Recently the NSW Parliament passed the Residential Tenancies Amendment (Review) Bill 2018, which covers a number of amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 2010.

The aim of the changes is to "increase protection and certainty for renters, while ensuring that landlords can protect their investment and effectively manage their properties" (sourced from NSW Fair Trading).

The amendments also aim to provide greater protection for victims of domestic violence, make it easier for tenants to make a rental property a home and reduce repair and maintenance disputes. 

If you are reading this page as an investor with a rental property in Newcastle or Lake Macquarie, it is highly likely you have had a tenant in your property who may not be leaving your investment in the clean condition you expect before renting it out to another tenant or returning to the home yourself. 

"Can I do a rental appraisal on a property myself?" is a question commonly asked by investors. There are many ways to obtain an approximate rental estimate on a property you own or are considering purchasing. 

But these methods are not without their shortcomings. In this article we go through the top 3 mistakes investors make when estimating rental return themselves.

Winter is prime-time for property maintenance. The cooler wet weather and winds can bring rise to property maintenance issues which may have gone un-noticed during the warmer months. 

For the sake of tenant safety, and also financial savings, it is better to focus on repair prevention rather than cure. Following are the key areas prospective landlords, current landlords and tenants alike should consider assessing around their property as maintenance season looms. 

There is a lot to consider when you first take the step to rent out a property you own. Whether you are looking to move out of the family home and offer it for rent, or whether you have purchased your first investment property specifically to find a great tenant - there is a lot to be done before it hits the market. 

A conversation with an experienced rental property manager is of course a very good place to start. Additionally, the following points will provide a broad overview of what will need to be done and/or prepared in advance of finding a tenant for your home. 

The level of cleanliness of a rental property is crucial for both landlord and tenant. As a landlord, ensuring your home is in top-top condition at the start of the rental period will help ensure this is the state the property is returned in. A beautifully prepared and presented home will also often achieve higher rental return and a greater number of high-quality applicants. 

When a tenant is vacating a property at the end of their term, the condition of the home is required to be similar to the condition it was provided in at the start of the term - as documented on the ingoing condition report and accompanying photos. If not, the rental bond paid at the start of the tenancy can be withheld to recover costs of cleaning and repairs which may be required to return the property to its previous condition. 

So, how can a landlord be sure that their investment property is as clean as it can be before a tenant moves in? And how can a tenant ensure they have covered everything when cleaning the home at the end of their lease term? Our detailed and downloadable cleaning checklist will help!

As we write this article, there is a deluge outside our office. The combination of rain and wind is reminiscent of the April 2015 super storm in which many parts of the Hunter received record rainfall.

Regardless of the whether outside your window, it's never a bad time to check your level of preparation should a severe storm appear on the horizon.