Blog Posts
Hiring Contractors: A Landlord's Guide to Finding Tradespeople you can Trust
Whenever you ask someone if they know a good contractor, you'll never be far from a tale of woe: the plumber who never turned up, the electrician who 'bodged' the job; the builder who overcharged and left a huge mess!
The Niche Landlord: Perfecting a Lettings Formula for Repeated Success
Specialise or diversify? That's a big question for many landlords when it comes to expanding their portfolios, and if you look around Google long enough, you'll find arguments for both.
Essential Advice Before Buying a Dream 'Chocolate Box' Thatched Cottage
For many people, buying a dream home in the country means falling in love with the classic picture postcard look. Timber-framed thatched cottages may epitomise the quintessential English countryside home – but these types of homes don't come without challenges. If you have your heart set on one of these historic beauties, you need your head to be equally engaged.
Sold With Tenants: Your Landlord Checklist for Buying a Tenanted Property
As a fast and chain-free way to start or add to your lettings portfolio, buying a tenanted property can be an attractive proposition. Before you make an offer and start incurring legal fees, use our checklist here to ask the right questions.
Accidental Landlord? All You Need To Know To Make It A Success
An accidental landlord is someone who becomes a landlord by circumstance rather than by plan, and it can happen for several reasons. You could be relocating for work, moving in with your partner, or having trouble finding a buyer for your current home. Or you might have inherited a property. Becoming an accidental landlord is more common than you might think.
Five Ways to Increase The Value of Your Rental Property
The rental market has grown up. Tenancies are running for longer, and with stays of four or more years increasingly common, tenants have higher expectations around the place they're willing to call home. But which improvements make the most difference?
Letting Agents: How to Pick The Best One
Whether you've been a landlord for years or you're just starting out, finding a letting agent you can trust and build a long-lasting relationship with is a big deal. Letting agents will be competing for your business left, right, and centre, so how do you begin the selection process?
Rent Arrears - Finding A Balance Between Compassion & Collection
Although rent arrears are a hot topic during the pandemic, it’s far from being a new subject. That said, if the discussion has taught us anything in the last year, it’s that anyone can be affected by economic events: no-one is immune, however high their income.
5 Simple Secrets To Make Your Inventory Watertight
Inventories are essential to have complete clarity over the condition and contents of your rental property: without correct preparation, you could risk a costly deposit dispute at the end of the tenancy.
Deposit Disputes: Why do so Many Landlords Lose?
Why do so many Landlords lose deposit disputes? How do things go wrong? And how can Landlords do things differently to avoid issues over deposit disputes at the end of the tenancy?
How to Build a Portfolio of Popular and Profitable Lettings
Do you think it is possible to be popular AND profitable as a landlord? Perhaps you feel that one cancels out the other; that it’s a choice between hard-nosed business and being nice, but that the two are fundamentally incompatible?
Tenants, Are You Struggling To Manage Money or Debt?
Community Money Advice (South Wiltshire) offers free, non-judgemental support for people who are struggling with money or are in debt. Specially trained Advisors provide support, guidance and advice to help clients find the best solutions.
Is A Managing Agent Worth Your Money?
It takes a certain character to be a managing agent: the job has a reputation as a thankless task with days full of complaints, emergencies, breakdowns and hassle. And if we’re honest, rarely does anyone call with news that everything’s just fine.
New Year's Resolutions for Landlords - Let's Get Organised!
From giving up smoking, to a change of diet, or starting a new exercise regime, now is the time of year when all sorts of new year’s resolutions are being made and declared. Health and fitness are the usual areas we concentrate on, but there are also things to consider in terms of your wellbeing as a landlord.
Professional Help - Do You Really Need a Letting Agent?
PROFESSIONAL HELP: DO YOU REALLY NEED A LETTING AGENT? Most people can do almost anything if they put their minds to it. You could service your own car or repair your own washing machine but are you the best person for the job?
