How to find and keep the best tenants for your investment property

There’s an art to attracting the best tenants for investment properties – and then persuading them to stay as long as they, or you, would like.

First up, you need to make sure the home looks the very best it can.

It should be sparkling clean with no signs of mould, floors should have decent floorboards, tiles or a carpet in good condition, and walls should either be washed or freshly painted.

And if it needs more than that, an upgrade shouldn’t cost any more than between $4000 and $5000, advises interior designer Wende Reid of Form and Colour.

“If the ceiling’s high enough, you can lay tiles over an existing floor, which saves all the expense of digging it up and laying a new membrane,” she says.

“Then you can change kitchen or bathroom taps; you can install a new shower screen or benchtop; you can have cupboard doors painted and put in attractive lights. That will instantly catch the eye of a good tenant and will probably earn you a higher rent too.”

Secondly, you need to catch the attention of would-be renters.

When most of them are flicking through on their phones, there’s simply no substitute for great, professional photographs.

“You’ve only got a millisecond to catch their eye and sell your property,” says Stephen Fitzsimon, head of growth at Melbourne Real Estate.

“So, your photos should be good, and your hero shot, the first picture up, should be of what they want to see – the kitchen and living area – not something like the building exterior.”

“Video is also increasingly important, especially in COVID-19; not a fancy sales videos, but a walk-through tour showing them exactly what it’s like.”

Finally, once the best possible tenant is in, it’s all about keeping them there.

“That’s when an owner, or their agent, has to maintain the property and be very responsive to their needs,” says Luke Bardsley of Sydney’s Green Square Management.

“If they complain about a dripping tap, for instance, or an extractor fan not working, then the owner either gets it fixed straight away or signs the authority to an agent to do it for them. We have some owners who want a couple of quotes when work will cost over $300, and we have others who say just make sure everything is fixed.”

“If it’s a strata matter, like a defect, we’ll get onto the strata immediately to rectify it. If you have a good tenant, you need to look after them, not move the rent around too much, and let them know they’re appreciated.”

Fitzsimon also checks in regularly and asks tenants what they’d do with the property if they owned it.

“That’s proved remarkably successful,” he says.

“One said she hated that people could see in through the lounge room window, so we installed a sheer blind as well as the black-out one. Such a simple, cheap fix, but it meant she felt the home was hers, and she stayed much longer.”