Most landlords will tell you that what worries them more than anything else while managing a property investment is a long and costly void period. With many expenses going out such as tax, insurance, maintenance and more, landlords depend on the rent coming in to ensure that they make a good rental yield.
Read on to discover how you can reduce the chances of having a long and costly void period on your property investment.
A void period is defined as any length of time that a rental property is sitting empty without any tenants, resulting in no rent payments. For obvious reasons, this is a major concern for property investors and landlords, because they depend on their properties to produce a healthy rental yield each year, which they are unable to achieve if the property has had a lengthy void period.
There are several ways that landlords and property investors can reduce the chances of having any void periods to begin with, to prepare for the end of a tenancy or in the middle of one. We have outlined some of the ways that can help reduce the risk of void periods below.
A common error that many new landlords or accidental landlords have made is to only offer shorter tenancy agreements to their tenants. This is risky because it will mean a high turnover of renters living at the property, which will increase the chances of having a void period should it suddenly become difficult to rent to a new tenant.
By having longer, flexible, fixed-term tenancy agreements in place with your renters, you will not only be able to build a working relationship with them, but you will be in a much more secure position to guarantee rent coming in each month.
Of course, people’s lives and plans do change and there is no guarantee that a tenant won’t move out before the end of their agreement, but in most cases moving is such a hassle that it’s easier for a tenant to stay if they are happy in the property.
Some inexperienced landlords have suffered from long, expensive void periods because they have set their rent price too high compared to the competition in their local area. Tenants are very savvy when it comes to looking for a new home and they will avoid properties they know are overpriced like the plague. So make sure that you look around at the rent prices for your local area before you place your property advert.
If you don’t regularly keep up with the maintenance of your investment property, you could find yourself having to cope with a major repair, which will not only be expensive to complete but might also mean that your property will be left empty whilst the repair work is carried out. Sometimes this can stretch into months at a time, resulting in a long void period before a tenant can move in and live there safely.
LetBritian is an online letting agent that can help landlords manage their property investments. We offer a variety of services such as carrying routine inspections, handling the administration involved with a statutory periodic tenancy, tenant reference checks, discussions surrounding profitability, such as what is a good rental yield for your property as well as overseeing any property maintenance work that needs to be done. You will be able to sit back and relax whilst the hard work is being taken care of for you by one an experienced online rental agent when you let online with one of the best online letting agents UK wide.
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