Letting? Your top tips please.

DRP

Interesting blog from a housing law specialist. A LL who failed to protect the deposit and tenant was awarded 2x deposit (with judges reasoning) :
http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/2015/06/how-late-it-was-how-late/

shakyhandbob

£700 a month for a gardener, surely some mistake. I'm a gardener & I don't earn that much from all my customers combined!:)

randm

just want to bump this thread as very useful.

Prothet_of_Doom

We spent the best part of 2015, researching and procrastinating, with a view to becoming a Landlord.

In December we took ownership of a nice family semi, and prepared it for letting, and had a family move in at the End of Jan 2016.

One thing I learnt from my research is that Letting agents are mediocre at Best, and will use smoke and mirrors to generate more cash from the Landlord and from the Potential Tenant.

We decided that we would attempt to market the property ourselves, obtain and modify the tenancy agreement, create our own inventory and condition report, and checklists.

We got information from here, landlordzone, shelter (always understand the "enemy" lol), and https://www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk

The actual tenancy agreement was downloaded from the Governments Own Website but we cut everything relating to tenancies over 12 months out of it.

When we came to market, we used https://www.Openrent.co.uk and I took all the photos and created a floor plan (not to scale just like a real estate agent lol), and £24 got us on rightmove zoopla gumtree and others. We priced it keenly, taking into account the savings of not having a letting agent involved.


https://www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/liverpool/3-bed-semi-detached-house-chesterfield-road-l23/105796

We had 30 expressions of interest and did viewings on 5, of which 3 wanted it. The vetting of the tenants cost them £20 each (which came to £60 because they needed/wanted a guarantor)

We are close enough to the property to do the viewings (5 miles), and pop in to do any repairs, and I'd rather find my own contractors than trust a letting agent.

I truly believe you need to understand MORE than any letting agent. You need to understand ALL your obligations, have a back up plan for the potential problems that may arise, and treat it like you are gambling the family silver. (You need to understand the race horse and the course )

G_M

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

I truly believe you need to understand MORE than any letting agent. You need to understand ALL your obligations, have a back up plan for the potential problems that may arise, and treat it like you are gambling the family silver. (You need to understand the race horse and the course )

See:

Tenancies in Eng/Wales: Guides for landlords and tenants


Topics covered:

* Repairing Obligations, (draft in progress to include new 1/10/15 rules banning retaliatory eviction)

* Deposits: payment, protection and return

* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

* Rent increases: when & how can rent be increased?

* Repossession: what if a LL's mortgage lender repossesses the property?

* New landlords: advice, information & links

* Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

Prothet_of_Doom

G_M wrote: »

See:

Tenancies in Eng/Wales: Guides for landlords and tenants


Topics covered:

* Repairing Obligations, (draft in progress to include new 1/10/15 rules banning retaliatory eviction)

* Deposits: payment, protection and return

* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

* Rent increases: when & how can rent be increased?

* Repossession: what if a LL's mortgage lender repossesses the property?

* New landlords: advice, information & links

* Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

It should be on the national curriculum (like personal finance should be)

talkchat

Hi - it's worth making sure you're clear on what being a 'landlord' means. I often think of this phrase 'if you think good advice is expensive, wait till you see what bad advice costs!'

basil92

Do the various Landlord Associations offer similar (re being a Residential Landlord) or are any preferable to the others? There seem to be many and if using a LA is it still beneficial to join one?

G_M

The RLA & NLA are both national associations and offer broadly similar services. Compare their respective websites for full details.

There are many local associations which offer the benefit of local meetings, and the possibility of meeting/swapping experience with other local LLs.

Make sure your local association is affiliated to one of the big nationals too, so that you also benefit from their wider product offerings and better discounts based on size.

If youplan to be one of those LLs who just hand everything over to an agent and (hopefully) forget about it, then don't join. Provided all goes well, you'll be fine.

If all does not go well (do you read many threads on this forum??!!) being a member of an association will be well worthwhile.

basil92

G_M wrote: »

The RLA & NLA are both national associations and offer broadly similar services. Compare their respective websites for full details.

There are many local associations which offer the benefit of local meetings, and the possibility of meeting/swapping experience with other local LLs.

Make sure your local association is affiliated to one of the big nationals too, so that you also benefit from their wider product offerings and better discounts based on size.

If youplan to be one of those LLs who just hand everything over to an agent and (hopefully) forget about it, then don't join. Provided all goes well, you'll be fine.

If all does not go well (do you read many threads on this forum??!!) being a member of an association will be well worthwhile.

Thanks G_M.

Yes I have done nothing but read all your very informative threads about being a landlord on this forum, plus the many many more.

And I'm still reading before I decide anything.

Thanks.