Top 10 Tips for Landlords to Save Money
As a landlord, you know that renting out property can be expensive and time-consuming. From drafting a comprehensive rental agreement to standing your ground when dealing with a problem tenant, it’s nigh-on impossible to find any time to focus on real money-saving techniques short of hiring a procurement professional, but fear not property professional. Here are our top ten tips for saving money as a landlord
#1. Mortgage payments are landlords’ biggest expense, so it’s crucial that you’re getting a good deal. We recommend regularly shopping around. Despite the current climate, there are still some excellent low-rate mortgage options around, so fixing a low rate now could pay dividends when rates do rise.
#2. With over 800,000 renters currently in arrears in the UK, dealing with this scenario is only too commonplace in 2021 for the unsuspecting landlord. You can mitigate this potential disaster by engaging an experienced Letting agent who knows a good tenant from a great one. A quality agent will have excellent reviews online and will have an array of tools that can tackle most scenarios. Having a personal Letting agent can avoid you from picking the wrong tenant and ensuring that your property voids are kept to a minimum. Check out Sophic Property offering Letting agency services in Reading and across Berkshire.
#3. Complete a thorough inventory of your rental property. This document that outlines the condition of the property before you move in, and lists every item that is in the property. For the landlord, it’s important that tenants abide by the standards outlined in the inventory, which is easy to verify if there have been any damages. At the end of any tenancies, you may well regret not paying a couple of hundred pounds to get your property accurately documents before your tenants moved in – it could cost you a lot more by not having one.
#4. Arguably the most difficult, but the most valuable money-saving tip is finding reliable tradespeople. Locating one you can trust is a landlord’s secret weapon. Skilled tradespeople provide peace of mind when problems arise. Finding one you can trust who can carry out work quickly and unsupervised will save a budding landlord lots of time and money. An active Letting agent will know lots of reliable and well-priced tradespeople as they will be using them all of the time.
#5. Shop around for furnishings. Look at local auctions, Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace. As long as the items are of good quality and up to fire regulations, they will be just as good as brand new.
#6. Take care in selecting your tenants. Conducting a thorough screening on every potential tenant is a must these days. Ensure you do not let friends or family members bypass your screening process as it can be costly if the worst should happen.
#7. Research your rental rates properly and ensure you are not undercharging your tenants for too long. Also, be sure to not overcharge as a long-term tenant who pays regularly is gold dust to the modern landlord. Listening to your Letting agent’s advice on pricing is something some Landlords struggle with – but there is nobody better to tell you what the correct pricing needs to be.
#8. Consider hiring a property manager. While this does come at a cost, doing so can save you unwanted tasks such as collecting rent and tenant screening. Property management costs can sometimes be written off as operating expenses. Read more about property management fees here.
#9. Decide whether you want to offer furnished or unfurnished rentals based on the property itself and the area to save money straight off the bat. Family homes (2-3+ bedrooms) may not require full furnishing as its likely families will have their own furniture, whereas flats aimed at University students will usually require the essentials.
#10. Finally, be sure to carry out regular property checks to ensure your valuable property is being looked after by your carefully screened tenants. Doing this minimises problems down the line and ensures vital communications stay open with your tenant, which leads to a better relationship and less problems for you as the landlord.
It’s also worth researching landlord associations, which offer many benefits to their members. We hope you enjoyed these tips. If you have any great ways to save money feel free to share them with us, so we can update our list and keep all our fellow landlords in the know!
