How to Market a Rental Property Privately and Find Good Tenants

Managing your own rental is entirely legal in every Australian state and territory, and thousands of owners do it. The part that trips people up is not the paperwork — it is the advertising and the tenant selection, because a bad tenant costs far more than a property manager ever would.

Advertise where tenants actually search

Prospective tenants search realestate.com.au and a handful of other portals, filter by suburb, rent and bedrooms, and shortlist from there. Social media groups and noticeboards produce a trickle by comparison.

The portals only accept listings from licensed agencies, which is the reason private landlords historically could not advertise there. We are a licensed agency, so we lodge the listing for you for a once-off $200 until leased, with no ongoing management fee. See the lease your property privately page for what is included.

Set the rent with evidence

Search your own suburb on the portal, filter to properties of the same size and condition, and look at what is actually leasing rather than what is listed. Overpricing a rental is expensive in a way owners underestimate: two extra weeks vacant can wipe out a year of the extra rent you were chasing.

Photograph it properly

Tenants scroll. Shoot in daylight with the lights on, tidy every room first, include the kitchen, bathroom, each bedroom, the living area and any outdoor space, and lead with the strongest image. If there is off-street parking, air conditioning, or a dishwasher, show them.

Write the listing for the filters

State the rent, bond, available date, lease term, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, parking, heating and cooling, and whether pets are considered. Under Victorian rental laws a landlord cannot unreasonably refuse a pet, so a blanket refusal in the advertisement is a mistake as well as a deterrent.

Screen tenants consistently

Use the same process for everyone: a completed application, photo identification, proof of income, rental history with contactable references, and a check of a tenancy database if you subscribe to one. Apply the same criteria to every applicant and keep notes — anti-discrimination law applies to private landlords exactly as it does to agencies.

Do the compliance properly

Requirements differ by state, but the common obligations are a written tenancy agreement in the prescribed form, a condition report completed at the start of the tenancy, bond lodged with the relevant state authority within the statutory period, minimum standards met, and smoke alarms and any gas or electrical safety checks up to date. Get these right and self-managing is mostly routine; get them wrong and a tribunal will tell you so.

If you would rather ask a person, call us on 1300 622 300.