First time landlord!!No clue!

Thunderbird_2

Hi

Thank you all for your helpful replies.

I will have a look at that website for insurance and I will see what my insurers offer me ( Or does it have to be a special insurer? )

I will give landlordzone a visit and I will contact an estate agent as well to see if they recommend any Gas corgi person and electrician to do the test and certificates.

What else do I need to do/ know?

Many thanks for your time and efforts

P.S it is a 3 end terraced house in the midlands

Trollfever

Have you prepared a business plan?

sooz

First, I want to congratulate you for coming back to post after the inital responses you got. :j Whilst they are right that you do need to do a LOT more research, you came on here asking for help.

Go and speak to a lot of good agents (those who belong to ARLA or NAEA)Take away their lettings packs and have a read through them. Don't just go with the cheapest. Ask them about all their fees, not just the inital percentages...including VAT, inventory fees, contract fees, renewal fees, fees to tenants. Ask about their management terms, out of hours contact info for tenants, regular contractors fees.

Speak to your local council about their HMO rules. I know TJ27 mentioned this, but in my council any rented property with more than 2 sharers needs a licence, not just those with 3 floors.


Whilst you are sorting out an agent, find all the instruction books for anything you are leaving, and photocopy them.

Take the originals with you, and leave a large folder of instructions for every appliance in your house. start another folder with some local info leaflets (doctors/dentists/library/police station/parks/playgroups/pubs etc) which will always be appreciated.

Also take the time to sort out all those little repair jobs that you never got round to fixing whilst you were living there. If you are 150 miles away, a small job turns into a huge journey, or a large bill with the mark up from the rental agent.

Get your boiler serviced and get a Gas safety certificate issued.

You didn't mention if you are planning to rent furnished or unfurnished. If furnished, check that all soft furnishings have the correct fire label on them. Pack away anything that has a sentimental value.

Start cleaning everything. Including all the bits you don't normally. You want the house back in the same state of cleanliness that you let it out in. That would be spotless .

Thunderbird_2

Hi

We don't have a business plan as we have been forced into this situation.
I don't know what to plan apart from having to get the house ready for the potential tenants and get an estate agent to look after it, that's it really!!

The rent won't cover the mortgage monthly repayments. We are going to subsedise (sp?) by about £150 up to £200.

We plan to let it out as partly furnished, leaving a double bed, two single divan beds, two sofas, conservatory furniture, blinds and curtains, dining table, washing machine, fridge and a microwave. We don't have manuals for all of them. Do we need to get a manual for the boiler, microwave or washing machine?

Many thanksto all of you.

sooz

Wow, that is quite a shortfall in rent.

Is this including agents fees? Have you made any allowances for void periods, repairs etc?

How long are you planning to be away for? Have you added up how much this will be over the whole term of renting, against your redemption penalty?

Have you asked if you can port your mortgage, and then not lose out on the redemption fee?

Thunderbird_2

Hi

We are on repayment type of mortgage. The interest we are paying at the moment is £525 per month plus £225 towards the capital. The rent is about £600 for our kind of house and can be pushed up to £625 or even £650 as it is not that old, built in 1995, and it has a drive way for two cars, conservatory, large refitted kitchen diner, large lounge, two double bedrooms, one of them with fitted wardrobe, single bedroom, upstairs fresh looking bathroom, downstairs toilet full central heating and a shed in a quiet area with excellent motorway connections ( and no, I am not marketing my house here, but, just in love with it!!!lol)

Our target group would be a professional couple with/ without children, family in general.

So, after the discount deal runs out, we will switch to interest only mortgage, so rent will be just covering the interest and the estate agents 10% fees. We are thinking to have an estate agent to manage it for this year as we obviously know nothing about this business. by the way, is there a way around the estate agnets renewal fees or any other fees?

THank you again for taking the time and effort in helping us out with this matter

PasturesNew

Also, read posts like this and think about how you'd cope if this were you:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=619891&highlight=fire

sooz

Thunderbird wrote: »

by the way, is there a way around the estate agnets renewal fees or any other fees?

Negotiation

Lavendyr

OK, so you're not actually in shortfall - because what's typically covered in a BTL is the interest, not capital repayment. So assuming you get £600 pcm, you are covering the £525 pcm.

However as above you do need to make sure that you have money to pay the mortgage during the months when a tenant is not in place, or if the tenant does not pay up. You also need to be able to afford any unexpected repairs - for example, to the boiler as well as any other appliances you leave in the house (are you providing an oven by the way? Would be strange to provide microwave, washing machine and fridge but no oven).

It is probably a good idea to shop around for letting agents if you can as 10% seems quite high to me even for fully managed. We rent through a local agency and they charge landlords 6% for their fully managed service. See what you can find to minimise that expenditure. Also make sure that they have a decent reputation, though - ideally get recommendations from others - as you want to be sure that they will call you if there's a problem, that they know what to do in terms of legal aspects (how to evict tenants correctly), and so forth.

Thunderbird_2

Hi

Yes, we can pay the mortgage if there was a void month or two or even more. As for if the boiler breaks down, I think I will be able to afford fixing it.

Oh, the kitchen has got a built in oven with gas hob and an extractor hood.
Two smoke alarm on each floor and a burglar alarm are also fitted.

Thank you for your continous support