About

Introduction 

Thomson the family name you can trust

We believe that great service stems from understanding our clients' needs, developing a plan to achieve their goals and delivering results with a positive, pro-active attitude. Our philosophy is about providing the most professional service to you, ensuring your repeat and ongoing referral business.

The Thomson family is widely known through their involvement with Redkite, the Australian cancer charity providing essential support to children and young people with cancer, and Rotary Australia's Helping Hands project, which is a world community service assembling and fitting prosthetic hands to landmine victims. Our charity endeavours will continue to grow given the importance of giving back.

Selling

We believe we are all about building relationships; where our clients know that they can rely on our team to always put their interests first. We know that the people we sell to today will be the same people we will sell for tomorrow. Integrity and professionalism are the keystones to our business. 

We are constantly using new and innovative ways to market properties and add value with strategies that present properties to the market in the best possible light. These innovations have proven to work, which is reflected by our testimonials. 

We only succeed when our clients succeed. 

Property Management

Property Management is not just about collecting the rent; it is about providing the most comprehensive professional service to property investors. Selection of tenants, payment of property outgoings, organising repairs and maintenance and conducting ongoing inspections are all of paramount importance.

While it might seem like managing a rental property is a breeze, the reality is that there’s far more to it than just collecting the rent. It’s all those ‘extras’ which you need to consider when deciding if you want to manage your rental yourself (whether you own a single property or an entire portfolio) or to engage a professional.

What are those ‘extras’, you ask?

Well, generally they include things like:

Marketing the rental

Sourcing and screening tenants

Preparing a tenancy agreement

Collecting and lodging bond payments

Record-keeping

Negotiating and collecting rent

Taking care of tenant enquiries

Carrying out regular inspections

Managing the condition report process

Arranging for maintenance and repairs

Managing paperwork (taxation, insurance etc.)

Paying council rates and taxes

Reviewing legislation and lease paperwork

Renewing rent and leases

All the bits should things go wrong – like managing disputes, managing tenancy breaches, issuing termination notices, appearing before a tribunal or court, and making insurance claims.

Should you manage your rental yourself?

All those extras can be a lot. So you need to ask yourself if you have the time, skills and inclination to take it on. Before you automatically reply in the affirmative, it’s a good idea to consider one incredibly important aspect of property management – and that’s the legal element.

Managing a rental, requires you to be fully across the applicable rental laws and understand your obligations. As far as the law is concerned, ignorance is no defence. Many states and territories have recently amended and are implementing changes to tenancy legislation or are in the process of introducing legislative reform. This means those managing property leases need to be aware of the changes and how they apply in their situation. There’s a lot to wrap your head around to be up to date with legislation and all the regulations that apply to rental properties – not just the Residential Tenancy Act but also other applicable legislation which may include those pieces applying to building safety, strata laws, privacy and short-term accommodation.

Landlords who are happy to take on the responsibility and are confident they have the time and know-how often find that being hands-on suits them, especially if they live close to their rental, have a good long-term tenant and can spare the time to do the things that go into the day-to-day management of the property. In fact, many owners enjoy and are very successful at managing their rentals and take it on as a ‘job’. They also like the fact that they are saving on property management fees.

Should you hire a property manager?

On the other hand, if the thought of dealing with a burst pipe in the middle of the night, chasing up a tenant who’s in arrears, or any of the multitude of time-consuming responsibilities doesn’t appeal, then engaging a property manager may be the answer. It’s estimated that three-quarters of all landlords opt to have a professional manage their rental. The good news is that, like your landlord insurance policy premium, property management fees are often tax deductible!

The majority of landlords choose to use a property manager because they:

will take on the responsibilities of managing your tenants and property, as set out in the contract.

are required to be up to date with applicable legislation (it’s often a licensing requirement and agents should ensure they have the right professional indemnity insurance)

can advise you on your rights and responsibilities and those of your tenants.

are a neutral intermediary – a less personal relationship with tenants allows for a good dose of professional objectivity to address issues at the property and enforce the lease agreement (think issues like late rent, cleanliness, eviction, or matters that could void your landlord insurance like sub-letting or operating a business from the premises)

have resources to help manage the processes such as access to tenancy databases and property management software.

Basically, they can save you the time, stress and hassle of managing the property yourself.

Where do insurers stand?

Using a property manager is generally supported by landlord insurance providers (in fact, some landlord insurers, like EBM RentCover, will only cover properties under professional management). Why? Because having a professional involved can help minimise certain risks, like poor tenant selection, rental losses, tenant damage, and maintenance and repair issues. As property managers often find themselves offering a 24/7 service, they can also get on top of incidents at the rental that can lead to claims escalation and be able to get someone onsite quickly to act to prevent further loss (another obligation in the insurance policy), for example putting a tarp on the roof to stop more water entering when the roof is damaged during a storm.

We understand managing a rental can be complex, especially in terms of legal obligations and requirements (which can have an impact on insurance cover), and we believe a great property manager is worth their weight in gold.

So, landlords… now that you understand what is involved in managing a rental property, the choice is yours – to self-manage or engage a professional. What will you do?

In our experience, when investors receive great service with the management of their property it gives them confidence with purchasing more investments. Our partners use Thomson Property Group as a preferred asset manager for a very good reason, we do, what we say we are going to do!!