In late 2014 I was offered a small rent book from some fellow members of the Canterbury Property Investor’s Association. They had approached me as they felt my boutique style agency would suit their owners, and in May 2015 these owners moved across to Ruby Housing.

One couple own some blocks of rentals in Christchurch. Brad and Bridget live out of town and only travel to Christchurch occasionally, so it’s crucial they have eyes and ears on the ground to look after their investments.

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• Kim Willems
• Managing Director

This is what our owners have said:

We had originally been managing our own properties when we lived in Christchurch, however after the earthquakes we decided it would be better for our family if we moved out of town. We are long term investors, and prefer properties with multiple income streams. We like to be pro-active in dealing with maintenance and improvements, we want the flats to stay up to date and definitely don’t want them to end up tired and slum-like. We’ve had some very long term tenants, one stayed for around 20 years, and the next longest has now been in her home for over 16 years. So we’re certainly in it for the long run!

We had found a small local company originally to look after our rentals when we moved away, but they decided to specialise in another part of management. So we were advised that the management contract had been sold to Ruby Housing. That was over 4 years ago.

One thing that’s really important to us is knowing our rentals are well looked after. That is more than just collecting the rent and organising maintenance. Since we don’t get back to see the rentals very often we want to have good information in the inspection reports, and to know ahead of time if tenants will be leaving at the end of lease, or if there are any maintenance concerns expressed by tenants. Having this information on the front page of the report is really helpful, and we understand Ruby Housing is working with the newer inspection software provider to get this embedded.

We also feel it’s really important to be able to discuss improvements to the flats and plan for these, we are pro-active landlords and allocate funds to take care of other aspects that will keep tenants warm, dry, happy and make the flats easier to let.

The newsletters are great, lots of relevant information on tenancy law changes, but also good suggestions on what to do each season, or how to attract quality tenants.

We trust Ruby Housing to make the right decisions on our behalf, but also appreciate that they work with us to look after our investments, and keep us involved in the process as much or little as we’d like. If we ever have questions we just call or email and get a quick response, knowing who is in the office is a great benefit of a boutique sized company.

Brad and Bridget