Letting your house in Manchester? Want to minimise the voids and get a good tenant in quickly?

I think all landlords  will shout, “YES” to that one! We have been letting your houses in Manchester for nearly ten years now and we have compiled all our best hints and tips into one place here, so you can achieve that let.

Let’s start at the beginning by looking at how you should get your property ready;

Letting Your House in Manchester – Getting your property tenant ready

One of the best tips I can give is not to do viewings before your property is ready.

In my experience if you are walking around a house saying, “this will be done, that wall will be painted, there will be a new carpet in here” then your tenants will not be as impressed as if they saw the house a week later when it was all finished ready and done.

It makes sense doesn’t it? I know I would rather take a house I can see as a finished article rather than have to envisage it complete. Tenants have standards and if they don’t like your property because it is isn’t finished, then they will take another house down the road that is.

Be flexible with viewings

You are going to have to go out fo your way to show a tenant a property when they are available, so if this means working later one evening or early on a Saturday morning then do it. You have something to sell to the interested party, they are your customer, so you need to treat them as your most preferred customer. If you need to be late home a few nights in the week to secure that viewing then do it. At Abode we do viewings 6 days a week, we have done viewings on Sundays when that has been the only day available but 6 full days a week works for scheduling in most people.

If you are letting your house in Manchester during winter daylight hours, it is advisable to avoid evening viewings in the dark. A tenant will get a much better flavour of a property and it’s situation if seen in the light. Also for safety reasons it is best to avoid dark nights.

Negotiate if you need to

If you think you have found a super tenant who is interested in your property but would prefer to take it if the master bedroom was painted then do it. For the sake of the time/cost that is involved with some minor works in order to secure that tenant do not lose sight of the prize. an empty property for another month will cost you a lot more than paintin g that room, mowing that lawn. Do not be so regimented that you lost a good tenant to another landlord, you will regret it.

You have found a tenant, successfully referenced them and you have agreed they will take your property.

Letting Your House in Manchester – moving your new tenant in

Prepare a house file

This is one of my all time faves! Prepare a house file with COPIES of all the manuals and documentation associated with that property included within it. I say COPIES becuase of course you will keep the originals. My going through this with your new tenant you may minimise maintenance costs as they have the tools they need to understand that error message on the boiler and set up the house alarm.

You can also incldue the Tenancy Agreement in this file, plus receipts for moneys that you have received and details of the Deposit Protection.

ALWAYS PROTECT YOUR DEPOSITS –  see https://www.depositprotection.com/ or http://www.mydeposits.co.uk/

There is no excuse not to do this and I am afraid I have no sympathy for any Landlords who do not do this, we all know we have to and we all know the repercussions if we don’t.

It is a simple task that you will do once and it will be used for the lifetime of that property.

Don’t move anyone in unless you have received CLEARED funds

You hear horror stories of tenancies having been granted and then a cheque bouncing at the bank, once a tenant has an agreement they are in your property and whther a cheque has cleared or bounced you have to follow processes to get them out. Always, always received cash or cleared funds into your bank before the signing of the AST and releasing keys. It is a simple rule to adhere to that could save you £1000s.

Diarise your Rent Due Date and Book Inspections in your Diary

If you get into the habit at the start of each tenancy you create to diarise the important recurring events during that tenancy then you will be one step ahead of any issues.

Start by noting the rent due date in your diary, recurring electronic diaries are best, we use Google – it’s brilliant! Also then enter in inspections, at 3 or 6 months intervals depending on your preference. If you get these dates in your diary from the off you don’t have to kep worrying or remembering to check when things are due. Also book in the annual Gas Safety so you never have to worry that you have missed it. Life is busy enough and letting your house in Manchester will create extra admin for your life so be organised!

Letting Your House in Manchester – moving your tenant out

The exiting process needs to be as smooth as the entering process.

Get a months notice and use that time wisely

Ensure your tenants give you one full months notice as per their tenancy agreement. Make sure they agree to let you do viewings during the last month of the tenancy but as per my earlier point make sure the property looks the best it can before the viewing.

Book in what we call a Pre Inspetion. A visit to the property shortly after the notice isgiven to walk through the invesntory and remind the tenant of the items they have to see to in order to receive their deposit back in full. Depending on the length of the tenancy there may be elements of fair wear and tear but if there are items they are directly responsible for then be sure to highlight them, so that there is plenty of time for tenants to see to them.

Your priority now is letting your house in Manchester and minimising the voids so it really should be all systems go.

 Set up a move out appointment

On the day of the move out, have a checklist ready of things to be done, including meter readings, forwarding address, bank details for deposit return (if you have used a custodial scheme). Then return to your office and close the utility and council tax accounts giving the forwarding address. If you get into the habit of settling up these issues promptly then you can focus on the letting your house in Manchester, rather than being chased by your old tenants for their deposit to be returned.

Now return to the top of this list and start the process again! Simples.

I hope you have found these tip for letting your house in Manchester useful. These tips are all built from experience and practice. We have all made mistakes and I am happy share my tips with you so you can minimise the mistakes you make. There is no hiding from the level of administration involved in letting your house in Manchester but if you are organised, efficent and prepared then you will be successful.

To talk in more detail about your specific property then please contact me through the website here and you can read more about me here!