Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Discover the secrets of successful property management and investing on "The Property Investors Handbook" podcast. Join Colleen Sutherland as she shares expert insights and strategies for acquiring, managing, and maximising returns on real estate investments. Whether you're a beginner or seasoned investor, this podcast is your essential guide to navigating the world of property investment. Tune in and unlock the keys to financial success in real estate.
Produced by Pod Pro Australia
Welcome to another episode of the Property Investors Handbook. I'm Colleen Sutherland and today we have a very special guest Tonya Poor, who is a tenant of a property, one of our properties, managed by Sutherlands. And today's episode offers a unique perspective on the tenant experience in a well managed property.
Tonya, it's great to have you here today to share your insights with us. Welcome.
Thank
you.
Tonya, can you introduce yourself and give us a little bit of information on the property you are renting?
Cool. I arrived in Australia as soon as the borders opened in Queensland, actually, and, uh, waited for Miami Ice apartment to become available. Luckily, I, we waited and found the perfect one in Miami Ice in, Miami there.
North Burley. And, uh, yeah, it's just a fantastic property which, overlooks the beach and right up to surface. So yeah.
And how's your experience been with our management at Sutherlands Property Management?
Oh, it's been flawless to be fair. If, that's probably the thing while we are still there three years later.
Because If you own a property, if something breaks, you have to get a repairman , and, you know, Get it fixed and wait for that person. But, with, uh, property managements, you, especially this one, you call and it gets fixed. Yesterday, even just yesterday, we had a towel fall off actually snapped.
And which has never happened before in our property, and it was fixed by lunchtime.
Oh wow, oh that's good. I know, that was
very quick turnaround I must admit, but yeah no it was, Awesome.
So how is the communication between you and Sutherlands? How's that?
Oh, it's great. Well, you've got different lines of communication, haven't you? So we've got emails, we've got, the tenant console, which is, an app you can, lodge, For instance, what I was just saying about the maintenance or, you can see what your, rent's up to or, you know, what's happening there, if anything's, coming up, we have, the regular fire drills and anything that's coming up you can actually find on there, we have the phone number for the, property manager herself.
So, yeah, the, communication's quite good and we always get a, reminder if something's coming up, like, when a fire drill is happening, there is, regular updates and you have to say whether you're attending or not, which is awesome, and, Just so that people don't get scared either, because of course it's quite loud when a, you know, the fire alarms will go off, the fire sirens go off and these big alerts come over in the intercom inside your own apartment.
If you weren't aware, it would be quite scary. So you are warned and yeah.
Have you had any significant issues with the unit since you've been in there?
No, when we very first moved in, it was, uh, we indicated that there was a little, damage to some carpet, which got fixed straight away. Like, we got the carpet replaced, that was a previous tenant had done that.
So. it was sorted and done. So no, we've had no issues.
How does your, and I know that you're a landlord in New Zealand. So with the management of the unit that you're renting, here in Australia, how does that compare with the management in New Zealand? Like being a landlord, what would you feel has been beneficial as a tenant? So in comparison with the landlord experience.
If you were a landlord.
Well, I'd rather be the tenant than the landlord, that's for sure. I'm not liking my landlord experience. I prefer to be a tenant. Yeah, so. I think, having had, someone actually manage our property in New Zealand, I found them extremely hard to deal with as the property owner.
They were very lax a daisy and I didn't find out things that were wrong with the property, unfortunately, until, the tenant had left. Afterwards, in this case. You're keeping, I know you're keeping, the owners up to date with lots of things because, people are coming in and checking the building and, so, yeah, completely different I would imagine.
Yeah. I'd rather be the tenant in this building.
Okay. Tonya, you've had a, sounds like you've had quite a positive experience both with the unit that you're renting and with Sutherlands. So what, advice would you offer another tenant who is wanting the same sort of outcome?
I would say, respect the apartment that you're in for a start, be honest, pay your rent.
We at Miami ICE are all long term tenants as well, so we treat it as our homes, so basically respect what you have. And then you have. Clear communication with your management and yeah, it's just, I think it's just respect and going forward and, I suppose that's the key to it, isn't it? It's, honesty, respect and cleanliness.
So because you've been there for three years, is there anything that you can, any advice you could offer Sutherlands that would enhance your experience that we could do a little bit better, do you think?
I don't know how you control people. You can't do that by just being a management company. It's yeah, it's tenants can't be controlled. So, yeah, I think you do everything, in your power or, you know, in your capacity from my view. That makes it all a good experience for where we live.
Where you're living at the moment, do you think that you're paying a fair rental price or do you think you're paying far too much?
For where we're living at the moment, I think we are paying a fair rental price. With the state of the road at the moment, with, cause the Gold Coast Highway is completely crazy, isn't it?
With the light rail, et cetera, being put in, and the area's quite busy. But when you look at other areas, say Balinga and things like that, and the property market as everywhere has gone quite mad. It's going to be going there anyway, so things are going to be crazy everywhere, so we're just holding out.
It'll be calm one day soon.
Why, why would you rent and not buy? What is the
Once again, comes back to that same old thing, Because once you buy, then you've still, you're going to be paying more taxes and, you know, council fees, et cetera. So rates, so at the moment we're quite happy with our beautiful view that we look out over.
When you put a price on that, you'll be paying a lot more, a lot more for where, I mean,
a price for when you're owning it. Correct. Yeah.
For a brand new place, which we'd always go for if you're actually going to buy something. It's just so much more money these days to actually buy a property, like right next door where they're selling the burly, apartments.
And they're starting, the starting prices. I mean, seriously, you won't even see anything but a car park. I mean, that's just ridiculous. And you know, further up, it's just, no,
yeah, not
worth
it. No, it'd be difficult to. pay these high market prices and at the same time trying to get together a deposit to purchase a house, do you think?
I think at the moment, because we're on the, just on the one wage, trying to get the two wages in, I think yes. Two good salaries, you'd be fine. You really do have to squirrel away your money at the moment, wouldn't you? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, it is quite difficult, don't you think? It
is quite difficult.
You do have to watch your money, but hey, it's worth it to, you know, to where we live. We're just happy to squirrel some away and keep on at it. And yeah. Well just, we're happy where we are right now, that's for sure.
Because buying property on the Gold Coast is quite difficult. Oh, just
crazy. It's crazy.
It's gone mad, hasn't it? Do you think it's as bad as
the rental market? The sales market?
No, I think the sales market's worse.
Oh, do you?
I think that's just going leaps and bounds just seems to be going up and up and up. Yeah.
Yeah. God, it's just, yeah. It's becoming unaffordable. I think
it's coming unaffordable.
Yeah. Yeah. So the rental market is going to, yeah, it's gonna be always there because people aren't gonna be able to afford to live in the
area anymore,
I don't think.
Yes, and I have to agree with you there. It's, sort of pushing the people who could ordinarily, afford to live there, further out the back of the suburbs.
Yeah.
So if you want to live at the beach, you will be. Generally renting at the beach. Yeah.
Yes. Yeah. Because purchasing is just out of, out of range, isn't it? Correct. Yeah. Thanks so much for being with me today, Tonya. It's been a pleasure to listen to the other side of property management and from a renter's point of view.
It's been quite an eye opener. Thank you so much. Been remarkable. I'm Colleen Sutherland and this has been the Property Investors Handbook. And for more information go to our website at www. spmg. com. au Look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Thanks so much.