How to turn your home into an investment property
Not everyone chooses to sell their current home when they decide to move on. Sometimes, it’s not even an option. If you’re looking to hang on to your personal home and turn it into a rental, there are a few things to consider first.
1. Wear and tear
This is perhaps the biggest thing homeowners need to know. As a rental, your personal home will experience more wear and tear than it otherwise would if you lived in it. Your garden will probably not look as immaculate as it once did, and your walls and floors may acquire new scuff marks. So, if you can’t shake off your emotional attachment to the property, you may be better off selling it rather than renting it.
2. Location
The location of your home can have a major impact on its rentability and how easy it is to find quality tenants. If you’re close to local amenities like schools, Waikato University, Waikato Hospital or public transport routes, you have a better chance of keeping your property tenanted.
3. Maintenance
If your home is high maintenance - perhaps it has a pool, a large garden, or old appliances - know that you’ll need to keep it maintained to a reasonable condition to meet your obligations as a landlord/owner. This may involve extra ongoing costs, or costs to remedy the amount of maintenance required.
4. Family homes do best
In Hamilton, family-sized homes do particularly well on the rental market. Four-bedroom houses in Hamilton fetch, on average, between $450 and $520 per week. As for the strongest performing suburbs, Hamilton East/University, Te Kowhai/St Andrews/Queenwood, Dinsdale South/Frankton, Dinsdale North/Nawton and Flagstaff/Rototuna have recently experienced the strongest rental growth for family-sized properties with three to five (or more) bedrooms.
5. Landlord responsibilities
When you turn your personal home into a rental, you will take on the mantle of landlord, which comes with its own set of responsibilities. This includes finding and screening tenants, conducting or arranging inspections, repairs and maintenance. It’s a lot to manage—especially if you’re no longer living in the region. It’s why so many investors hire professional property managers to take care of the day-to-day running of their properties. Moreover, their fees are tax deductible.
Important note: If you’re leaving the country for more than 21 days, you’ll need to either appoint someone as your landlord in your stead or hire a property manager.
6. Tax implications
If you turn your home into a residential investment, be aware that you may not be able to make tax claims against it. It always pays to talk to a professional accountant to make sure you set up your home-turned-rental properly to avoid issues with tax, ownership and debt allocation.
Poll: Should we ditch daylight saving? 🕰️
First introduced in New Zealand in 1927 with the passing of the Summer Time Act, it's what we know as 'Daylight Saving' and this year it ends on the first Sunday in April.
While we do get to sleep in this time around, some people would like to scrap the clock tinkering for good.
And why? Some evidence suggests the time changes are bad for our health as they mess with sleep patterns leading to short-term fatigue and affecting mood. Meanwhile the hour change is frustrating for farmers and a nightmare for getting the littlies to sleep. But what's your take?
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40.7% Yes - get rid of the clock changes
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57.5% No, I enjoy it
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1.7% Other - I'll share below
Don't overthink this riddle...
I have a silver sole
but no feet,
I make my living by bringing the heat.
What am I?
Do you think you know the answer? Simply 'Like' this post if you know the answer and the big reveal will be posted in the comments at 2pm on the day!
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Plan to keep cash alive
Keeping cash alive in rural Waikato towns is a big problem, but help could be on the way.
The Reserve Bank is proposing banks keep a minimum ability for their customers to access cash - often a lifeline in small rural communities where banks have cut branches and opening hours.
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