Chch boarding house - rent by room IP

[emmajane6]

Hi all,

I have just read the other threads on here re boarding houses/rent by room investments. I am totally ready for any slagging I am about to get as obviously these landlords don't get much respect.
We (family and I as a jv) are thinking of buying such a property in Chch, it is in a lovely area and close to good facilities, 5 mins to city (drive), 40 min walk 10 bed, 3 bath loads of parking, fully furnished and including power, internet, sky, weekly cleaner for common areas. CF+ by a small margin if we account for 80% occupancy. If/when interest rates drop CF+ by a large margin.
Has anyone done this sort of thing in Chch and had success/failure?
Just want to hear your stories, everything else seems to be based on AKL and its a totally different market.
Also the property is fully managed, each tenant signs an agreement (not RT) with the manager, only require 48hours notice to get rid of them and likewise.

Thanks in advance,
Emma

[Green Fish]

Have you checked all postings by "brettc" and "aston"? Looks to be a very specialised market.

[Aston]

Emma,

Ignore the slagging you may get on this site. It's just a male thing..... men just need to be right regardless of the facts. You will already know that there's no trying to understand how the male ego works.

There's a big difference between a well run "boarding house" and a remotely managed "doss house". The slaggers don't know this, they've clearly displayed this in previous threads.

A boarding house can and will be successful, regardless of the City you are in, if you are 'hands on' and closely involved in the management of the property. I note that you say the property is managed, I'd be VERY wary of this. A boarding house involves a lot more time and skills than many managers possess.

My personal opinion is that, to be successful, you must manage the property yourself and show your face on a daily basis. A live in manager can work but you must have total faith in this person along with a close and effective working relationship with him/ her.

If you set high standards for your boarding house and have strategies in place to achieve these standards, you will find this type of property to be a far more satisfying investment than the traditional investment property. It will occupy a LOT more of your time though.

Aston

[emmajane6]

Hi Aston,

Thanks for this, our manager only does rent by the room houses see www.roomfinder.co.nz there is no chance of me being hands on as I am in Sydney. We wanted a passive investment and this doesn't seem to be it, maybe we will have to re-think the idea.

Thanks,
Emma

[brettc]

Hi Emma,

I don't quite agree with Aston, in that we have several of these running succesfully under management BUT they are by no means passive.

Attempting to run one of these from another town would be a VERY brave call, and one I would only consider myself if there was some other motive for wanting the site (ie, future development opportunity)

[emmajane6]

Hi Brett, thanks for your reply.
My parents are in Chch and they will be 50% owners, they only live 2 mins around the corner from the house as well. Its just that I am in Sydney. How much vacancy do you budget for on a yearly basis? I have worked out 80% but maybe that is a bit optimistic??

[brettc]

For budgeting I always use 70%

In reality, occupancy is much higher at the moment, in my market at least (Auckland). I have no idea of ChCh of course.

[waiopehu24]

Emma,

Ignore the slagging you may get on this site. It's just a male thing..... men just need to be right regardless of the facts. You will already know that there's no trying to understand how the male ego works.

Haha I assumed you were a guy

[dannym]

Hi Emma, We own a boarding house - the one in Gisborne (which is for sale with a great yield) and it works very well with an inhouse manager.

We are based in Hastings. It does require the right person as manager. Our website contains all the information on our manager, the boarding house, and how we manage it week to week with the Manager.

If you want to read about it all let me know.

Regards

Danny

[emmajane6]

hi danny - yes please send me the website, thanks, we have just put an offer in!

[dannym]

HI

I am able to post the URLs yet, need a few more posts to be able to do that.

You might want to look at our boarding house too, it is offering 15.4% return..

Thanks

Danny

[Glenis]

Danny - you could just write the website address. Emma sounds bright enough to paste it into an address bar and hit enter :-)

[emmajane6]

Hi Danny,

I am in australia, costs me a lot to ring you but you can text it to +61405791927.

Thanks

[dannym]

hi

just read your posts sorry - I was not able to write the URL cause I had only posted a few times - this is the address - investment 2

https://www.actualgroup.co.nz

regards
Danny

[SuperDad]

Hi Emma,

In your original post you asked if there were any inssues to be aware of.

You wrote:

each tenant signs an agreement (not RT) with the manager, only require 48hours notice to get rid of them and likewise.

This sounds like a boarding house. There are GST issues with boarding houses. Are you aware of these?

Paul.