During this stage, you would have done your research into the area and your builder and carefully appointed a solicitor, a mortgage broker, an accountant and a financial planner to make sure everything has been set up correctly when signing your contract.

At this time, you should also be looking for a managing agent; we can provide you with a Comparative Rental Analysis (CRA) of similar properties in the same area to give you an idea of the rental return you could achieve.

While your property is being built, we are regularly communicating with you to keep you updated as much as possible. We’re also regularly communicating with your builder to find out the estimated date of completion; timing is not only important for you as the investor but also for us as the managing agent as we need to know when the property will be available for us to start sourcing tenants.

At this stage, your property is ready to be inspected by you or your representative (normally a building inspector) before the final payment is made. The property should almost be completed apart from the installation of appliances or landscaping. This is also the stage where we’ll be able to get in to have photos taken and start advertising your property, with the aim to have prospective tenants interested in viewing your property as soon as handover is completed.

Any defects that are picked up on at the inspection should be rectified by the builder before handover.

Once everything else has been completed, any defects have been rectified and the final payment has been made, we will meet the builder at your property to take possession of the keys on your behalf.

At the handover, we’ll be looking for any defects that may have been missed, testing the keys and ensuring the property is ready for tenants, usually while the builder is there to advise if any rectification is required.

After handover, there is a builder’s warranty period which provides the opportunity to advise your builder of any building defects. The builder is required to have these attended to as part of the Queensland Building Code. Please note that appliances that have been installed normally have their own warranty period and aren’t covered under the builder’s warranty.

These defects are usually picked up on by the tenants or by our agency during the first routine inspection and are actioned promptly; we’ll not only notify the builder for immediate action but will also keep you updated with the defects (if any) that were found.

One month before the warranty period is due to expire, we’ll get in touch with your tenants to see if there are any other building defects and will report these to the builder to ensure they’re covered under the warranty.