Guide to Letting Property

The number one goal of any landlord is to make money you’ve invested in property to provide you a better life either now or in the future.

That’s why as an agent it’s our core goal to maximise your return and generate long term wealth for you and your family. For us, that means minimising void periods, maximising rental yields, getting good tenants who pay their rent on time and make your house their home.

We have drawn upon our experience over the last 15 years of being landlords ourselves (we own 150 properties in the North East, and manage over 700) to create this guide to help you make the most money from your investment.

1. Find the Right Agent

If you are wanting all the benefits of owning an investment property without the hassle, you will need to appoint an agent that you like, who looks after your property like their own, and who you can trust to maximise your investment while being fair to your tenants.

Your agent should have up-to-date knowledge of landlord/tenant law and legislation, understand the local area, and market their properties across multiple portals with eye-catching imagery.

2. Get a Valuation

The best way to rent your property out quickly is to ensure your rental price is right. Too high and your property could stand empty for too long, too low, and you’re not making the most of your opportunity. Getting a valuation from an expert in the local area will ensure that you have multiple tenants come forward which allows you to pick the tenant that will be best for you.

3. Choose your Level of Service

Most lettings agents will offer a few levels of service. For example, at NGU Homesales & Lettings we offer two levels of service:

The first is Tenant Find Only, this is where we will find you a tenant through online marketing and emailing our 5,000-strong database. We will then put them through our vetting process to get you the best tenant and once you’re happy, we will get them moved in.

The second level of service we offer is Fully Managed and this includes everything the tenant find service offers but with added access to our dedicated property management team for rent collection, 24/7 maintenance as well as six monthly or annual reviews. As part of this, we will also evaluate your rent annually, to maximise your returns, and ensure you remain legally compliant.

The level of service you choose is dependent on how hands-on / off you want to be with your investment, and how confident you are with meeting your legal obligations and maximising your return.

4. Get the Property Ready to Let

You need to remember that your rental property is also a home.

Presentation is key to ensuring your property is let out quickly. You need to make sure your property is clean and in good order. We have cleaners and a dedicated refurbishment team, with over 30 tradespeople, who can offer you advice on getting your property ready to let.

You also need to make it easy for the tenant to see themselves living there and more importantly, living there long term.

Finally, your property compliance needs to be up-to-date; ensuring gas safety checks, EICRs (Electrical Installation Condition Report), EPCs (Energy Performance Certificates), and also Smoke & CO2 alarms are in line with legislation. If you’re unsure about this, your agent will be able to help.

5. Market the Property

Your agent should market across all major platforms as well as on social media. Ideally, your agent will already have a large database of potential tenants ready to go to who they will send emails too as soon as the property is available.

At NGU Homesales & Lettings we always do a property launch email to our 5,000-strong database to get the property seen by as many eyes as possible within the first 24 hours.

6. Cherry-pick your Tenant with Block Viewings

We believe that hosting block viewings is the most efficient way to get your property tenanted in the shortest amount of time. Not only does it mean that all viewers are seen on the same day, saving time, but it also creates competition and urgency; a tenant who is interested in your property will call up to apply much faster if they believe there are multiple interested parties.

Once the offers are in, you are then at an advantage because you do not need to just take the first tenant, you get a choice! This is where you can think about who your ideal tenant is and pick from those interested parties based on your personal needs and wants.

This, we find, allows you to get the best tenant who often will stay long-term with fewer problems.

7. Vetting

This is an important step not to be missed. Vetting a tenant thoroughly will massively reduce the risk of damages and arrears. Vetting checks should include references from previous landlords, a credit check, and home visits.

8. Moving in

Once a tenant has passed all the referencing and vetting checks, they will pay all the monies required to move in, rent and deposit. They will then arrange to sign their tenancy agreement and inventory before picking up the keys to move in.