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. 

When considering turning a home into a rental property in Newcastle, one of the first questions asked by a new landlord will be "How much will the rental property management fees be?". 

As we advise each investor we meet, property management fees should be considered alongside a mix of many other aspects. The old saying "cheapest is not always best" certainly applies to rental property management fees. 

Why? Here a just a few reasons (but don't worry, we also answer the question...!).

It's a question as old as property management itself. How many properties should a property manager be managing? How many is too many?

It is not a question we are asked frequently, but from time to time it crops up in meetings we have with investors. 

The response to this question was interestingly responded to in the article "How Far Can A Property Manager Walk?". In summary, the idea is that if you were to be asked how far a property manager (or anyone for that matter!) could walk, your mind would be over-run with variables which make it difficult to come to a clear answer. How fit is the person? What supplies do they have with them? What incentive do they have to keep going? What support do they have along the way? How appropriate is their footwear? What are the conditions like that day? And so on. 

​When a tenant signs a fixed term lease, they are providing a commitment to remain in the property for the full term. This provides the landlord a degree of stability and security, knowing that the weekly rental income can be counted on for the duration of the agreed period. 

Sometimes however, a tenant may need or wish to break the lease early. While this is possible to do, there are usually costs involved for the tenant as well as the otherwise unanticipated time and effort to put the property to market, run open inspections, and so on to find a replacement tenant. 

Are you considering an investment in Waratah, NSW? In this suburb profile we provide an overview of median sale price trends, trend in weekly rental income, and an overview of rental demand.

It is a common misconception that when you buy an investment property, the same agency who sold you the house needs to manage the rental property for you. 

Real estate agencies which offer both sales and property management services can make it seem easier or otherwise beneficial to use their services to manage the investment property for you once it has been sold. ​In reality, there is negligible benefit in this approach.