Thursday, January 22, 2009
How to establish what rent to charge by David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com
How to establish what rent to charge by David Lawrenson of Letting Focus
Just back from a lovely 2 week break in Mexico to find Britain is still mired in doom and gloom.
OK, there are some tentative signs that here in London more property is coming onto the market at more realistic prices which is good news for those of us looking to buy – and that includes me.
However, with RBS and Lloyds pretty well finished as independent banks and other banks severely hit too, that is a heck of a lot of people either out of work or with severely reduced assets. (Don’t forget that lots of city employees have shares in the banks they work for and the fact that these are now worth a fraction of what they once were means that people have a lot less to spend on things like buying property.)
BE SENSIBLE ON SETTING RENTS
With more people turning to letting their property because they can’t sell it (at a price they want), the extra supply of houses and flats to rent means that many areas are now seeing a fall in rent levels.
So how do you establish a fair rent?
Well, you could ask a letting agent, though in my opinion some agents suggest you can get more than is actually possible.
These types of agent know what the real rent should be but they hope that their optimism will mean you give them the business of finding a tenant rather than trusting your property to a more realistic agent.
I suggest you look at websites like Gumtree.com (good in London) and rightmove.co.uk (for everywhere) and look at rents that properties similar to yours are on for.
Then take away 10% to get to a rental figure that will let your place fast with no empty periods – or “voids” in landlords jargon.
Why take off 10%?
Well, just think for a minute.
The places that you see advertised at sites like Gumtree and Rightmove are there because they have not been let.
Places that are available to let at more realistic prices will be taken down from these sites because THEY HAVE ALREADY LET.
Yes, I know it’s obvious but thisvery obvious fact is lost on a lot of people, including for a long time, me.
So be realistic and when you buy property to let, plan on rental levels that are achievable and will get your property let fast.
MY MAN DAVE THE GAS ENGINEER
Everyone needs a Dave.
My own Dave has saved me another £2,500 by finding an alternative £40 part for a boiler that two other gas engineers said was not available.
The other engineers said as the part could not be found I needed a new boiler at a cost of £2,500 including labour.
Dave did the same thing a year ago on another property and that boiler is still running fine.
Everyone who is a landlord needs a Dave.
It took me 10 years to find him.
Dave is his real name but before you ask, he is too valuable for me to share him with anyone else I’m afraid.
And if you find your own Dave, look after him and pay him well. When the big freeze comes you’ll be glad you did.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com - the landlord and property letting advice experts.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting” which for the last 3 years has been the UK’s top selling property book - Buy Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let.
The new edition is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on sale and rent back.
I’m an expert freelance property writer and property speaker and I run this well known property letting and investment blog that you are reading now.
I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I provide general property letting advice for anyone looking to buy property for themselves or to let out.
In my work as a consultant I help private individuals with any aspect of buying property or buy to let.
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we are independent property investment advisors because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from these sources.
We simply give one to one unbiased advice and are often asked to evaluate other property investments.
In my corporate consulting role I also advise banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice and property training programme at my website.Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008 and 2009. This blog is updated once a week.
WANT TO BE KEPT UPDATED WITH OUR LATEST BLOGS?
It’s easy.
If you are on the home page of our blog, go to the bottom of any post, and click on “LINK TO THIS POST” to bring up the page for a specific post, then hit END …and on the right you’ll see “Site feed.”
If you are already on a specific post page, just hit END and you will see the site feed.
You then just copy the link that comes up into your News Reader or News Aggregator. Even a non techie like me managed to do all this.
Please note if you have a website & are thinking of reproducing material here - that’s fine but we DO require the full links shown in each blog to be included, including also the links in this section. The full article including all links must be available to ALL VIEWERS of your site and not restricted to members.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
Please Contact Us button at our main site http://www.lettingfocus.com/ if you have any queries about this.
Just back from a lovely 2 week break in Mexico to find Britain is still mired in doom and gloom.
OK, there are some tentative signs that here in London more property is coming onto the market at more realistic prices which is good news for those of us looking to buy – and that includes me.
However, with RBS and Lloyds pretty well finished as independent banks and other banks severely hit too, that is a heck of a lot of people either out of work or with severely reduced assets. (Don’t forget that lots of city employees have shares in the banks they work for and the fact that these are now worth a fraction of what they once were means that people have a lot less to spend on things like buying property.)
BE SENSIBLE ON SETTING RENTS
With more people turning to letting their property because they can’t sell it (at a price they want), the extra supply of houses and flats to rent means that many areas are now seeing a fall in rent levels.
So how do you establish a fair rent?
Well, you could ask a letting agent, though in my opinion some agents suggest you can get more than is actually possible.
These types of agent know what the real rent should be but they hope that their optimism will mean you give them the business of finding a tenant rather than trusting your property to a more realistic agent.
I suggest you look at websites like Gumtree.com (good in London) and rightmove.co.uk (for everywhere) and look at rents that properties similar to yours are on for.
Then take away 10% to get to a rental figure that will let your place fast with no empty periods – or “voids” in landlords jargon.
Why take off 10%?
Well, just think for a minute.
The places that you see advertised at sites like Gumtree and Rightmove are there because they have not been let.
Places that are available to let at more realistic prices will be taken down from these sites because THEY HAVE ALREADY LET.
Yes, I know it’s obvious but thisvery obvious fact is lost on a lot of people, including for a long time, me.
So be realistic and when you buy property to let, plan on rental levels that are achievable and will get your property let fast.
MY MAN DAVE THE GAS ENGINEER
Everyone needs a Dave.
My own Dave has saved me another £2,500 by finding an alternative £40 part for a boiler that two other gas engineers said was not available.
The other engineers said as the part could not be found I needed a new boiler at a cost of £2,500 including labour.
Dave did the same thing a year ago on another property and that boiler is still running fine.
Everyone who is a landlord needs a Dave.
It took me 10 years to find him.
Dave is his real name but before you ask, he is too valuable for me to share him with anyone else I’m afraid.
And if you find your own Dave, look after him and pay him well. When the big freeze comes you’ll be glad you did.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com - the landlord and property letting advice experts.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting” which for the last 3 years has been the UK’s top selling property book - Buy Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let.
The new edition is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on sale and rent back.
I’m an expert freelance property writer and property speaker and I run this well known property letting and investment blog that you are reading now.
I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I provide general property letting advice for anyone looking to buy property for themselves or to let out.
In my work as a consultant I help private individuals with any aspect of buying property or buy to let.
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we are independent property investment advisors because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from these sources.
We simply give one to one unbiased advice and are often asked to evaluate other property investments.
In my corporate consulting role I also advise banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice and property training programme at my website.Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008 and 2009. This blog is updated once a week.
WANT TO BE KEPT UPDATED WITH OUR LATEST BLOGS?
It’s easy.
If you are on the home page of our blog, go to the bottom of any post, and click on “LINK TO THIS POST” to bring up the page for a specific post, then hit END …and on the right you’ll see “Site feed.”
If you are already on a specific post page, just hit END and you will see the site feed.
You then just copy the link that comes up into your News Reader or News Aggregator. Even a non techie like me managed to do all this.
Please note if you have a website & are thinking of reproducing material here - that’s fine but we DO require the full links shown in each blog to be included, including also the links in this section. The full article including all links must be available to ALL VIEWERS of your site and not restricted to members.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
Please Contact Us button at our main site http://www.lettingfocus.com/ if you have any queries about this.
Labels: finding gas engineers, finding tenants, gum tree, letting agency, setting rents, what rent to charge
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