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The question overseas buyers ask most often is not whether they can buy. It is who looks after the place afterwards. We have been doing that since 2019 — roughly 400 tenants currently live in properties we manage.
Why this is different
Most buyer's agents finish at settlement. Who moves in, whether the rent arrives, what condition the house is in three years on — all of it becomes somebody else's business.
We arrived from the other direction. Management came first; advisory came second. Since 2019 we have been buying houses in Adelaide, renovating them and letting rooms, and the advisory work began when clients asked us to look at properties the way we look at our own.
So the selection process carries a question most agents never ask: can this house actually be tenanted? The person who will manage it is at the table while it is being bought.
Rental return is not the yield in the listing. It is the number of months the property runs without a vacancy.
What we do
Advertising, inspections, application screening and referencing. Our background is in the international student market, so we know how that demand moves — rooms have to be filled before term starts, and timing decides the year.
Lease preparation, bond lodgement and release, and a documented entry condition report. These are the papers that decide a dispute two years later.
Collection, arrears management, and remittance to you. You can be paid into an Australian account or have funds sent to your home country.
Fault reporting, trade engagement, quoting and supervision. Minor repairs are handled within an agreed limit; anything above it comes to you first.
Routine inspections with photographic records, and periodic statements. You can see the condition of the property without being in the country.
We start before the lease ends. Advertising after a tenant has moved out means the month is already lost.
Annual income and expenditure summaries, prepared in the form your accountant needs for deductions and depreciation.
When a tenant makes contact, they get an answer. It sounds like nothing. It is the single largest determinant of vacancy rates and disputes.
Share housing
This is where Otherhome started. Rather than leasing a house to one household, rooms are let individually — in our case largely to international students.
The economics differ. A four-bedroom house becomes four tenancies and the gross rent rises above a single lease. It also takes considerably more work. Four agreements, four move-in dates, and shared spaces where problems originate.
Which is exactly why the outcome depends on who is running it. What we have built across 400 tenants is the operating system for that: onboarding, house rules, dispute handling, and turnover managed to the academic calendar.
It does not suit every property. Location, room configuration, distance to campus and parking all bear on it, and more often than not a single lease is the better answer. We will tell you which after seeing the property.
Coverage
Adelaide is home, and management here is the most hands-on. But buyer's agency operates Australia-wide, and management can be arranged outside South Australia as well.
If the property is in Sydney or Brisbane, we remain your single point of contact and coordinate whoever needs to attend on the ground. You deal with one office, in your own language, in a time zone that overlaps yours.
Fees
Rates are applied to monthly rental income. Disbursements such as letting advertising are charged at cost and billed separately. Precise terms are set out in the management agreement.
Contact
If you already own property in Australia and the management side is what's troubling you, start there. That conversation is worth having on its own.