Landlord Tips & Tricks

3Gee said:
I need a recommendation for a very good house cleaning service in Cape Town.

Company must provide all materials required.
Cost for the service will be coming from the tenant.

Neither am i looking to rip off the tenant. I'm done with supervising people and going out to purchase all the items required.
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SweepSouth - Home Cleaning Services
https://sweepsouth.com/
In laws use them. Not sure how they operate.
 
Do any of you clever folk have an app that you use to scan and save invoices / photos etc relevant to each property?
 
SueC said:
Do any of you clever folk have an app that you use to scan and save invoices / photos etc relevant to each property?
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Mine just go into a folder on iCloud.
 
My tip to landlords:

1. Pay your bills
2. Don't be a cheapskate. Cheap stuff don't last.
3. Maintain your property.
4. Give your tenant emergency number for plumbing, electrical and geyser.
5. Don't trust Agents and that they will take care of your property.
6. Assume all agents are snakes.
7. Don't expect a tenant to take care of something your do not bother to take care of or left in a bad condition.
8. Meeting your tenants realistic needs is better than having to look for a tenant every year or couple of months.
9. If you struggle with tenants, look at the agents first.
10. Agents do not always have your best interest in mind and do not truthfully communicate your tenants needs or concerns.
11. Visit the property once a year in person, do not trust an agent to do it. They don't know what they are doing in the first place.
12. The agent you have, HATES rentals. Every second they need to spend on your property, I a second they wished they could be somewhere else.
13. If you the type of owner who knows nothing about maintenance or have zero knowledge or skills. Please. Do us all a favour. Sell your place to someone that knows what they are doing. Also, the cheapskate contractors you get are taking you for a ride.
14. Happy tenants, happy owner.
15. Screw you. Can't wait till I can buy my own place.
 
RedViking said:
My tip to landlords:

1. Pay your bills
2. Don't be a cheapskate. Cheap stuff don't last.
3. Maintain your property.
4. Give your tenant emergency number for plumbing, electrical and geyser.
5. Don't trust Agents and that they will take care of your property.
6. Assume all agents are snakes.
7. Don't expect a tenant to take care of something your do not bother to take care of or left in a bad condition.
8. Meeting your tenants realistic needs is better than having to look for a tenant every year or couple of months.
9. If you struggle with tenants, look at the agents first.
10. Agents do not always have your best interest in mind and do not truthfully communicate your tenants needs or concerns.
11. Visit the property once a year in person, do not trust an agent to do it. They don't know what they are going in the first place.
12. If you the type of owner who knows nothing about maintenance or have zero knowledge or skills. Please. Do us all a favour. Sell your place to someone that knows what they are doing. Also, the cheapskate contractors you get are taking you for a ride.
13. Happy tenants, happy owner.
14. Screw you. Can't wait till I can buy my own place.
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15. If you get good tenants who pay on time and can flush a toilet without breaking it, do anything to hold on to them. Give them below-inflation increases, whatever it takes.
 
3WA said:
15. If you get good tenants who pay on time and can flush a toilet without breaking it, do anything to hold on to them. Give them below-inflation increases, whatever it takes.
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Been renting the new place for a month now. The idiots havent fixed a thing yet on the first inspection list.
I am now half way through the list fixing the stuff myself.
I feel like an idiot. Hate being a good tenant. Hate investing my money on someone else's property. This is not home.


Stupid dumb idiotic agents and owners now even advertised their properties as...

-Need some TLC.

Julle dom kinders.
 
RedViking said:
Been renting the new place for a month now. The idiots havent fixed a thing yet on the first inspection list.
I am now half way through the list fixing the stuff myself.
I feel like an idiot. Hate being a good tenant. Hate investing my money on someone else's property. This is not home.
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It's crap. Especially since your dumbass landlord could be getting tax deductions on those repairs while you’re paying full price.
 
3WA said:
It's crap. Especially since your dumbass landlord could be getting tax deductions on those repairs while you’re paying full price.
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This is how I fix stuff. . They idiots had a single pool pipe in the hole with a packet tied around it. And I am responsible of the kitchen floods and damage the cupboard. 'tsek!

IMG-20220104-WA0191.jpg

IMG_20220105_124143.jpg
 
3WA said:
It's crap. Especially since your dumbass landlord could be getting tax deductions on those repairs while you’re paying full price.
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if you want to maximise yield, you buy in the best area you can afford, generally this will be a small flat in a sectional title, but the rental yield is high

the same rental yield can be achieved with a stand alone property in a suburb, buy the maintenance will mean you could potentially run tax loses- something which you may prefer to do

it also depends on the tenant, an ideal situation would be to have a contractor as a tenant- I'm close to that, I have a civil engineer and an electrician who likes carpentry as tenants

so its quite easy for me to just approve fixes they want to do around the property, and they are fair in their pricing

there was a break in a few weeks ago, they didn't want to stress me out so they didn't tell me and nothing serious was stolen or damaged, but last week they informed me, so I suggested electric fencing and the electrician happens to have a certificate to do that, so we are now considering our options
 
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RedViking said:
My tip to landlords:

5. Don't trust Agents and that they will take care of your property.
6. Assume all agents are snakes.
10. Agents do not always have your best interest in mind and do not truthfully communicate your tenants needs or concerns.
11. Visit the property once a year in person, do not trust an agent to do it. They don't know what they are doing in the first place.
Click to expand...
Definitely going to take care of the letting of my own property in future. The agents I have are beyond useless.

Some things they've done:
They act as though it's their property - not giving me the spare keys after politely requesting it twice, and the tenant had moved out.
Charge me 10% commission, which is what we agreed upon... only to find that they did that EX VAT.
Charged my tenant an early cancellation fee after I told them that I would like to waive it due to unforeseen circumstances.
Invoiced the tenant for February, even though she had vacated the premises and handed over the keys by the 17th of January.
Tacking on 10% commission on all repair and maintenance bills if they appoint someone to do the work. Luckily I noticed that clause and insisted that the contractors bill me directly.
Taking almost a week to respond when I tried communicating via e-mail.

The only good thing that came out of my relationship with the agent is my previous tenant, who was an absolute delight.
 
surface said:
What? Surely, tenants are not supposed to sort out these issues as you have to as a landlord?

Snakes need lot of food apparently. :-(
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Presumably if the pipes burst at 2 in the morning, they can at least get things started with the plumber.
 
3WA said:
15. If you get good tenants who pay on time and can flush a toilet without breaking it, do anything to hold on to them. Give them below-inflation increases, whatever it takes.
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First 3 tenants - absolute gems. Next one - so-so. Last one was ungrateful biaatch- gave him 40% discount for 4 months as he apparently lost his job but couldn't make him happy.
 
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surface said:
First 3 tenants - absolute gems. Next one - so-so. Last one was ungrateful biaatch- gave him 40% discount for 4 months as he apparently lost his job but couldn't make him happy.
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Got lucky with my first and only tenants. Didn’t break anything, paid on time, didn’t ever complain. But they’ve moved on and now I’m trying to decide if I still want to do this schit. But the damn flat is also not selling.
 
3WA said:
Got lucky with my first and only tenants. Didn’t break anything, paid on time, didn’t ever complain. But they’ve moved on and now I’m trying to decide if I still want to do this schit. But the damn flat is also not selling.
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I would do it if my buy2let place was within 5kms of place I live. I am thinking of selling in next 2 years. Managing property 25kms away is schlep, especially between tenants - to arrange show etc..
 
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3WA said:
Got lucky with my first and only tenants. Didn’t break anything, paid on time, didn’t ever complain. But they’ve moved on and now I’m trying to decide if I still want to do this schit. But the damn flat is also not selling.
Click to expand...
Also got lucky with my first and only tenant. He's been there now 11 years. Rent is 20% below similar properties in the area. I even offered a rent discount and deferment when covid hit by he still paid the full rent on time every month. January this year was a bit difficult for him as well February.

Anything that is my responsibility to fix he will fix up and we'll agree on an amount that he can withhold from the rent due.
 
How have peoples experiences been when they come to the end of a lease and the landlord needs to pay back the deposit, do they normally pay back the deposit with interest or do they need to be reminded that the interest is also due?
And is there an official guide for how the interest is calculated considering the rate must be linked to the interest rate and will vary?
 
Interest all depends, my honest view.

If tenants want interest, will gladly raise my rent yearly.

So, do you want to earn interest? Or rent for 5 years the same price?

Its a no brainer for me
 
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