Houses rented to paying tenants should meet minimum standards. Certain legal requirements have to be met and we’ll deal with these
in another article. One feature of homes is that they are often of an overall higher standard than many investment properties.
Housing pressure groups do sometimes call for landlords to be held to account for providing sub standard housing. Generally owner occupiers are
at an advantage here because a much loved home is often in better condition. It’s a fact of life that many professional landlords scrimp on keeping
their properties in good condition.
An experienced letting agent once told us the better the condtion of the property, then the better class of tenant we’d get. In our experience the only exception
to this rule seems to be when a tenant believes the rent is too high or is of a mind to treat the house as if it were their own – generally not a good idea.
So novice landlords letting their home for the first time tend to have one clear advantage – a better property. However this doesn’t mean you won’t need to spend money
on it. The fixtures and fittings and possibly appliances that have worked well for you may not be the best option for your new tenants.
The other thing to research is who is likely to rent out your home – this will have a bearing on how you present your home and the rent you can achieve.
You may already have a good idea of the type of tenant in your area or who is likely to want to rent your house. When we rented our home it was easy as we live a stone’s through from a university campus.
However it may be less obvious for your property. At this point it’s worth reading local adverts for properties to rent and speaking to local letting agents.
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