How we do it
We are ready right now to get on with the business of making you property investment hassle free and bringing you the best possible returns.
We provide a comprehensive, hassle-free service.
We assign you a personal property manager who is dedicated to all aspects of the day-to-day management of your property. Your property manager liaises with you regularly to ensure your requirements are met and is available at short notice to answer any queries or address any concerns you may have.
Letting and maintaining a property and managing a tenancy is a lot of work. On your behalf, we will:
- Prepare a full written inventory of the property before the tenancy begins.
- Screen prospective tenants, including carrying out personal interviews and checks on the National Tenancy Database (for bad tenants) and with Baycorp (for bad debts and credit ratings).
- Draw up tenancy agreements. Our team writes literally hundreds of leases each year.
- Forward the bond to the Department of Building and Housing.
- Arrange for rent to be paid by automatic bank payment. Computer alerts tell us if tenants get into arrears, which enables us to take immediate remedial action. (Rent arrears are currently close to zero.)
- Maintain up-to-date market rental information.
- Review rents regularly and maintain them at market levels.
- Conduct regular property inspections and prepare maintenance reports. We keep on file digital photos recording the condition of the property.
- Employ reputable and reliable tradespeople to carry out maintenance.
- Advertise for new tenants, including using ‘To Let’ signs for high visual impact.
- List your property on trademe.co.nz, New Zealand’s largest rental website. Listings are updated daily.
- Handle all aspects of mediation and Tenancy Tribunal hearings. You never have to front up unless you want to.
- Pay accounts for you.
- This list is not exhaustive. We provide additional services on request - tell us your requirements!
- We spend a lot of time talking with rental property owners, and conduct ongoing research on their needs and expectations in order to improve the services we offer.
Tenant selection
For many of our owners this is one of the major reasons they choose to use us to manage their properties. Our very thorough and particular selection process sets the corner stone for an effective tenancy.
We can’t guarantee that tenants will act well, but we can minimise the risk to you.
No one is given a lease until these procedures are completed to our satisfaction.
- Prospective tenants must fill in a detailed tenancy application form, which, among other things, requires them to provide personal and rental references and proof of identity.
- We have a face-to-face discussion with the person, which gives us a ‘feel’ for them. Long experience has taught us that this is invaluable.
- We check our company database to see if the person is an existing or former tenant. We may also contact our local property managers network to verify the tenant’s history.
- We contact all referees supplied on the tenancy application form. Our team is trained in the right questions to ask referees.
- We run an online check with Baycorp, New Zealand’s leading credit-checking authority.
- Further checks can be done with the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s National Tenancy Database. This is a register of delinquent or problematic tenants throughout New Zealand and Australia.
- We collect a bond and lodge it with the Department of Building and Housing, a division of the Ministry of Housing.
- We offer property owners the opportunity to meet and/or approve prospective tenants.
We keep you informed.
Our specialised property management software gives us access to all information about your property at the touch of a button. It allows us to:
- send e-mail, SMS alerts and messages to you and your tenants and is regularly updated to ensure we offer you the most recent advances in reporting.
- We inspect your property internally and externally at least four times a year. We then give you a concise written report on the general condition of the property and the manner in which the tenants are maintaining it as provided for in the tenancy agreement.
- We forward rent to you twice monthly, on the 15th and at month-end (or the first business day thereafter), by electronic transfer from our trust account to your bank account. You receive monthly statements detailing the rent paid for the month and any expenses incurred since your previous statement. We also send you detailed annual statements that can be used for accounting purposes and year-end tax returns.
- We project your expenditure for the upcoming financial year, and make recommendations on rent increases and lease renewals.
- All communication takes place through your personal property manager, who keeps you up to date on the management of your property.