Developing Rental Properties for the Long Term in the North East

For those of you who have been receiving my e-shots for a while now, you will know that I like to share best practice...

For those of you who have been receiving my e-shots for a while now, you will know that I like to share best practice when I come across it. In this week’s e-shot I want to share with you some new property development tips that I have come across this week. While they may seem simple, they are invaluable pieces of advice that will save you money in the long term when dealing with tenants and how they’ll treat your rental property over a 10 year period.

Top Tips

Pull Cords in bathrooms

If you are about to develop your bathroom and your light fixture is an internal pull cord, get your electrician to change it to an external light switch before the tilers come in. While internal pull cords can give a good finish, do you think any of the following could happen?

1. The pull cord will look dirty and will constantly need cleaning or replacing after tenancies.

2. The pull cord will be tied in knots and therefore look old and tired quickly.

3. The tenant will yank the cord too hard and pull the fixture from the ceiling.

Bath Panels

When you fit a new bathroom suite a bath panel may be the cheapest thing to fit in the short-term but in the long-term it often isn’t:

1. When the bath panel gets removed for whatever reason it often cracks at the top and sides.

2. The edging in between the bath and panel often collects dirt and can look unsightly.

My recommendation is to frame the side of the bath and tile it with an access panel. This produces a very good finish which will make your bathroom into a FERRARI room as well as reducing the wear and tear of having a bath panel in the future.

Kitchen Work Tops

Here at NGU Homelettings we are constantly searching for ways to improve the finished product we give when developing properties in a cost effective manner. When fitting a new kitchen we wanted to see if we could produce a designer feel while still on a budget. I came up with the idea of replacing one end panel of the kitchen which is in the most prominent position and replacing it with a work-bench top which is mitred into the worktop above it. SUCCESS – it worked- see the link below to see the end result (kitchen picture):

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-39455986.html

Thanks for reading this article and if you wish to read further articles click on the links below:

Tenant Handbooks

http://blog.nguhomelettings.com/letting-agents/73/Guides-for-Tenants-Tenant-Handbooks

How to get the right Tenants?

http://blog.nguhomelettings.com/letting-agents/69/How-to-get-the-right-tenant

How to tell a good Letting Agent from a bad one?

http://blog.nguhomelettings.com/letting-agents/68/How-do-you-tell-a-good-Letting-Agent-from-a-bad-one

My Buy to Let story- I am now living on a beach!

http://blog.nguhomelettings.com/letting-agents/66/My-buy-to-let-story-and-how-I-m-now-living-on-a-beach

Also if you would also like to find out about the discounted properties that we source please click on the link below – we have 117 discounted properties on RIGHTMOVE:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=BRANCH%5E74773&sortType=1&includeSSTC=true&_includeSSTC=on

Yours

Chris Fitzakerley

Managing Director