Find a Tenant | How to Find a Tenant for Your Property

1. Determine Rental Amount and Bond Amount

You will need to consider how much rent to ask for. The property appraisal report will generally be quite accurate as to how much rent you can ask for your property. You would generally express the rental amount either as a weekly or monthly amount.

You will also need to consider what the bond will be. In most cases and most states, the bond will be the equivalent of four week’s rent. In some states agents and landlords are prohibited from asking for more than four week’s rent, and so you should check with your state’s consumer affairs should you wish to ask for more than four week’s rent as bond.

2. Put Up a ‘For Rent’ Board

A ‘For Rent’ board in front of your property is a great way of bringing your property to the attention of potential tenants who may not actively be looking online but who may know of someone who is looking to rent in the area.

In some cases, it may not be feasible to put up a board but wherever possible it is recommended.

3. Prepare Your Property

Potential tenants will in most cases want to inspect your property in person, and so you will need to make sure it is presentable, neat and as clean as possible. If there are current tenants in the property who will be leaving, you will need to make arrangements with them to have your house in good order for inspections.

4. List Your Property on Realstate.com.au and Domain.com.au

As most enquiries for rental properties are now generated online, you will need to ensure that your property is listed on both portals, and this will allow you to market to the greatest number of potential tenants as possible. Both Rent Street’s accounts feature listings on these portals. In addition to that, your listing will also be linked automatically to 1Form and so you will be able to accept full rental applications without having to use or source your own application form.

5. Show Tenants Through

Once your listing is online, you can then either run scheduled Opens, or can arrange to meet people at the property to show them through and answer any questions they may have. This can also be a good opportunity for you to give out rental application forms.

You should specify this in your online advertisement. If you will just be conducting opens by appointment, then you can refer to this in the description of your listing. For specific dates and times, however, you should use the Open Times section in your account to specify these times.

6. Process Rental Applications & Screen Tenants

When people make online enquiries using the basic contact form on websites like realestate.com.au and domain.com.au, these will come straight through to you with their contact details. Generally, we would recommend that after a viewing they return to your listing and use the “Apply Online” button on your account to lodge a full application. This will then provide you with all the information you need about the applications, including details of their current employment and rental history.

Once you have decided on a tenant, you may like to consider running a check on them using the National Tenancy Database. This will allow you to confirm whether or not they have been blacklisted, which may guide your decision as to whether to not to offer them the lease.

7. Sign the Lease and Lodge the Bond

Once you have agreed on the terms with the successful applicant, it’s now time to sign a lease with them and to lodge their bond with the appropriate body in your state or territory. You’ll be able to download the appropriate forms using the links in the footer. This will take you the Consumer Affairs website in your State or Territory. Here you can also access useful information about the legal rights and responsibilities of both landlords and tenants.