Being active doesn’t always relate to your fitness!
Reaching the end of February came with a massive sigh of relief, however we are only just beginning to get our breath now! Aswe continue to push ourselves to reach further, we reflect on this busy time and we take a look at what all our hard work and determination has achieved.
We had a fabulously busy month, with a total of 40 new tenancies commencing during the four weeks (we leased 49 during the month).
Traditionally we are usually flat chat during mid January to mid February. This year, the “January rush” started a little later than usual, with activity really picking up the first week of February.
We found that many tenants relocated for two main reasons – rents not being negotiated enough to adjust to tenants’ view of current market values and the tenants perception that maintenance was not attended to within their acceptable time frame. We still had a lot of movement out of Darwin and new people moving here too.
The Darwin average time on market reached 48 days and with over 1250 are available across Darwin it is evident that an aggressive marketing campaign is essential for the success of leasing vacant property in a reasonable time frame. Ensuring exposure, with attractive photographs and a well presented property are all key in this market – to be seen, attract interest and get people to view.
Absolute Real Estate are increasing the exposure for your properties through video tours that are loaded to YouTube via Realestate.com.au and Domain.com.au. This enables us to lease property sight unseen – something that virtually no other Agents offer prospective tenants. We are also doing “facetime” viewings with prospective tenants.
Our Leasing Manager is working around the clock booking in viewings at any time people want – including many appointments across Saturdays and Sundays, and late into the evenings most days. We are in the top two performing agents for leasing again this month (realeaste.com.au statistics).
We are also seeing a steady growth in our business. We are very humbled and happy by the confidence our clients are demonstrating.
As we move into April and the dry season approaches (well – this rain has to stop some day soon!) we recommend all reticulation systems are checked and serviced in readiness. Schedule your annual garden tidy, arrange your garden beds to be re-mulched. External pavers or concrete surfaces, the areas around pools that need sealing – schedule these works that need doing or arrange quotes for these works so that contractors are booked in and delays are avoided.