Renting out property or hang fire - advice/tips please?

Nosht

Go through an agent, it will cause you less hassle in the long run.
After a few years then review this.

Regards,

N.

P.S. Martin & Co. are excellent.

Tyler_Du

I was pretty much in the same situation as you late last year, I didn't really have any intention of moving but always thought that it might be a good time to move up the housing ladder. I would keep an eye on what property was available on the market and had found a house that was pretty much our 'dream property'. The seller was moving abroad and as such they wanted a (very) quick sale. We were lucky that we were mortgage free, we couldn't of sold our house in that time scale so decided to rent it out instead, we had just finished renovating the kitchen and had pretty much spent the previous 10 years 'doing up' the house (new kitchen / bathroom, hardwood floors, etc).

I did research, both online and using books, infact I bought this book - Renting Out Your Property for Dummies. We went through an agent to find the tenants and do the credit checks / energy certificate / landlords gas safety certificate / take deposit, etc.
We decided to manage it ourselves, I'm confident with most DIY / maintenance tasks that might need doing (plus my Dad is a builder). My wife doesn't work so she takes any calls etc from the tenants. I work 5 miles from the property, so I'm able to go there after work should the tenants report any problems.

The current weather has caused us a few problems, but I think we've handled it ok. Its working for us at the moment and I kinda wish I'd done it years ago, I partly suspect though that it could quite as easily have gone the other way and been a nightmare, its still early days.

I would say go for it tbh

Assuming things go well, I'd like to keep renting the propery out in the long term.

Fire_Fox

Never become an accidental landlord, go into it with your eyes open and behave in a professional manner at all times. If these boards are anything to go by amateur landlords either (a) get taken for a ride by professional tenants or (b) become an honest tenant's worst nightmare.