If you’re trying to move house but haven’t yet been able to find a buyer for your current home, it might be worth letting your property out instead. You could do this on a short-term basis and then try to sell again in 6-12 months, or, finances permitting, hold it as a longer-term investment. This may enable you to realise some ongoing income from rental profits and could mean benefiting from capital growth in the future.
We find there are three main reasons people don’t want to let their home: hassle, cost and potential damage. With more than 160 laws governing the lettings industry, there is certainly a lot to know to make sure you and your property remain compliant, and you may need to spend some money on getting the property up to a ‘ready to rent’ standard. And, yes, there is a small risk that a tenant might cause damage. But, this can be covered by insurance and even avoided by taking expert advice and engaging a good letting agent to manage the property on your behalf.
In terms of ensuring your home can be let legally, we can inspect the property free of charge and give you a detailed breakdown of everything that needs doing and even recommend suppliers and contractors. If you are still thinking of selling the property within the next few years, this investment could help deliver a quicker eventual sale and increase the market value.
To ensure you find the very best tenant, engage a managing letting agent that is a member of one of the industry’s self-regulating bodies, such as ARLA, NALS or RICS. At Reeds Rains, we’re members of ARLA and offer landlords that have taken our full-management service peace of mind that:
- Tenants are properly credit checked and referenced
- All paperwork is properly and legally administered
- We organise all legally-required gas and electrical inspections and certification
- A full, independent inventory is carried out
- Your rent monies are held in a dedicated client account and protected with insurance
- The property will be checked periodically, to ensure the tenant is treating it well and it remains in good condition
- Any maintenance issues are dealt with quickly and fixed by approved, trusted contractors
- As and when there are changes to letting legislation, our staff are properly trained and all necessary updates are carried out, keeping you informed as necessary
- We adhere to a nationally-recognised Code of Practice and belong to a government-approved redress scheme.
Essentially, a fully-managed service can take the vast majority of the legal and administrative burden off your shoulders allowing you to be confident your property is in the hands of experts. If you haven’t already spoken to us about our service, you can contact us via our website or simply call into your local branch and one of the team will be happy to discuss how we can help you let your home.
The Reeds Rains Content Marketing Team
