Renting Our Home Out - Advice Needed

IrishGypsy

Hey all,

Both my wife and I are moving 'down south' to new and improved jobs and we put our house up on the market with a EA over 4 weeks ago. We haven't had a single person come visit and we're both moving at the start of August, so we're not in the position to ride out sitting at home with no viewings.

So we're looking at renting the house out to at least ensure the mortgage is paid (as keeping both a mortgage AND rent covered isn't exactly financially viable, even with our better salaries).

But as neither of us ave been landlords (just tenants in the past), I was hoping those more experienced as landlords could share a few of the common pitfalls to keep an eye out for, or part with a few golden nuggets of help to ensure we cover the !!!!!! of both ourselves and any future tenants.

Any and all help would be most genuinely appreciated! :beer:

BitterAndTwisted

Search this forum for similar threads. This question and others like it are coming up on the forum on a daily basis. This is not likely to be a risk-free venture. If you have a choice I would suggest that you sell at whatever price you can get. Your not having any viewings suggests to me that your asking-price is not realistic in the current climate.

Werdnal

Firstly, as you state you have a mortgage, have you asked their consent to let? Some lenders agree, but put extra clauses and costs on the loan, other refuse. Without their permission, you cannot proceed so do this first.

You house insurance would also be void, as you are no longer living there. Get minimum of buildings cover, or more comprehensive landlord based policy would probably be better.

I would 2nd searching the forum, as there is a lot of good information here about letting and advice for 1st time LL's. However, you must be aware that you need to:

credit check and thoroughly reference any potential tenants
draw up a legally binding tenancy agreement.
draw up a full and thorough inventory for the property, the condition of each room, including colour and state of decor, and any carpets, fixtures and fittings - get tenants to sign and give them a copy of this.
protect any deposit you receive in a scheme
declare any income for tax.
observe your repair and maintenance obligations as a LL (living away from the property area this can be difficult)
Read, learn and inwardly digest everything you can about giving notice on your property, what to do it tenants fail to pay, and how to legally evict.

Letting a property is not always the answer - there is a lot that can go wrong, and depending upon rent to cover the mortgage can quickly go sour if the tenants go bad!

In your position, I would seriously think about getting a good letting agent on board (although it costs, it can save you a lot of hassle in the long run as you will not be near the property to handle any repairs or other crisis that arises).

Once you have searched the forum, if you have any specific questions, ask again.

G_M

Yes, we really do need a sticky!

Lots of info for you here!

sequence

Since you can't afford to rent and pay a mortgage, I think this is a non-starter. Don't go any further!

Reduce price until it sells.

satchmeister

How are you going to sell it with tenants in place (or will you keep it as a BTL investment)? The tenants may not allow viewings and may decide not to pay the rent. In any event it is highly unlikely that you can exchange until the tenants move out and then if the buyer pulls out after you have given notice then you are back to square one.

At the right price it will sell now, it could be more difficult to sell after it has been rented out.

IrishGypsy

sequence wrote: »

Since you can't afford to rent and pay a mortgage, I think this is a non-starter. Don't go any further!

Reduce price until it sells.

Thanks everyone for the input, there's already plenty of food for thought, so it's all appreciated

With regards to the price, my wife paid £50k of the house from her own funds as the deposit, so she's obviously keen not to lose any of that. We've left some wiggle room on the price (we started at £245k, but bought it for a bit less than that when the HI's are all factored in), although there's not a ton of room left.

I'll check out that link properly asap as well G_M! :beer:

Oh, and my mortgage is with Santander (my employers), and from what I understand from my mortgage adviser colleagues, is that I can fill in a form to provide consent to let, but I'll call up the mortgage team tomorrow to seek further clarification.