How to attract a good tenant

[Mrs M]

I have just re entered the buy to let market.
I have a modern, smart, well furnished 2 bed flat to let.
On Gumtree, but response so far has been from less than desirable potential tenants.
We have specified no students but they are trying their luck, also people wanting to rent Asap and offering 6 months rent in advance. Alarm bells are ringing.
Any advice greatly received. May now use an agent just to advertise???

 

[Garry A]

My mate with 40+properties is starting to get out of the rental game and selling up with the aim to buying to develop and sell. Says he is sick of tenants and that they now have more rights than the landlord. Heard some bad stories from him about some chancers.

 

[User482]

My mate with 40+properties is starting to get out of the rental game and selling up with the aim to buying to develop and sell. Says he is sick of tenants and that they now have more rights than the landlord. Heard some bad stories from him about some chancers.

Well he would say that, wouldn't he. In reality the problem is that tenants' rights don't go nearly far enough.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Go through a good agent if poss..then you can hopefully avoid all the hassle

 

[midlife]

40 plus properties,......... Beats working for a living

Shaun

 

[User482]

[QUOTE 3890793, member: 9609"]what more rights would you give - landlord must bend over and touch toes at the request of tenant.?
[/QUOTE]
That would be a start.

 

[Alex H]

Go through a good agent if poss..then you can hopefully avoid all the hassle

This ^, but then change the name of the thread to 'How to Attract a Good Agent"

 

[Milkfloat]

Gumtree is your answer - stay away from it.

 

[Mrs M]

Gumtree is your answer - stay away from it.

Yes, think that's a good start.
A freind who rents out property finds all his tenants via gumtree, but so far we've found it to be a "dodger" magnet.

 

[Andrew_P]

I had a buy to let out of necessity due to negative equity so really a let to buy. Every single tenant done me for the deposit by not paying the last month and then doing a runner and each one left the flat needing differing degrees of renovation. As soon as the property was back in to positive value I sold it. My take on it is if you do it for a living its probably a great income, other than that its an awful experience especially evicting a non paying tenant.

 

[Booyaa]

I have just re entered the buy to let market.
I have a modern, smart, well furnished 2 bed flat to let.
On Gumtree, but response so far has been from less than desirable potential tenants.
We have specified no students but they are trying their luck, also people wanting to rent Asap and offering 6 months rent in advance. Alarm bells are ringing.
Any advice greatly received. May now use an agent just to advertise???

Out of interest, how do you determine if someone is desirable or not?

 

[Drago]

I initially let mine through an agent. Once the tenant had proven herself I dispensed with the agency and now let directly to her. 8 years in November and fortunately she's been a model tenant and I try hard to be a decent and conscientious landlord.

I'm not in the business of pithing folk off for the sake of it, and she's looking after my house and keeping it in good order until I move back there, so it's a mutually beneficial arrangement.

 

[Saluki]

When we were in the proper rental market, as tenants, we often offered 6 months rent in advance as we have no credit rating. We have no credit cards, loans, overdraft or anything so our rating is in the toilet. My friend Wendy offered 3 months in advance to her current landlord, plus deposit, single girl, credit rating on a par with ours. Her works wrote a reference for her, as she's been there neigh on 20 years. She is not planning on moving for a few years.

She found the place via the newspaper. She looked at Gumtree but there were a lot of 'please pay a goodwill deposit and you can view it' sort of emails when she replied to an ad. Gumtree seems to be the land of scammers when it comes to housing, sadly. However, it works well on the exchange front.

 

[shyfire]

I used an online property portal (not sure if I'm allowed to name them?) which for about £30 will put adverts on all the big property websites including Gumtree but also has the option to telephone pre-screen your applicants when they apply. I found tenants quite quickly through them and saved a fortune by not getting an agent to take a couple of pictures and write up an ad for me! Plenty of online resources for sample SAT agreements and inventories as well. Whatever you do though make sure you get tenants screened and referenced checked via a reputable credit checking company. A little research of your own via google/social media can also be quite fruitful

 

[Mrs M]

Out of interest, how do you determine if someone is desirable or not?

A less than desirable tenant would be one who doesn't pay the required rent on time and doesn't look after the property.
Employer and current and previous landlord references are a good start.
We had a response from someone saying they wanted to move in asap, without even viewing. Asked for more details, who the flat was for and employer details. Response was "just for me, work for a care agency".
Going to the agent tomorrow I think.