You need a good property manager. We have moved to the Sunshine Coast and have rented out our house in Melbourne...and we did this previously when we moved to Sydney and then changed our minds and moved back.
A good property manager will have an eye for a good tenant and will check all business and personal references and previous letting agent references too. Ultimately the choice is up to you but they will give you their impressions when passing on the applications to you. When they hold an inspection for prospective tenants they will even note things like if people put out a cigarette before coming inside and how people come across generally. If you don't want pets say that pets will be considered on application...people will then own up about having pets rather than lying if you declare "no pets".
By law you can only have an inspection of the premises once every 6 months because the tenant is protected by law to have "quiet enjoyment" of the property. Our property manager takes photos of absolutely everything before the tenant moves in and because we are interstate takes photos of the house during the inspection and forwards them on to us so we can see how the place is being maintained. If you want the carpets professionally cleaned when the tenant vacates you have to have the carpets cleaned prior to them moving in and have the receipt for proof. You need to leave the gardens in the exact state you would wish them to be maintained.
Once the tenants have signed the lease, provided they are maintaining the property and not causing trouble, you cannot kick them out until their lease has expired unless under mutual agreement and even then I'm pretty sure you can't do it "just because" or to get in a new tenant, you need to be moving back into the property yourself or have a close family member move in for whom you would reasonably be expected to provide accommodation. Just check that one...but I'm pretty sure I have that right.
In our case, when we decided we were changing our minds and moving back to Melbourne, we had our property manager let the tenants know of our situation (we were hoping they'd be willing to move out early and we figured if they weren't at least they had plenty of notice that we weren't going to renew the lease) and this worked out ideally because they were in the process of buying a house and were going to have to break the lease. So we still had to wait until they were ready to move out but we got our house back quicker and the tenants didn't have to pay rent on an empty house while they were waiting for a new tenant to be approved.
If you are south/southeast Melbourne let me know. I can highly recommend our property manager. She is absolutely fabulous and I have every confidence in her that our house is being looked after and have total peace of mind.
ETA: Bear in mind a tenant will never love the place quite as much as you do but they aren't necessarily going to wreck the joint either. Most people are decent and it will be their home too.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks