Buy to Let Tips in 500 Words by LettingFocus.com

Someone asked me what my five very top tips for success in buy to let are and would I mind summarizing the main things to do / not do in fewer than 500 words. So here goes….

One - Always buy in the right area and the right type of property at a good (i.e. low) price and buy where tenant demand REALLY exists. And check tenant demand exists BEFORE you buy. In most places you should avoid new build flats as they seldom keep their value, especially the developments where most flats have been bought by other landlords and / or are on huge estates full of the same kind of identikit flats and / or where the arrangements to manage the land around the property and the structure are weak. Look out for and buy into areas that are REALLY getting regeneration money, new employment or better transport. Preferably, all three.

Two – Avoid all Get Rich Quick in Property exhortations and / or anyone who uses phrases like “financial freedom” or “no money down.” Be very wary of the types of lease options scheme where the tenant-cum buyer buys a lease from you to purchase a property from you in the future. We think they are at best unethical and we don’t think they will stand up to legal scrutiny in the future either. We also expect them to be banned just as soon as the FSA wakes up to them – which given their usual speed won't be for another three to five years at best.

The fact is you can get rich in property but it is not something you can do fast and if you cannot afford to invest without resorting to weird and strange financing / cash flow techniques then think hard about if you should not be in the property investing / landlord game at all.

Three – Don’t simply trust to a letting agent to do thorough reference checks on tenants for you. YOU need to make sure they have done the proper checks. If you skip this advice you will eventually get a tenant from hell. Trust me on this!

So, make clear to the agent what tenants you want and don’t want and ask to see all references and retain a veto if they aren’t good enough. Don’t pay over one months rent to an agent to find a tenant for you and NEVER pay renewal charges if all the agent does is find a tenant for you. Even better, find a tenant yourself for about £50. See our Services and Products for Landlords page.

Four – Be nice to tenants. Fix things fast, be available during working hours (within reason) and don’t be mean and sweat small pennies. Offer competitive rents to good tenants – i.e. one that’s a bit below the market average. Never forget, good tenants are worth getting and keeping! If you operate in “specialty sectors” like HMOS, students or “Benefit Tenants” you’ll need to do extra swotting up and make sure you know what you should be doing, stay within the law and get paid.

Five – As a landlord you have legal responsibilities - sorry but the days of Rigbsyesque “muddling through” are long gone. So, understand the law or risk getting fined. Have a good filing system and keep a sense of humour!

Lazy Journalism

It being the end of the tax year, I see the personal finance press was full of ISA stories at the weekend. But the best rate you can get on money tucked away for a year is actually from the National Savings and Investments (that’s the government) whose Index linked certificates are paying 1% above the RPI inflation rate. That means they are currently paying 4.7% and it is tax free. I have not seen a one year term ISA or a non ISA rate that beats that.

Too bad pretty well all the journalists that wrote about ISAs were copying from press releases from bank and building societies and were just too lazy to check out the NS&I rates.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of landlord information.

I’m David Lawrenson, a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and author of “Successful Property Letting” – the UK’s top selling commercially published property book for the last 3 years.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

Primarily I am a consultant to banks, local authorities, social housing providers and other organisations – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies and services.

For example, I help banks improve their buy to let mortgage lending practices and I help housing association / local authorities find private landlords (private rented access schemes, local letting agency models etc.)
I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the broadcast media.

Services for Private Landlords

For private landlords and other investors in the private rented sector, we do just two London seminars each year.
We also find some spare time to help landlords and property investors by coaching them in how to make money in the private rented sector using ways that work, which are ethical, fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.
We pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased buy to let advice on either a one-to-one mentoring / coaching basis or through our occasional group seminars. With no links to property firms, developers or bridging loan providers we can advise on where and what type of property to buy for investment and when to buy it. We also show you how to manage tenants properly.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

For general info on our CONSULTING click here: Consultancy and Seminars

ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY click here: Property Mentoring

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on a range of services and products for landlords too; click here including landlords insurance, tenant referencing, tenancy agreements and more: Services and Products for Landlords

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – both commercial and private click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING” click here: Buy the Book at Amazon plus anything else you fancy at Amazon.co.uk

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Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2009. This blog is updated roughly once a week usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

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Mortgage Lenders Cutting Out Brokers. Plus A Comment on Gumtree from Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com

MORTGAGE FIRMS CUT OUT MORTGAGE BROKERS
Another rather laughable consequence of the credit crunch and how UK mortgage lenders have responded to it is the way that lenders have now closed some of their best mortgage deals to brokers.
The fact is that most buy to let mortgages have hitherto been arranged mostly through mortgage brokers. This might seem strange in itself as volumes now match the numbers of first time buyer mortgages taken out. In other words, buy to let ought to by now be a core part of many banks and building societies business.
But go into any high street branch or ring one of their dark satanic call centres and ask about a buy to let mortgage and then ask them a simple question, for example “What is a tenancy deposit scheme?” and you will draw a complete blank along the lines of “Sorry, Computer says No”
Try it, its fun!
The fact is that most bank and building society staff have not got a clue about buy to let. So it will be interesting to see whether they now try to completely cut the mortgage broker out of the buy to let arena.
Unless they massively improve the training of their staff and the quality of the info they provide directly, they will be on to a loser if they do! And if I were a broker I would not forget any bank or building society that messes them around now when the good times roll again.

HOW GOOD IS GUM TREE?
Gumtree is a popular free site where landlords can directly advertise property to let for no charge without having to go through an agent.
OK, you need to update your ad every day to stay top of the list so would-be tenants can find you but hey, nothing is without cost.
Gumtree is very strong in London and I understand it also works in Manchester quite well, though it is a bit weak (or even non existent) in one or two other spots where I have property.
I’m telling you all this because I have been marketing one of my properties on it recently and have got a high level of response - and much better in terms of numbers than I’m getting from some of the other “only available to letting agencies portals”
But anecdotally I often hear that the sites that are only available to agents DO tend to get tenants who are able to pay a higher rent. Maybe that is a function of the demographic of tenants and the success of Rightmove’s and other portals branding. I’m not sure.
The facts often seem to be that a good letting agent will be able to get a higher rent than you can doing it yourself & often more than covering your fee to them -which should be no more than 8% on a 12 month tenancy term by the way.
But back to Gumtree and the like….If you are letting directly using one of these free to landlord sites, you’ll come up against the Great British Public (well if you are in London, the would-be tenants won't actually be from Britain, but the same “people based rules” still apply!)
Inevitably, you’ll get calls from people who say, “It sounds great, we just have to see it today.”
They always sound all super-keen and naturally have immaculate refs & I have often gone out of my way to do a viewing.
Now, I have learned my lesson because inevitably, these sorts of people always turn out to be the most dreadful timewasters who will want you to knock 10% off the rent and actually have very poor references indeed.
It does not matter where in the world they come from, there seems to be in all populations and peoples an equal number of people who are very pushy but very wasteful of others time.
I have found that the ones who will REALLY want to rent my places and who are straight talking and positive are always those who are polite and a bit laid back on the phone. They are not pushy but easy going and will view the property when you can fit them in.
We are taking a break for a week. Next post will be in 2 weeks time.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson a buy to let experts from lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 2 years has been the UK’s top selling property title: buy the UK's top selling property investment book
It 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 buying property below market value. I’m an expert property speaker and a well known property blogger and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide help for landlords
Check out where I was recently featured in the Daily Telegraph: http://propertyclub.telegraph.co.uk/Page/View/266
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services and am a regular speaker at property shows.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice, property investors networking programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, a developer, an agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated once a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

Finding Tenants and Selling Property? You Need the Internet and the Big Portals

The internet has become ever more important as a resource for landlords looking for tenants, especially given the fact that the big property portals exclude landlords advertising directly (i.e. not through an agent)
So, if you go down the high street to find a letting agent to market your property, one of the first things you must ask today is which portal are they linked to.
Indeed, it is reported in today’s news that 90% of house sales are advertised on the RightMove site (they also appear on others too, but it looks like RightMove is now the biggest) and it is thought that around 70 per cent of tenants now restrict their search entirely to the internet.
Christian Harper of Oliver Finn, an estate agency in Chiswick says “Many agents talk about marketing strategies (for letting property) but for many it just comes down to putting a property up on the big portals.”

The Biggest Portals and How You Can Find a Tenant Using One for Not Much Money!
The biggest portals are FindaProperty, Prime Location and Right Move.
In fact if you find a local letting agent that is not linked into at least one of these, you should seriously question why.
Others that have a significant presence are PropertyFinder and Fish4Homes.
PrimeLocation and RightMove have now become hugely successful businesses as their stock market ratings amply testify and any agent not on them is bound to struggle. But they are not cheap - typically they charge around £300 per month per branch per agent.
The bad news is that landlords cannot access most portals because they only accept ads from professional agents.
Some portals say this is to do with the restrictions imposed by the Property Misdescriptions Act which places an onus on the agent to have actually seen the property they are advertising to sell.

Getting Your Ad Up There
However, this is all a bit misleading because the act doesn’t apply to property lettings at all (only property sales.)
The real truth is it’s because most portals have been built up by estate and letting agents (and in some cases owned by them) and they do not want to damage their own pitch.
The really good news is that there are lots of "on line letting agents" where landlords advertising direct can place their properties.
And these all have links through to the big portals.
Using them is simple.
Take a few photos of the property you want to let and write a description and then load it up to one of these on line letting agents and they will upload it straight onto all the big portals for a fee of typically less than £60 - and it can stay on there as long as you like.
Indeed we have links and special offers for two of them at our Landlords Resources Page.
Click Here: Services and Products for Landlords

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
We are LettingFocus.com - the landlords’ expert and I’m David Lawrenson, the author of “Successful Property Letting” - the UK’s top selling property and buy to let book for the last 3 years.
I have been a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years.
At LettingFocus we offer independent unbiased
advice for landlords and property investors on a one to one mentoring and coaching basis as well as occasional group seminars.
Unlike many in the still largely unregulated buy to let and property “advice” business I am not linked to a property company, developer, estate agency or bridging loan provider.
As such I am able to give unbiased independent advice on where to buy (which areas), what type of property to buy, when to buy and how to buy property at a low price. I can also explain how to reduce the risk of getting a bad tenant.
We help you make money in property by showing you the ways that work and which are of minimal risk to you. We can guide you every step of the way.

CHECK OUT THESE PAGES AT OUR SITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog
THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page
NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
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For general info on our SEMINARS AND CONSULTING click here: Property Seminars, Networking Evenings and Consulting
ONE TO ONE CONSULTING click here: Property Consulting
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS from past customers click here: Testimonials
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Have you seen this related article? Checking References for a Tenant

Copyright: David Lawrenson 2007. This blog is updated at least once a week
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Tenants Reservation Fee - Do You Need a Fee to Reserve a Property asks David Lawrenson

You definitely need a tenant to pay a reservation fee to reserve your property.
After all, if it's three weeks time before they are supposed to sign tenancy agreements and move in, they could just change their minds - leaving you high and dry and with a period when the property was potentially empty.
You will have to start advertising again - and it may take another three or four weeks to get someone else who is suitable.
For that reason, I always ask for a 3 week reservation fee - not a deposit - which tenants sign to acknowledge that if they change their mind and do not go ahead, or cannot pay the rent and deposit on the agreed move in date, they will lose that money.

CHECK OUT THESE PAGES AT OUR SITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog
THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page
NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investing Seminar and Networking Event
We have GREAT OFFERS on a range of products for landlords too; click here including landlords insurance, tenant referencing, tenancy agreements and more: Services and Products for Landlords
For general info on our SEMINARS AND CONSULTING click here: Property Seminars, Networking Evenings and Consulting
ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTING click here: Property Mentoring
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS from past customers click here: Testimonials
BUY THE BOOK click here: Buy the Book at Amazon

ABOUT US

LettingFocus.com are the experts on landlord issues and I’m David Lawrenson, the author of “Successful Property Letting” – which has been the UK’s top selling property and buy to let book for the last 3 years.

We help landlords and property investors make money in property by coaching them in ways that work, that are ethical and which involve minimal risk.
I have been a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years.

At LettingFocus we offer independent unbiased buy to let advice for property buyers and landlords both on a one to one mentoring and coaching basis as well as through occasional group seminars.

Property syndicates and property advice in the UK is still largely unregulated and what counts as “advice” is too often more about making the promoter money than giving useful information to the investor.

With no link to property firms, developers or bridging loan providers, at LettingFocus, we aim to give unbiased independent advice on where and what type of property to buy for investment, when to buy and how to buy property at a low price.

We also show you how to manage tenants properly and in ways that take up as little of your time as possible.

To JOIN our Free QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com - Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers!

See this related article: http://www.lettingfocus.com/pages/myarticles_ChoosingaLettingAgency.html

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR OUR WEBSITE?

Selling services to landlords and property investors and have a national coverage? You could be a partner, please get in touch!

TO VIEW RELATED POSTS select a “Category” at the bottom of this page.
Copyright: D Lawrenson 2007