Managing your Investment Property over Christmas

Investment Property

Although the holiday break is coming up, it doesn’t mean you should forget about your investment property.

The last few weeks of the year is a great time to take a good look at your property to see what is working and what isn’t.

Take action if your tenants are leaving

If you know that your tenants will be leaving in December, don’t wait until the New Year to take action. You may find that other investors do the exact same thing and when January rolls around, there could be an influx of rental properties and not enough tenants. Be one step ahead of the crowd and get organised early. Speak with your property manager about looking for tenants or if you self-manage, start advertising for new tenants before the old ones leave.

Christmas availability

If your tenants aren’t leaving, it important that you still remain available for them to contact you or your property manager over the Christmas period. If there will be a period of time where you or the property manager is unavailable, you will need to inform the tenant. The last thing you would want is to come back from a holiday with a stack of complaints and very unhappy tenants who feel neglected.

Check in with your property manager

This is the perfect time to review your property manager’s performance over the year. Have they kept in regular contact with you? Do they respond to your enquiries in a timely matter? If you don’t have a property manager, why not take a look at your own performance and see whether being a landlord is worth the extra work.

Use vacant periods to do repairs/maintenance

If you have been waiting to do some maintenance work or give your property a fresh coat of paint, the Christmas/New Year period could be a good time to do it if your tenants are planning to vacate.

Renovating or adding improvements to your investment property may give you the opportunity to increase your rent for the New Year.

Make sure your property is insured

Unfortunately, robberies do often occur during the Christmas period as many families go on holiday. Firstly, you should check to see if your tenants will either be vacating the property or going on holiday during this time. If the property is going to be vacant, you will need to double check that you have all of the necessary locks and alarms to help prevent someone breaking in. This is also a good time to review your insurance policy to make sure you are covered for any damage.
Even if you are planning to slow down and relax at the end of year, it doesn’t mean you forget your investment property.

Merry Christmas!