Most landlords will recognise the tremendous importance of ensuring that as many prospective tenants as possible see their property. After all, more viewings means more tenant competition thereby maximising your chances of securing the highest rental the market will pay.
Despite the fact that many people regard letting agents as more or less the same, there are in fact numerous selection criteria on which to judge the good from the bad, and the remarkable from the mildly indifferent.
Most people move house rarely and often have little idea of the etiquette required if the stress of moving is to be minimised. Our job as progressive letting agents is to help landlords and tenants minimise this stress by seeing the world through their eyes and advising accordingly.
Typically, most tenants will look at about half a dozen properties before making a decision as to which one they should rent. Some people look at just a couple, and others spend months considering each and every one of the dozens of properties that come on the market within their price range.
According to the Department of the Environment about half of all landlords have had cause to ask a tenant to leave on at least one occasion, usually because of arrears, noise, damage, violence, or abusive behaviour. Around thirty percent of these end up having to go to court.
Why is it that tenanted properties appear to be damper than those that are owner-occupied? Firstly, we’re talking about condensation here, not rising damp. Condensation is caused when warm air, which holds more water vapour, meets a cold surface, forming water droplets. This may attract fungal growths such as Mildew leading that “that damp smell”.
The tightening of the mortgage market has created opportunities for vendors who are understandably tempted to consider letting as a lucrative alternative to a sale.
In this second part of our two-part series on how to keep maximise your rental yield by ensuring that your tenants stay – thereby avoiding any possible void periods or additional expense in seeking a new tenant. One of the main reasons why people move out is because they just don’t feel they belong. So Continue Reading
Some landlords, especially those who are new to the experience, understandably wish to use a letting agent simply as a route to market in order to find a tenant. However, whilst a return on investment is one thing, sleeping well at night is quite another! A managed service is not just about chasing late rent, Continue Reading
The terms “fair wear and tear” appears on most tenancy agreements. But what is fair to a landlord may not necessarily appear fair to a tenant, and vice versa.