all set!!!!!!

rent_and_buy

Right then i am ready to rent our house,ive read a few books, trawled through all Landlord websites and feel im ready to proceed, ive also had 4 letting agents come round and have decided that i am better off trying to do it myself.

This is my plan, can anyone see any faults or problems i might encounter, any help would be well apreciated.

1. first of all marketing, i was going to use webresidential , to advertise my property on right move.
2. If i get any tennants who are interested, i will give them a viewing and if they are interested and i am happy with them, i will request 22.50 for single or 45 pound for a joint advanced references at rentchecks.com, so that i can take out the rent gaurantee at endsleigh 99 pound.
3. Arrange for landlords buildings insurance,emergency landlords homecare cover and safety certificates
4. Get AST agreement and get it all signed and filled in by myself and tennants, collect deposit and put it in the dps and give a copy of the details of the depost to the tennants withinn 2 weeks of the tenancy starting.
5. setup standing order for rent and have this paid in on the day of tenancy starts.
6. Do a inventory of the house and take photos of each room from different angles and the outside just before the tennancy starts and show the tennants electric and gas metres and take readings, get them to sign and date aswell has my self to agree readings.
7. Give them instruction booklets(copies) for boiler,alarm etc and also show them the stop !!!! and gas cut off also give them the numbers for homecare and my own personal contact number incase of emergencies.
8. Issue keys and add them to the inventry, and explain that i will be coming back in a month and i will be checking that all the utilities have been changed over to their names ie water, gas, electric, council tax and television license, i will then just do 3 monthly checks.

I hope this is some way to doing it right, im not in a position to do it yet has we have not found a property to move to, but the way i think i have planned letting my house out, i will be okay and should have everything covered.

The main worry for me would not to be paid the rent, but if the tennants pass the references, the rent gaurantee should kick in and they will get the tennants out with their legal team.

Having spoke to a few agents, they offered us the inventory, but i would have to question some of the references they were offering for checking tennants.

I thought after finding a tennant, i would just become another house to them, and i feel if anyone is going to look after it, it might aswell be myself.

If anyone can offer me any more tips it would be well appreciated.

cheers
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*jobags*

By safety certificates you mean gas safety certificates and energy performance certificates?

Get the tenant to sign the inventory with you (for what it's worth)

I would actually get a professional to manage the property on my behalf - even though I have an MA in Housing Management and 20 year plus of managing rented housing (social) I know what can go wrong - and when things go wrong, they can go terribly (and expensively) wrong

Which is why BTL never appealed to me - I suppose it's too much like work

Jo

rent_and_buy

*jobags* wrote: »

By safety certificates you mean gas safety certificates and energy performance certificates?

Get the tenant to sign the inventory with you (for what it's worth)

I would actually get a professional to manage the property on my behalf - even though I have an MA in Housing Management and 20 year plus of managing rented housing (social) I know what can go wrong - and when things go wrong, they can go terribly (and expensively) wrong

Which is why BTL never appealed to me - I suppose it's too much like work

Jo

yes i have the epc and the gas certificates comes with the homecare, i know things can go wrong, but from what ive read whether you have a agent or not bottom line it comes back to the landlord, so i prefer to make sure things are done properly.

Worse case scenario they wreck the place and dont pay the rent, ill get that all back with my insurances, and rent gaurantee will remove the tennants with their legal team.

Im not saying letting agents dont do it properly, but when i take out insurances and certain references need doing, i prefer to do it myself.

Geenie

Smoke alarms? Make sure you have this side covered. We also provide extinguishers around the house and fire blankets for the kitchen, but have a firm who deal with this side and check every year. Also if gas in the house I would have those carbon monixide readers. I met someone yesterday, whose husband died from carbon monixide poisoning in a rental property some years back. Very sad, as a young father with 3 children.

Good luck OP. It can be a lot of work, but you will learn an awful lot by doing it yourself and can build up a good relationship with tenants, which can work both ways to make renting easier.

grace1990

Just make sure you find decent tenants, mine are a nightmare and have only been there a month.

rent_and_buy

Geenie wrote: »

Smoke alarms? Make sure you have this side covered. We also provide extinguishers around the house and fire blankets for the kitchen, but have a firm who deal with this side and check every year. Also if gas in the house I would have those carbon monixide readers. I met someone yesterday, whose husband died from carbon monixide poisoning in a rental property some years back. Very sad, as a young father with 3 children.

Good luck OP. It can be a lot of work, but you will learn an awful lot by doing it yourself and can build up a good relationship with tenants, which can work both ways to make renting easier.

We have already got the smoke alarms fitted, ill have a word with the british gas engineer when he comes to do the gas certificates about getting the carbon monoxide reader.

cheers

rent_and_buy

grace1990 wrote: »

Just make sure you find decent tenants, mine are a nightmare and have only been there a month.

did you do a reference check on them? and at what level?

Im going to go for the advanced reference 22.50 but it goes back 6 years and you get the rent gaurantee, i know you will always have the odd tennant slip through, but i think you need to be very carefull, and i think its a must to do the proper checks.

One of the LA said to me when i asked why they didnt advertise on right move he said he was paying them a lot of money and getting very little business from it, he said he got most of his custom from people walking past the window, he went on to say he likes to see who he rents to and he can tell by the way they look and are when he speaks to them.:eek:

This sent alarm bells ringing, you cant tell how anyone behaves on one brief encounter, i know people who could sell snow to the eskimos, so theres no way ill be taking anyone on face value.

Plus if you do the correct checks and the tennants pass them , you can cover yourself with other insurances like rent gaurantee.

Geenie

Me and OH have only ever used local papers for the county and have never had any problem getting really a good response. Most people seem to know which day of the week has property in it, and therefore buy for those days. I had 2 lots of people last week to view, who were relocating from Durham and London for work, and found my place in local papers whilst on a weeks stay in the area.

Always reference and check, and if possible meet up with prospective tenants again. I am getting the people I am considering to come and have another look on Monday, just to make sure they are still happy and so am I, and will give them the application forms then.