4 tips to add to your buy-to-let armour
Buy-to-let properties can without doubt be excellent investment opportunities, often providing far better returns on your money than any savings account. But you must do your research and understand all the costs involved. Here are some tips from Capital Estate Agents for maximising your ROI and making your life as a landlord plan sailing.
1. Know your market
Property markets are constantly changing and before investing in property as a buy-to-let, you need to know about purchase values and potential rental yields. An experienced local agent with a good lettings team will know the area and be able to advise you on which parts of the town/area are easiest to rent in, which yield the best returns, what type of tenants you can expect, and which areas are on the up or decline to help you make the right buy-to-let decisions for you.
2. Find a professional and experienced lettings agent to be your partner
A professional lettings agent becomes your partner in buy-to-let decisions and in on-going property management. They will be generous with their advice and diligent in ensuring you know all your legal responsibilities. It’s great to have someone with a wide breadth of experience to discuss plans with and to help with daily issues such as maintenance and tenant relations.
3. Take time to find the right tenants
Rather than accepting the first tenant that comes along, take time to make sure you choose the right one. Finding the right tenants might take longer and landlords may be worrying about empty periods between tenants, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s worth asking questions and finding out fully about their financial status before driving ahead and signing contracts. There is a mandatory obligation now for a tenant to be asked to prove they have the right to stay in the UK and therefore the right to rent. An agent will manage this on your behalf.
4. Stay abreast of rules and regulations, particularly those that attract large fines.
Every year a new set of obligations is added to the private residential lettings market. And there are large fines attached (rightly of course) to any landlord oversights which could endanger health and safety, even threatening life. This is one of the primary responsibilities of a letting agent, to keep landlords informed of mandatory obligations as well as non-mandatory. Agents are, by necessity, reading all the correct literature to know of developments in residential property law which a private residential landlord could miss without care.
For more information about how to best manage your rental property to maximise profitability and minimise risk speak to our experienced lettings team at Capital Estate Agents: email us on: info@capitalestateagents.com