new to the student letting market - where to advertise?

shaggy

I've been renting to professionals via rightmove for many years. Its currently empty so I want to try the student market now and wondered where best to advertise for student lettings?

My house is close to the local Uni (about 10 mins walk) and I know students rent in this area, but its not a 'premium' student lettings area because I have asked some student specialist letting agencies and they wont take up my house as theres 'better' student areas close by.

So , I'm wondering if anyone can advise me on where to advertise the house? Rightmove is really for professionals so I doubt that will be successful for a student let.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cisco001

spareroom.co.uk
easyroommate

GwylimT

You can contact the university housing department direct and they may be willing to allow you to advertise, many do this for approved landlords.

shaggy

GwylimT wrote: »

You can contact the university housing department direct and they may be willing to allow you to advertise, many do this for approved landlords.

the local Uni does this, but I tried this a couple of years ago and all I got were single individuals who were desperate to rent a room just a couple of weeks before term starts. I prefer to give to a group who know each other rather than rent each room indivdually so I ended up renting to a professional at that time.

Niv

shaggy wrote: »

the local Uni does this, but I tried this a couple of years ago and all I got were single individuals who were desperate to rent a room just a couple of weeks before term starts. I prefer to give to a group who know each other rather than rent each room indivdually so I ended up renting to a professional at that time.

Just to be clear, you cut out all the first year students this way.

What my landlord did was to go to the uni accomodation office on the day the students go looking for accomodation and 'hung around' outside chatting to people that wanted a place nearby.

May not be the most professional way to fill his rooms (and not the way I met him), but it did seem to work well for him and he had few issues with problem students (but that was probably due to him being a very good landlord imo).

Niv

I forgot to add, If you want groups that know eachother and so rent the house out as a whole you have missed the boat for this year. In my opinion the time to get these sorts of groups is nearing the end of term before students go home for the end of term break as thats when everyone I knew looked fo rtheir 2nd and 3rd year digs.

shaggy

Niv wrote: »

I forgot to add, If you want groups that know eachother and so rent the house out as a whole you have missed the boat for this year. In my opinion the time to get these sorts of groups is nearing the end of term before students go home for the end of term break as thats when everyone I knew looked fo rtheir 2nd and 3rd year digs.

well the house needs some work doing so i wasnt planning on renting to this years students anyway. I was planning ahead for next year

I have often heard of landlords 'hanging around' outside uni accomodation offices. Its not the way I can or even want to do things. Makes you look really dodgy which I am not! and besides with a full time job I really dont have the time to do this.

I also don't really want to put a sign up on the window saying 'House to Let'. Some local landlords do this and all they seem to get is really dodgy 'I am acting as the agent of some Nigerian students' type characters.


I'll try Spareroom and easyroommate as suggested above.

dimbo61

Have a look on Manchester Student Homes!

http://www.manchesterstudenthomes.com/Home

NOW is the time to put up an advert with your local university housing office ( IF they have one? )
Approved Landlords put online adverts with photos of the property and hopefully get phone calls from students who are looking for a 3/4/5/6 bedroomed house.
Contracts tend to run from July/September to June each year.
Lots of info on the MSH website about what you need to do and how the property should be IE ALARMS, Smoke alarms, condition etc

flea72

shaggy wrote: »

well the house needs some work doing so i wasnt planning on renting to this years students anyway. I was planning ahead for next year .

Returning students, ie second and third years have usually reserved their accommodation for next september, by the time they break up for christmas (so now). So as Niv said, if you want to rent the whole house to a group of friends, then you have missed the boat for next september.

silvercar

shaggy wrote: »

My house is close to the local Uni (about 10 mins walk) and I know students rent in this area, but its not a 'premium' student lettings area because I have asked some student specialist letting agencies and they wont take up my house as theres 'better' student areas close by.

If the professionals are telling you that it is unlikely to rent to students in groups, you may be better off looking for other markets.

My son is in Manchester and they are only now actively looking for September, it takes them this long to decide on who they want to live with.

shaggy

flea72 wrote: »

Returning students, ie second and third years have usually reserved their accommodation for next september, by the time they break up for christmas (so now). So as Niv said, if you want to rent the whole house to a group of friends, then you have missed the boat for next september.

yes I know. But its still useful to have a list of websites ready to advertise when I'm ready.