Revealing landlords’ common fears
In the UK the rising price of properties, especially in London and the South East, has meant that the rental property sector has been burgeoning over the last few years, although there are signs of something of a slowdown as demand decreases and more properties become available.
This may well be just a temporary blip and of no real concern to landlords who know that investing in rental property generally proves to be a very sound longer-term move. However most do have some very legitimate concerns about a number of aspects of renting properties out to tenants. But they’re by no means insoluble problems and here are some very practical ways to solve them.
Difficulty in finding good tenants
Every landlord wants the same thing – to find good tenants who respect the property and pay their rent on time. While there are horror stories of the tenants from hell, finding good and reliable people is easy if you use the right property management company who vet all prospective ones carefully by interviewing face to face and following up references.
Risk of having an unoccupied property
However well things are planned there’s always the risk that there will be a gap between tenancies when the property will be unoccupied. This could mean that vandalism could occur or, even though we’re a long way from the squatting heyday of the 1970s, unwanted visitors could still move in. So it would be a good idea to arrange for someone to visit the property on a daily basis to make sure that everything is in order as well as giving the impression that the property is occupied.
Costs of repairs
Any costs of repairs inevitably eat in to the profit that landlords make on a property. One of the best ways to avoid this is to provide high quality accommodation which is well equipped as this will minimise breakdowns and damage in the first place. If you can rely on the services of a reliable handy-person who can carry out the maintenance quickly and cheaply that’s great. However, there are sometimes issues that can’t be fixed so simply, so also having first class landlord insurance is vital. Choose the right policy and it will not only pay for repairs it can even reimburse you for lost rent if the property becomes inhabitable.
Rising rents driving away tenants
If you do have reliable tenants the last thing you want to do is put the rent up so much that they decide to move out – although the trend is more for rents to go down at the moment. However you may find that you do need to increase the rent to cover costs but by only making a reasonable increase and explaining clearly to your tenants why this is necessary it should help to persuade them to stay.
Following on from this final point, having a good relationship with tenants and offering quality accommodation at a reasonable price are generally the two best ways to enjoy stress-free renting. It’s only when tenants feel that they have cause for a grievance that problems can arise – so avoid this and you’ll be avoiding a whole lot of extra problems too.
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