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"We recently had a young student call our leasing agent Emma, looking urgently for somewhere to stay. He had arrived in temporary accommodation to start uni and was finding it incredibly stressful to find a property and was in urgent need of somewhere to live.
When he started speaking with Emma, he only had two days to find a property. She took him through one of our vacant properties that she had worked out was only a short commute to his uni and assisted him with getting the application in as quickly as possible.
Working with the owner she got it approved overnight and when speaking with him to give the approval he desperately needed the property and keys the same day.
Our office generally has a 1-2 day clearance on funds, but Emma explained the situation to me and given the circumstances we bent our policy and accepted a bank cheque so we could pass the keys over. The student didn't have a good understanding yet of bank cheques or money orders, and Emma guided him through the whole process and even ran up to the bank to get the funds banked the same day.
Emma has the most amazing relationship with the property managers and immediately started the process of getting the entry report completed so we could move him in with ease.
From the approval of the application, our new tenant had his keys within two hours.
This really stood out to me for a few reasons: Our market is quite crazy at the moment and Emma generally has anywhere from 30-35 properties she is leasing at a time, and we don't always have the capacity to really get to know people at the inspection time. We have heightened emotions when people are missing out on properties and meeting the demands of an investor and a tenant can be difficult. Emma really saw the human element here and just wanted to help and was on a mission to get a roof over his head."
- Alex Mees, head of department
What are some tips you would give international students on their rental journey?
I'd imagine it's very daunting coming to Melbourne, not knowing the process of renting. In order to strengthen an application, I would recommend asking the agent at the inspection to send through their parental guarantee form. By having this form already completed and attached to the application, we'll be able to put it forward to the owner faster. Another tip would be ensuring their visas are attached and university acceptance letters.
What advice would you have for landlords around international students?
I suggest owners read the applicants' bios to learn more about them. Don't discount an application just because they are a student! These students are here to study and have worked hard to get accepted into their respective universities.
How can you help international students as a leasing/PM professional?
In terms of helping students, I provide them advice on the areas of properties they are looking at, and if it would be a good location for their university. Remind them to have their documents ready and to only apply for the properties that they want to prioritise.
