Solutions For The Nervous Property Investor

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If you have just purchased your first investment property, the chances are that you may be daydreaming about your second or third and imagining yourself ten years down the track as a multi-millionaire property magnate. Before you get too far ahead of yourself, however, there are still some important decisions to be made if you wish to get the most value out of this new venture of yours.

Get This Wrong and it Costs you a Bundle

One decision you will be confronted with almost immediately is where to find a reliable tenant, and if you get this decision wrong, you could find yourself thousands of dollars out of pocket. The media is filled with stories of tenants wilfully causing property damage and not paying the rent. Delays in the legal process can allow lawfully evicted tenants to remain in the property for weeks or even months, placing an enormous financial burden on the owners, who must still pay the mortgage even though there is no income to offset it.

Professional Property Management is the Solution

Investors should not despair, however, as there is a solution. Professional property management by a reputable agency is not expensive, and their experienced team takes all possible steps to ensure that only reliable tenants are placed in client properties.

Take our agency, Bunbury Real Estate, as a typical example. We have been finding tenants for our clients’ properties for some time, and now have a reputation in the industry for delivering a “hassle free” service. If you are unsure if the rent you are expecting for your property is market value, we offer a free appraisal, giving you a realistic figure by comparing your property with others like yours in the target area.

Proven Management Systems

Once we become your property manager, we go to work using our proven management systems to select the best tenant. Typical steps are to check our database of already qualified prospective tenants for those that suit your property. If the best prospect is someone new to our agency, we then follow our selection process to ensure that the person meets our criteria.

Reference, Credit and ID Checks Essential

We always check references given by previous landlords, ask for identification and evidence of employment, as well as perform a routine credit check to ensure there are no outstanding credit issues. Once the tenant has passed our selection process, we make sure that all the required legal documents are correctly completed and lodged with the appropriate authorities.

If you want your property investment to keep earning with minimal involvement by you, getting a professional agency like ours to do the work for you is the obvious choice.

How To Take Advantage of Social Media For Real Estate Advertisement

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Real estate is an industry that depends on high-level communication skills to generate the levels of persuasion needed to attract attention, to get noticed and sell property. Where once all this energy was directed through print advertising in newspapers and photos in shop windows, it is now channelled via the internet.

Social Media – a Game-Changer

This doesn’t mean that those older methods are obsolete, but there is no doubt that internet advertising and the growth of social media have been game-changers. If we stick with real estate as a prime example, twenty or so years ago, real estate ads in newspapers and photos in every agency window in town were the “go to” places if you were looking for a property to buy or rent.

Web Pages Also Essential to Advertising Success

Fast forward to the present day, and we still use these methods, but an internet presence is also essential. Bunbury Real Estate has a professional website displaying all our information, photos of current properties, an option to get a free appraisal, interesting news and other marketing material, designed to grab and hold attention.

Facebook and Instagram the Current Favourites

Agents have also become more adept at connecting with their markets and projecting their persona via social media. These platforms add depth to the client/agent relationship and open a communication channel that is more personal than a company website. In our industry, Facebook and Instagram are currently the front-runners, with Instagram favoured because of its more visual nature.

Social Media Platforms must be Well Managed

When social media platforms are created and managed properly they are highly effective because they are constantly changing. Regular followers check in almost every day to see what is new, loving the photos and visual effects and the opportunity for a more personal connection with the agent.

It is essential to post regularly, keep content new and interesting, know your audience and tailor your posts to the needs and interests of that audience. A successful social media platform is the ultimate marketing tool, but like everything that brings success, it takes work and commitment.

Start with a Plan and Jump in with Both Feet

The best place for any agent or agency to start is to develop a social media plan as part of the overall marketing strategy. Like any other marketing initiative, your social media presence should reflect the overall philosophy of your business. It should complement your other marketing efforts and be an integral part of the culture of your organisation.

Social media is a powerful tool for both the positive and negative aspects of our society. Like all businesses and institutions, we want ours to be seen in a positive light, so now is the time to embrace this medium, get to know its quirks and use it to project ourselves to the world in the best possible way.