Help please - sell or rent

MEM62

In my experience, most letting agents are poor - no matter how good their banter when trying to get you to sign up. Has your daughter considered the full costs of being a landlord, agent fee, insurances, safety inspections and income tax. If that rent figure of £400 is gross she will end up with far less than that in her pocket.      

saajan_12

Not saying you can't let it out, it works for some people, but you should know what will be involved even with a letting agent. 
- you still pay for repairs, and may need to get involved to sign off or take the risk that the agent chooses an expensive option
- if the agent sits on their hands with finding a tenant, you suffer the rent void, so may need to be on top of them
- if the agent chooses a poor tenant who damages property / stops paying, you'll lose out on rent and have to pay for damages. Most agents will carry out references, but sometimes that's a tickbox exercise, and you might want to be more subjective. 
- ultimate legal responsibility remains with LL, eg for steep penalties and inability to evict if the agent gets something wrong with deposit / fees / gas certs / electric certs / notices etc etc
- if the agent made a mistake, you'd have to be 100% on top of your contract with them to make sure that's covered and chase them for your losses as a result (possibly via court)

lookstraightahead

Angela_D_3 said:

We rent out the family home when we relocated snd it was very straight forward and simple.  Even when we had bad tenants the agent just got rid of them and recovered the debts.  Don’t believe all the horror stories 

Do you still have it?

yksi

If you're getting viewings but no offers then one of two things is happening: either there is something in the flat they couldn't see from the ad and they don't like it, or the price is too high.

One year... my bet is that the price is too high. Drop the price. If the price were correct then someone would be willing to overlook whatever else is putting people off making an offer.

Don't be tempted to rent it out, times have never been worse for reluctant landlords and selling it with tenant-in-situ is going to KILL the sale price right now.

Angela_D_3

lookstraightahead said:

Angela_D_3 said:

We rent out the family home when we relocated snd it was very straight forward and simple.  Even when we had bad tenants the agent just got rid of them and recovered the debts.  Don’t believe all the horror stories 

Do you still have it?

I rent out a different property,  never had an issue.  Choose the agent and the tenant wisely and all is fine in my experience.  And if it’s not fine you follow the legal process and recover what you need to.  I would never accept a tenant without a guarantor for example,  working or not 

AlexMac

Another vote that you should sell; and that despite the fact that I've been incredibly lucky with my two little ex-local authority Buy to Lets over the past 23 and 10 years respectively.

- Never a bad tenant (but there are horror stories),
- massive capital gains (but you won't get that in the next few years),
- good responsive builders/maintenance engineers (but then, I have good contacts, don't go through an agent and am never afraid to cough for a new boiler, washing machine, freezer etc the day they break!),   
- low routine service charges and an efficient and responsible freeholder (generous too- when they decide to replace the windows or externally decorate every 5-8 years, they let me spread the typical £4-5k one-off cost) .

Can you guarantee similar luck?

One caveat; I now currently let one BTL via a Social landlord; a Housing Association on a long term licence.  That has meant guaranteed rental income, no voids nor management costs; they even handle maintenance including central heating and annual safety checks.  If you really can't face dropping the price to sell the flat, check if your  freeholder will allow this, then if your local Council or Housing Associations offer similar deals; round here, they'll bite your hand off.  Only downside will maybe be more wear and tear but that'll fix.

Crashy_Time

steampowered said:

Personally I would hold your nerve and sell. The market has been very busy in most of the country. 

The fact that the property is getting viewings suggests that people do want to buy it.

Is the property realistically priced? If the property is priced too ambitiously, that will discourage people from making offers. Have a look at what other similar properties are listed for in the local area. It could be worth reducing the asking price a bit.

I think that was my line?

Crashy_Time

hazyjo said:

OP - I agree with those saying drop the price. Or put a link up in case there's something glaringly obvious which you've not mentioned (which prob won't be changeable anyway). Even then, it will come down to price. If the flat just needs a bit of love, it might be worth trying to improve it first.

Looks like we agree on something?

lookstraightahead

Angela_D_3 said:

lookstraightahead said:

Angela_D_3 said:

We rent out the family home when we relocated snd it was very straight forward and simple.  Even when we had bad tenants the agent just got rid of them and recovered the debts.  Don’t believe all the horror stories 

Do you still have it?

I rent out a different property,  never had an issue.  Choose the agent and the tenant wisely and all is fine in my experience.  And if it’s not fine you follow the legal process and recover what you need to.  I would never accept a tenant without a guarantor for example,  working or not 

I've been a landlord and a tenant. I wouldn't want to be a landlord now. Not because of bad tenants but because of all the new legislation.

Thrugelmir

Mark00Thorpe said:

 they estimate £400 per month her mortgage is £330 per month.

Crunch the numbers fully and properly. You may find the net profit after tax uncomfortably low, and that's if there's full occupancy.