How quickly will you start receiving rent?

When you first buy a rental property, you need to factor in that you won’t get the keys and instantly start receiving rent (unless you buy with tenants in-situ).

It is likely that you’ll first need to undertake some maintenance or refurbishment to the property. You will also need time to advertise the property, conduct viewings, reference the chosen tenants and complete all of the relevant paperwork and safety checks before finally moving them in and starting to receive some return on your investment.

Being pro-active can help to minimise this initial void period. I try to advertise the property as soon as I am allowed to by the seller, have confirmed the ‘earliest move-in date’ and can take representative photographs that show the property off well. 

Ideally you would conduct viewings at this stage too i.e. between exchange and completion. If that’s not possible, marketing it early still enables you to take prospective tenants names, numbers and details so that once you are in a position to conduct viewings you have a shortlist of interested parties ready to go on day one.

Letting agents or landlords with multiple properties may also have a head-start as they will often have tenants on a waiting list or who ‘missed out’ on a previous property but may find yours of interest.

It is also important to advertise the property at the correct rental price. You may even consider offering the property below the ‘going rate’ so as to attract more interest, rent the property quicker and thus minimise your initial void period on your first let (when the property is earning you nothing). 

Ideally the first batch of viewings will lead to suitable tenants who wish to rent the property. The next issue then becomes when they can move-in. It’s unusual for someone to be able to move-in immediately, as they will typically have a notice period to honour with their current landlord.

Property type can play a part here - smaller properties may be filled quicker as the tenants are naturally of a more transient nature, whereas larger family homes often come with tenants that have more commitments (and stuff to pack!) before they can move.

 In normal circumstances, if a property is advertised and a tenant is not found within a couple of weeks (not necessarily moved in, but scheduled to do so)  then I would say something is wrong - normally the price, property or marketing. One key proviso for a landlord is that the objective should always be to get the best tenants possible, not necessarily the first ones that come along. 

If you are buying a rental property and would like someone to help you find the right tenants as quickly as possible, please get in touch.

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BUY-TO-LET DEAL OF THE WEEK: '3' bed house in Chichester, £300,000, 5.2% yield

Summary

'3' bed house in Chichester

Listed for sale on 12/03/25 @ £325,000

Now = £300,000

Rent = £1,300pcm

Yield = 5.2%

Last sold for £225,000 in June 2023 (+33% in 2 years)

The property is on the market with King & Chasemore and full details can be found on Rightmove via the following link: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/159304970

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How much are Chichester’s landlords spending on property maintenance?

As another tax year recently came to a close, annual account statements were sent out to all of my landlords who use my fully managed service. It’s something I include (free of charge) as part of my lettings service, but I think it will make my landlords (or their accountants!) lives easier come self-assessment time.

The statement breaks down the total rent they have received in the tax year for each property, along with any deductions that were made i.e. CRJ Lettings’ management fees and any maintenance costs. It’s similar to what they receive each month when the rent comes in, but this time for the whole tax year.

Not only is this a nice overview for the landlord, whilst again demonstrating my complete transparency in regards to fees, but it also ensures all costs are accounted for so that they can claim the maximum tax relief. This is increasingly important when the deduction of mortgage interest has been taken away, having been replaced by a (often lesser) ‘tax credit’.

It also gives me some great figures to analyse, which I wanted to share with you.

The average rent my landlords are achieving is £1,228pcm, which means the bulk of my managed properties are slightly cheaper than the current average rental property available in Chichester (which costs £1,300pcm). More telling is the fact my landlords have received all of the rent due to them. Each year I question whether I will repeat this achievement, such is the economic landscape and frequent tales in the press of non-paying tenants. 

What’s more is that my unique fixed-fee structure is proving to be excellent value for my landlords; demonstrated by an average charge of just 8.5% for an award-winning full management service. One landlord is paying just 5.8% as their property achieves a particularly high rent, meaning my fixed fee proves to be even better value for them.

What is also interesting to see is that my landlords are spending an average of just £361 a year on property maintenance, which is only 2.5% of the total rent they receive. Common lettings advice is to set aside 10% of your annual rent to account for property maintenance, so it seems my landlords are doing far better than this. 

I suspect this is partly because I tend to manage more modern properties, which should inherently have fewer issues, but also because I tend to endorse the attitude of ‘prevention being better than cure’ i.e. spending a little in the short-term to save a lot in the long-term.

I hope it’s also partly down to the carefully selected maintenance contractors I use, who offer reasonable value for money, plus the fact I don’t add a mark-up to maintenance costs or charge additional commission on such works. I’ll also typically run through a few simple steps with tenants when issues do occur, in case we can resolve them without the need for paid help.

Landlords; let me know how much you’re spending on maintenance and where you’re spending it (boiler repairs and faulty toilet flushes made up a good chunk of our maintenance spend this year!). And if you’d like to discuss the ins and outs of how I can make the management of your rental property a little bit easier and perhaps more cost-effective, please get in touch.

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BUY-TO-LET DEAL OF THE WEEK: 3 bed house in Tangmere, £285,000, 5.5% yield

Summary

3 bed house in Tangmere

Listed for sale on 23/01/25 @ £300,000

Now = £285,000

Rent = £1,300pcm

Yield = 5.5%

Last sold for £258,000 in February 2017 (+10% in 8 years)

The property is on the market with Leaders and full details can be found on Rightmove via the following link: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/157215737

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Avoid having your house ‘stolen’

Scammers are getting increasingly sophisticated and property is an area they target due to the high transactional values. You may be aware of ‘phishing’ attacks, whereby fraudsters impersonate your solicitor to try and intercept the transfer of funds into their own pockets, but have you heard about the tricksters who attempt to impersonate you so as to steal your property!?

The theft occurs with the criminal impersonating the owner of a property so that they can then sell or re-mortgage it. Buy-to-let properties without a mortgage are a prime target here, as the owner won’t live at the property and there isn’t a mortgage company double-checking things or receiving any of the sale proceeds.

As title deeds are a publicly available document (they cost £7 to download online), it is very easy for anyone to get the name of the owner of a property. The title deed will also show whether there is a ‘charge’ against the property i.e. a mortgage. With this information the fraudster, who often first poses as a tenant, will simply change their name by deed poll to match the property owner’s name. Now living at the property with the same name as the true owner, it becomes very easy to build up identification documents and paperwork that would see that person passed off as the ‘owner’.

That’s exactly what happened to a property in Luton in 2021, with a fraudulent tenant selling the property without the landlord even knowing! Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident, with the Land Registry paying out millions in compensation each year due to fraudulent transactions. Another case saw a previously unencumbered property in London become subject to a £1.2million bridging loan, which was paid out to a mother and daughter who had changed their name to match the registered owners.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this; which is to enter a restriction on your title deed. This will then state that any application to change the register must be accompanied by a solicitor’s certificate verifying your identity as that of the legal owner. This can cause a slight delay when you actually want to sell or mortgage your own property, but that’s surely better than falling victim to this crime.

Another option is to sign up to the Land Registry’s free property monitoring service. You’ll receive an email if an application is made to change the register; so, whilst it won’t prevent changes being made, at least you’ll know straight away so you can take prompt action.

As ever, prevention is better than cure. So, whilst the above is rare, it pays to be aware of such matters so you can put measures in place to ensure you are protected. Thorough tenant referencing will also put off any chancers with such misdeeds in mind, as they will seek an easier target if asked too many questions. 

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BUY-TO-LET DEAL OF THE WEEK: 2 bed house in Tangmere, £300,000, 4.8% yield

Summary

2 bed house in Tangmere

Listed for sale on 24/02/25 @ £300,000

Rent = £1,200pcm

Yield = 4.8%

Last sold for £255,000 in March 2021 (+18% in 4 years)

The property is on the market with Sims Williams and full details can be found on Rightmove via the following link: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/158612201

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How useful is calculating ‘£ per square foot’?

 

I am currently helping a landlord find a suitable rental property to add to his portfolio. I suggested an array of two-bedroom houses in Tangmere, which, amongst other things, I highlighted as offering excellent value when considering their ‘£ per square foot’. The landlord was a little baffled as to what this was and why it was important. 

I explained that £ per square foot is one of the metrics I always use when analysing a potential property purchase (property price divided by total square footage of the property) as it gives an idea of the value for money you are getting.

Obviously, you have to consider the quality of the ‘square foot’ you are calculating i.e. an immaculate property in the best part of town will rightly cost more on a square foot basis than a rundown shack in a less desirable area.

When comparing similar homes in the same neighbourhood though, it can be a good gauge as to how much you should be paying for a particular property. Most estate agents will just talk about the number of bedrooms as an indicator of size, but this is an unfair comparison when a large bedroom has been split in two or a living room has been redesignated as a ‘bedroom’.

It can also become a powerful negotiation tool. Being armed with the knowledge of comparable properties is one thing, but the £ per square foot metric brings a level of objectivity to negotiations (although it does ignore garden size). 

Back to the search at hand…

There are currently four traditional ‘two-up two-down’ houses in Tangmere, all with a garage and within 500 yards of one another. They are priced at £249,500, £259,950, £270,000 and £300,000.

Based on that, it seems pretty obvious which one to plump for right? This is where my trusty £ per square foot calculation comes in handy.

The ‘cheapest’ of the two-bed houses would be a decent buy at £249,500; and with a footprint of 605 square feet means it would cost £412 per square foot.

Spending £10,450 more will get you an additional 50 square feet, bringing the overall cost down to £397 per square foot.

The £270,000 option is the smallest of them all (at 588 square feet). That equates to £459 per square foot, placing it bottom of the pack when considering ‘bricks for your buck’.

The most expensive of the four (priced at £300,000) is also the biggest thanks to the addition of a 90 square foot conservatory. Whilst conservatory space is normally less ‘valuable’ than original house space (traditional conservatories are cheaper to add on than bricks and mortar), this one warrants using its total 745 square feet when calculating a cost of £403 per square foot.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will note the most expensive house is NOT the outright cheapest when it comes to £ per square foot (going against the narrative I was surely spinning). But, when you factor in each property’s condition and the works required to bring all four houses up to an immaculate standard, you soon realise it does in fact warrant the (small) extra expense when using this metric. 

Furthermore, this is where I believe those who are ‘in the know’ could use the traditional headline figures to work for them. Give it a little time and, having been overlooked as ‘expensive’, I suspect a price reduction is likely before it eventually sells. 

Also, do you think it will be easier to negotiate the price of the already ‘cheap’ two-bed houses downwards, or do you think it will be easier to state the fact that, at £300,000, this one seems pretty pricey considering you can get a similar two-bed house round the corner (albeit in need of some work) for £50,000 less? 

By using this knowledge to your advantage, I think you could end up bagging a bit of a bargain by getting the best of the comparable properties on offer for a better price; ultimately meaning that it would become the cheapest on a ‘£ per square foot’ basis.

If you are thinking of buying a rental property and would like me to crunch the numbers on it to ensure you are maximising your investment, please get in touch.

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