small.
Let's talk about maintenance, as long as it is maintenance, it is basically water pipes, household appliances, doors and windows, locks, furniture and the like
Water pipe leakage, electrical leakage, gas leakage, these are emergency repairs, is the landlord must deal with immediately, such as leakage or gas leakage, if not dealt with in time, may cause a fire.
Also have to find a repairman with a relevant license to repair, although the licensed repairman is a little more expensive, but relatively reliable a lot, do not try to find those who are not licensed cheaply, leakage of electricity, leakage of gas, these are very critical, in case of problems, will cause a bunch of trouble.
As for broken glass, broken tables and chairs, broken air conditioning, broken cabinet doors, these are all non-emergency.
In the case of non-emergency repairs, the agent will send an email or call the landlord to discuss the price of the repair and the content of the repair.
In the case of emergency maintenance, because the situation is urgent, the intermediary has the right to arrange for the repairman to be present immediately if the landlord cannot be contacted, so as not to lead to more serious consequences.
In addition, when the maintenance is the agent looking for someone to repair or the landlord to find someone to repair, this can be, completely depends on the landlord's own choice.
If you have been living in the local area for a period of time, and have a suitable plumber, electrician, repairman, etc. that you know, then you can find someone to repair it yourself, and if there is no suitable person, then you can agree to the intermediary to arrange for someone to repair.
Or you can also post a message on the Airtasker website (similar to the domestic 58 cities), and some repairmen will make a quote, contact you and discuss the time of on-site repair.
As for some landlords, they will worry that the repairman arranged by the intermediary will not be much more expensive?
My own experience is that the price of the person arranged by the intermediary is not expensive, that is, the normal market price, and the person I am looking for may not be cheap.
Sometimes the online repairman's offer is more expensive than the agent's offer.
To give a suggestion, if you want to find someone to repair yourself, try to find a repairman near the area where the house is located, so that the repairman's door-to-door fee will be cheaper, because the distance is close and the time is short, so the door-to-door maintenance fee is cheap.
When we rent out a house, we choose an agent, not to see how they save you money, the level of intermediary management fees is only a dimension.
It also depends on whether the agent is responsible, whether it will screen the tenant, and whether it will help you check the condition of the house regularly.
The landlord and the agent should maintain a good relationship, and a good agent will give the landlord some appropriate advice when dealing with daily things to help the landlord make a reasonable judgment.
For second-hand houses, when looking at the house to buy a house, you should ask the agent which ones must be repaired and which ones can not be repaired for the time being.
Good agents know about the house and they will tell you what to advertise and what not to list in advertising.
For example, air conditioning, floor heating, if it is very old and you do not want to repair it, then you should explain on the rental advertisement and the contract that these household appliances are unusable, and the tenants do not expect it.
Since it is explained in the contract in advance, the tenant also knows that the landlord is not obliged to repair it, and the maintenance cost will be lower, of course, the rent will be correspondingly cheaper.
Garage door is also, the general electric vehicle garage door average 1-2 years to do a maintenance, if in advance said that the garage door is manual, so that there is no need to repair.
Other considerations:
(1) Circuits, water pipes and gas must be repaired.
A licensed repairman must be asked to come to the door to repair, and it is never possible to find an unlicensed one.
Because in the event of a problem, not only will the insurance company refuse to pay compensation.
In case the tenant is injured, the landlord may eat a lawsuit, and this money should not be saved.
(2) Regarding the replacement of items, the old things are to be replaced.
For example, if the microwave oven is broken, then change to a new one, so that tenants feel that there are new things to use, live very happily, and when the rent rises, it is also logical and has a legitimate reason.
Proper replacement of some new household appliances, which is conducive to increasing the rent every year.
(3) The cost of maintenance can be reported for tax every year, and some taxes can be deducted.
(4) Investment housing is like running a business in the end, and it is important to find a balance.
Any business has investment, the money is still spent on their own house, and the tenant cannot take it away.
Tenants also know that everything has been fixed and the rent will rise.
In the previous article " Why accept this new pair of tenants in 0026 ? In the article "About Australian Rental Housing Management, Pure Technical Dry Goods Sharing", the reasons for my house to accept a new pair of tenants are detailed.
Looking back now, it was a wise choice to accept the pair of tenants, because it was the worst time of the epidemic in Victoria, and the city of Melbourne continued to lock down, and I accepted them between lockdowns.
If you did not accept this pair of tenants at that time, then the next 4 weeks of lockdown (Lockdown), various travel restrictions and isolation, the house is extremely inconvenient, I don't know how long it will take for new tenants to come in, my investment house will be vacant for at least 4 weeks, and the loss may be more.
This matter also made me understand a truth, in the special period of the epidemic, it is better to reduce the expectation of tenants or rents (the actual rent has not decreased), and if there is a suitable candidate, it is better to accept it decisively than to be vacant for a long time.
After the tenant moved in, I received an email from the agent with a list of repairs:
(1) The fence of the yard is broken and needs to be repaired.
(2) The wall skin of the bathroom is discolored and should be maintained.
(3) The glass of the bathroom glass door is cracked and should be replaced.
(4) Bathroom floor cracking.
(5) The faucet is not closed tightly, and there are dripping water.
(6) The living room curtain is broken.
(7) There are too many leaves in the roof drain that need to be cleaned.
(8) The room bulb is not lit and needs to be replaced.
I carefully looked at the situation described by the intermediary, (1) the yard fence is broken, which involves a direct relationship with the neighbor, because every household is a house with a small courtyard, the wooden fence separates the two families, and the replacement of the fence is a shared cost of the two families, so it is agreed to replace.
(3) and (4) these two items involve the safety of the guests, but also agree to repair, item (8) to change the bulb is not expensive, so agree to replace.
The other four items (2), (5), (6), (7), I feel that it is not so urgent needs, nor does it affect the habitation and use, so it is not moved for the time being.
For example, (5) and (6) these two items, after a period of time, completely broken, can not be used, and then unified replacement, the effect may be better.
In addition, it is another tip that the purchase of self-housing, with or without a swimming pool does not matter, the swimming pool can indeed improve the quality of family life, but also appear the whole house high-end atmosphere on the grade.
Almost all of Australia's high-end residences are equipped with swimming pools, some of which are large in size and even have tennis courts.
Sydney's tens of millions of dollars in ocean-view mansions may have private jetties in addition to unparalleled ocean views.
The more high-end the residence, the more high-end the configuration, so as to show the noble sense and scarcity attributes of the mansion.
Investment houses, choose a house with a swimming pool carefully, because maintenance costs will be high. Bringing a pool may seem cool, but the cost of maintenance can leave you crying.
Therefore, experienced people will avoid houses with pools when choosing investment houses.
With a swimming pool, you can indeed increase the rent, such as $100/week for houses without pools and $130/week for houses with pools.
Rents are only 30% higher, but maintenance costs are definitely greater than 30%.
The cost of maintenance is high, and the income obtained by the landlord naturally decreases.
So don't have a pool that can reduce expenses, increase income, and also reduce a lot of worries for the landlord, which is a wise choice.
Finally attach a Melbourne water bill, next time analyze the cost of home ownership.
@Mumushan Height 2021.10.26
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