Richard Woodd
Kristy and Richard Kelly have seven residential rental properties, acquired over the past five years, in New Plymouth, Papamoa and Palmerston North.
Kristy (35) is a qualified accountant with Velocite Business Performance and Richard (37) a semi-professional rugby referee, primarily on the international 7s circuit; he also contracts to the family business, Exceed Maintenance. They have been members of the Taranaki Property investors’ Association since 2016.
Their application for the award said: “We bought our own home when Kristy was 19, Richard was 21. Although we took out a 30 year mortgage we set ourselves a goal to pay the mortgage off in 10 years. We actually paid it off in 7 years, becoming mortgage free at 26yo/28yo. We sold this property and purchased a larger family home and paid that off 3 years later. We had always talked about buying rental properties one day and seeing the success of paying down debt early, it gave us the confidence to buy our first rental property.
“For each rental property we have purchased, we use the equity from previous properties as the deposit. We gain equity from paying down our debt faster than the minimum requirements (by living well beneath our means) and also from capital gains over time.”
The judges (Jennifer Sykes, MBIE Tenancy Services manager; Pauline Beissel federation executive member, and Brian Kerr, author and tenancy issues commentator), said the couple easily exceeded the required threshold for the trophy.
The judges said the Kellys “have come up to speed quickly, putting in place an achievable goal, good business systems, and using IT to achieve excellent communication with their tenants. They are enthusiastic landlords and are responsive to the needs of their tenants.”
The judges liked the fact they are keen to encourage other young couples to become investors and landlords.
The Kellys scored high on positive relationships with tenants and resolving disputes: “We strive to treat our tenants exactly as we would like to be treated and treat their homes as if we were living in them ourselves. Our main form of communication is through Whatsapp because it is free, and acts as a group chat so all tenants can be kept informed and up to date.
“We give Christmas gifts to all our tenants. We have also left gifts of food or wine on the kitchen bench for new tenants.
“If we were to win the Landlord of the Year we would use the platform to share our investment journey withy others, particularly younger people, to potentially motivate them to start their own portfolio.
“We acknowledge that the reasons we have got to where we are today is through getting on the property ladder at such a young age, working hard and living beneath our means.”
The Taranaki Property Investors' Association are very proud to congratulate Kristy and Richard, who will be at our next monthly meeting, Tuesday 19th November. Come along and meet this amazing coupe!
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