Renter Hunger Games: Insider’s guide to securing a rental
With finding a rental the hardest it has been in more than a decade, experts have lifted the lid on their secret tips to make your application stand out.
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Real estate agents have lifted the lid on their secret tips to make your rental application sing.
From writing a resume for your pet, to spruiking your love of the property, to letting them know your love of gardening, it’s all in the details.
It hasn’t been this hard to find a rental in over a decade, with the market near record-low levels, the Courier-Mail revealed the renter hunger games on Saturday and the lengths some people had gone to in an attempt to put a roof over their head.
With little relief in sight, The Sunday Mail asked agents how applicants can stand out from the pack, with one saying you need to personalise your application rather than just another number in a pile of forms, tell the owners who you are.
According to The Proper Group property management principal Hanna Cunliffe it’s all about how you sell yourself and your family.
“If somebody knows something about you, whether it’s your sales or rental agent, particularly what you’re interested in and why you like the area, it personalises you a bit more,” she said.
“I’ll go more for people who are comfortable to tell you about their families and their pets
“For an owner if someone says what they do, this is why I like the area, it makes them people. You aren’t just another application then and that makes it a different thing.”
And the obvious things still help sell you to a homeowner, being organised and having everything ready to go shows you’re keen on the property, as you come up against dozens of others struggling in the same market that you are trying to rent in.
They also said before you submit your application, look at it from the owners’ perspective, believing it can make or break the deal.
Principal of Denovan’s Real Estate Lance Denovan said a way to stand out from the crowd was, if applying with pets, to include a pet resume – a way to explain how you intend to look after the animal, the waste, and how it will be housed at the rental property.
Mr Denovan said potential tenants need to ensure they had their applications ready to be lodged, before inspecting a property.
“If you’ve got that ready to go it sets you off on a really good path, because you can lodge that straight away,” he said.
“I’d say if there was a particular reason you wanted to live in that particular property, sometimes owners might resonate well with that.”
University student Meg Mettan, 19, said she had been looking for a new rental property for about a month and was shocked to learn what a “crazy and hectic experience” it would been.
“I’ve applied for two properties, and they haven’t been successful,” she said.
Ms Mettan said studying added to the pressure of looking for somewhere to live – and was even knocked back from being allowed to view a property by an agent after being “two minutes late”.
E-commerce brand owner Alisha Williams said she had been to six properties in the past few weeks, alongside groups of up to 40 people.
“I’m okay at the moment because I’ve got a lease until the end of July, but the closer that date comes the more panicked I get,” she said.
“But lot of these properties are close to $500 dollars a week for one bedroom, and they are not maintained at all.”
PropTrack Director of Economic Research Cameron Kusher said Brisbane rents were still climbing rapidly – up 2.9 per cent in three months, more than 16 per cent in a year and more than 30 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic.
He said a number of factors were contributing to the enormous rental stress current and prospective tenants were facing – including interstate migration, and a lack of supply – and desperate renters were offering more cash to secure properties.
“Logically, if people know a property is advertised at $550 per week and they offer $590, they have a better chance,” he said.
“But a lot of people don’t have the capacity to do that.
“A lot of people are just staying where they are even if their landlords are putting up the rent, because they see that as a better option than being back in the market and attending open homes alongside 30 or 40 people.”
TOP RENTAL TIPS
– Write a resume for your pets
– Profess your love for all things gardening and yard maintenance
– Personalise your application to let the homeowners know who you are
– Tell the owners how much you adore their property
– Be prepared, there’s lots of people applying have your stuff ready
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