Letting Property - No Idea What I'm Doing

Prothet_of_Doom

Can I say, that based on reading a number of posts, you should be prepared to read and understand as much about letting, as you'd expect a good letting agent and a good solicitor to understand. That is don't let them pull the wool over your eyes. Good Luck. You have made a viable start.

franklee

C22DTJ wrote: »

It's just that if we sell now, we may make a loss, whereas if we can let for 6 months (without the place getting trashed), and negate our monthly outgoings, then if the market continues to move positively, we may raise further equity.

Bear in mind that moving is costly for a tenant so I doubt many tenants would want a six month let. You may get someone waiting to buy or something but it would cut your tenant choices. Also I assume you would tell them upfront it was a short let, otherwise it will come as a shock to have to move again so soon. Long lets often start with a six or 12 month tenancy that then goes periodic or is renewed with another fixed term. So a tenant would not know yours is a short let from the initial contract length alone.

Suggest you put some void time in your budget as well. You may get more or less depending on demand and how the dates fall. Bear in mind many tenants need to give a minimum one months notice to leave their current place if they want to move into yours.