Hi Margaret

Visit www.mypropertymanagersa.com – that is my direct website – our tenant handbook is on there.  Don’t mind you getting ideas from that.

Darren Hunter also has made a new one recently which is available at I think approx $250 to $300.  I had a quick look – his seems to be mostly writing. 

Mine has lots of pics – have tried to make it as simple as possible.

Let me know what you think!

Sorry forget to mention that Darren Hunter has a New Tenant Handbook available.

Thanks Rachel

There are good ideas in both your suggestions.  I like all the pictures in your version. I’ve been working on a tenant booklet for our office lately and I’ve now got 24 pages. This idea just keeps growing! Now I’ll need to find some pictures to help break it up and make it more interesting—Lots of text will get boring. I am a bit concerned this booklet is going to turn into a novel.

Do you find the information booklet for tenants helps resolve tenancy issues as you go along as you can keep referring tenants back to the information they received at the beginning of their tenancy?  That what I’m hoping for. I feel if we are up front about our expectations and how things work then things should be smoother as the tenancy proceeds. This may be a solution to avoid messy vacates.

Margaret www.dmrealty.com.au

I have found that the tenant handbook has minimized the amount of calls that we get, because of the info that is in there.  I make tenants read it at the sign up appointment before I they even see a lease.  I then sit with then and ask them if they have any questions in relation to the handbook and iron those out before we even look at going through the lease.

It have helped general calls into the office also, as the staff are able to point them to the book and advise them it can be viewed on the website also.

As mentioned in many other posts there are always going to be a small percentage of people that make it their business to try to know the act better than you and unfortunately their main focus seems to be, to make things difficult (I think they have too much time on their hands) – but certainly with strict tenant selection, making expectations known from the beginning along with a thorough initial inspection and many many photos they don’t have a leg to stand on. 

The above certainly has made it an extremely small amount that we have problems with.  I have not been to the tribunal over a bond dispute in years. And only once this year for rent arrears which was from a tenant that I inherited from another agent.

This is a old forum .. but still a current topic.  

From an outsiders point of view, a tenant handbook would ensure everyone is in the loop regarding rules and regulations and expectations … so I would imagine, a handbook or similar would be an essential inclusion for any property manager.

A real estate client of mine, includes a tenant handbook, a welcome bag of goodies such as coffee, tea, soap etc  (this is where we fit in) .. plus vouchers from a local club for meal discounts.       This has been very successful and effective at building rapport and reducing tenant issues.