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[luckybadger]

What do you look for in a potential tenant?

I have no history of renting anywhere else and a medium/low ish income. I'm hoping to increase that but as it stands that's my situation. I'm self employed btw.

Obviously I know I'll keep the place clean and not trash it but there's no way for a stranger to know that I suppose.

I've contacted a few estate agents but they seem very fixed on the amount of rent correlating with my income which would sort of price me out of the kind of size and type of property I am interested in. I'm not talking about a mansion here, just something more than my current income justifies.

For example I was told that for one large flat that costs £800 a month you need to be earning 22K a year. Which I currently do not.

I do have savings. So I could pay 6 months or a year up front. When I try and get this across to estate agents they seem to discount me.

There's a long and unhappy story behind how I got to this point. But since I won't be sharing that with a potential LL or an estate agent it would only muddy the waters to post it here.

So, are you a LL? Would you consider an upfront payment like that? What can I put in place to make myself more appealing as a tenant?

The problem for an agent or landlord is what happens after the initial 6 months, would you be able to offer 6 months upfront at each renewal period?

@Gigi789

The problem for an agent or landlord is what happens after the initial 6 months, would you be able to offer 6 months upfront at each renewal period?

Well, obviously you would. Because you’d save each month’s rent over that period and hand it over as a lump sum, wouldn’t you?

We offered a year upfront and the landlord jumped at it. We were one of 20 odd viewings for the property.

When DS was at uni we always offered to pay a years rent upfront for his flats and normally got a discount by doing this.

If OPs salary is insufficient and we don’t know her savings amount (obviously) then I don’t think it’s obvious.

I would look for someone with a stable job with a good income. £800pcm/£22k pa - I’d be looking for a joint income of approaching £40-50k ideally. It’s a financial transaction, so your finances are always going to be a huge part of the consideration. I don’t trust previous landlord references, they are too generic and safe.

I’d only compromise on the financial requirements if it was a very quiet market.

I rely on my letting agent to do background checks and make sure no bad credit etc.
I wouldn’t rent to someone who couldn’t afford the rent or with a bad credit rating.
Keeping it clean and tidy is a given TBH! I’m return I always deal with any problems as soon as they are reported to me.

For example I was told that for one large flat that costs £800 a month you need to be earning 22K a year. Which I currently do not

That's actually very reasonable.
We were told we had to earn 3x the annual rent in order to pass the affordability check. For us that was 44k.
We actually earn slightly less combined, but the landlord was reasonable.

How much are you earning? Less than 22k tells me you may run into difficulties.
Its not just rent, you'll have council tax, energy bills etc.

@MattHancocksSexTape

I would look for someone with a stable job with a good income. £800pcm/£22k pa - I’d be looking for a joint income of approaching £40-50k ideally. It’s a financial transaction, so your finances are always going to be a huge part of the consideration. I don’t trust previous landlord references, they are too generic and safe.

I’d only compromise on the financial requirements if it was a very quiet market.

You think people with a £50k income would want to rent a £800 pm property? I suspect their aspirations would be rather higher.

Interesting that you have to be earning so much more than the rent when my income (currently on UC due to illness) is less than yours and my rent is more. Yet its expected (by the powers that be) that I can afford the rent.

Not wanting a debate on benefits btw. Just find it interesting.

The concern would be that after the 6mths of upfront rent, you wouldn’t be able to afford to kee paying. To evict someone can take more than a year so the LL is taking a risk of losing a year’s rent plus all the stress.

I’d suggest renting somewhere well within budget from a LL with multiple properties so they get to know you, pay on time and keep the place well. Once you have shown what you are like then ask the LL what else they may have that you could live to.

I suspect LL are particularly wary at the moment due to the extremely long delays to evictions. If you stopped paying it could 12m without rent.
I would be concerned if a tenant was stretching themselves to the point of having no margin for error/problems.
We have had issues the past when our tenants had to transition on to benefits due to illness and the process took 10 months due to various cock ups. We could bridge that and they are good tenants but many LL would have evicted them after 8 weeks of non-payment.
I would be reluctant to take on a tenant who may struggle I’d either want one with agreed benefits or a good income. Most LL want stability and certainly of income.

Thanks for the info everyone. Yes I'd be able to offer 6 months up front on a rolling basis. I suppose though the LL doesn't know I wouldn't blow all my savings and have nothing at the end of the 6 months.

I'm not going to, obviously. But I want to know how to make myself more rentable to if that makes sense.

My credit rating is 963.

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude So is it basically that benefits and income trump savings?

We paid upfront for a year, DH had been made redundant and we were moving to a new area for temporary contract work. Because we technically had no permanent jobs, no landlord would take us. Luckily we has some savings and redundancy money, so we offered a year upfront. Landlord was happy to take that on the grounds that if we hadn't sorted ourselves out by the end of the year, we'd have to leave.

What's your income OP? Are you a single person? Have you looked at a mortgage? Only because I'm assuming you've got a decent amount of savings if you're confident you could repeatedly pay for 6 months worth of rent at once.

Do you have anyone who could act as a guarantor? DS has just graduated and moved into a lovely house. He is working and can easily afford the rent but has no steady employment history at this point. Landlord was happy to accept DH as a guarantor in this situation.
BTW, there were plenty of viewings on the house but LL still happy to go with DS and his student girlfriend.

For me its stability of income that matters rather than savings. I am looking for longer term tenants where possible (the tenants who moved on to benefits have rented from us for nearly 10 years).

I would rent somewhere smaller and cheaper initially - I think the idea of building a relationship with a landlord with multiple properties is good.

If the eviction situation was more normal then I think LL might be less concerned (it still means months without rent) but right now it could easily be a year.

@CiaoForNiao That's interesting. I get what people are saying about a margin for error/problems etc but I was surprised how the numbers went myself.

@Shitfuckcommaetc 3 times, wow.

@Blossomtoes I do find the income bands a bit strange actually. I would presume the people who had that money would be doing something else like mortgage, buying or living in a really nice rental if that's what they wanted. I totally get LLs not wanting to get stuck with a non paying tenant though.

@girlmom21

What's your income OP? Are you a single person? Have you looked at a mortgage? Only because I'm assuming you've got a decent amount of savings if you're confident you could repeatedly pay for 6 months worth of rent at once.

Six months rent is £4800. You won’t

Depending on where you are and how suspicious the landlord is, they might think 6 months up front but earning a low amount monthly is suspicious... Red flag for a weed farm / brothel / subletting to multiple people.

When I was a LL, all of the above were very real risks due to the area (outer London, rough area). At least two neighbouring properties had upwards of 15 people living there, I assume they were in the UK illegally to accept those conditions. That's a £20k fine to the landlord if that happens on your watch.

I had a nice family move in, the wife and kids left after about a year and he moved several mates in, on bunk beds. I had no choice but to immediately start eviction proceedings. I am so lucky he went quietly, I suspect he was not aware how easily he could have played the situation to his advantage.

Bugger premature post!

There can be very few places where someone with £5k savings and £22k income could get a mortgage.

@SusannaM and @Practicebeingpatient can I ask how you got the upfront payment conversation going? I have been on the phone to estate agents and got nowhere, sorry if this is stupid but how do you connect with a LL to ask them directly?

@Blossomtoes she's saying she'd be able to pay upfront every 6 months so must have a lot more saved than £4800.

[quote girlmom21]@Blossomtoes she's saying she'd be able to pay upfront every 6 months so must have a lot more saved than £4800. [/quote]
No. Because each month she’d put the rent into a savings account from her wages and at the end of six months she’d have another £4800. 🙈