What do you look for when you’re renting?

[JudgeRindersMinder]

In the process of renovating family home to rent out (please don’t give me a hard time for this, the income is needed to pay for care), amd apart from the legal stuff re safety, what do you look for in a rental property?

We’re looking at...
Hard floors in hall and living room,
New carpets in the bedrooms
White walls in bedrooms, grey in living areas
Allowing tenants to put up pictures etc on walls
House is currently set up as 3 very good sized bedrooms and a dining room, but we’re likely to market it as 4 bedrooms.
Kitchen and bathrooms are well up to date
Providing a gardener every couple of weeks for grass cutting (there’s a LOT of grass!)
Leaving Venetian blinds on the windows at the front of the house

The rent is likely to be around £1200/month. What else would you be wanting for your money?

Privacy from neighbours - adequate fencing/screening.
Will there be an outdoor tap? I imagine the garden takes some work.
Would you consider pets - some kind of clause to say they will get carpet cleaned upon departure etc?
I'm being picky

Is your house properly priced for the area/size. Will you accept housing benefit top ups do you accept animals.

@Runkle, picky is good!
We’re going to allow dogs but not cats, hence the hard flooring in hall and living room.
There’s an outdoor tap already and plenty of high fences/hedges amd walls...we’d include hedge cutting with the grass cutting as that’s only a couple of times a year

I would suggest and off white rather than grey. Many people hate grey and white white is a bit cold. I would also remove the Venetians and let them put up their own blinds. Lots of people loathe gentians (like me).

@nousernameforme

I’m as sure as I can be that the pricing is right, it’s a very particular area of town, and from the research I’ve done it seems appropriate.

We’re going to use an agent to manage it, and he does pretty stringent background checks, so I’d imagine housing benefit will be a no

Also, is there space for a dryer, washing machine and, dishwasher. Having to compromise on one or the other is a pain.

We’re leaving the blinds up as the windows are massive and it would cost someone a good few hundred to replace them...maybe say we’re open to them being changed, rather than taking them down from the start?

There’s a utility room amd we’re leaving the white goods in as they’ve all had relatively little use (parent has been living alone), so a good sized fridge freezer, washing machine, dryer and dishwasher

Is there somewhere else a dining table can go if you're re-purposing the dining room?

The kitchen’s big enough for table and chairs, as is the living room if someone wanted something a bit more formal. They could always use what is the dining room just now, as it’ll be let unfurnished

People don't always claim HB because they are unsavoury....

I didn’t say they were

Most importantly is your mortgage provider and insurer aware

The house is unmortgaged...We’ve not spoken to the insurer yet, but I’ll add that to the to do list-thank you

My most important thing? Allowing pets.
Why dogs and no others? If you allow one type you may as well allow others!

I worked in lettings years ago. My tips would be:
Put a folder together of instructions for boiler, washing machine, smoke detectors etc (download and print from internet if you don't have them). It might save you or the agent getting unnecessary phone calls.
Protect the fabric of the property by putting extractor fans in bathrooms (or makimg sure they work well) and door stops anywhere a door could bang a wall.
Instead of allowing tenants to bang nails in walls anywhere, consider putting up attractive, high end picture hooks in appropriate places at the same height and symmetrically placed. Then, don't allow more and definitely not those sticky things, and your paint decor to walls will last longer.
Mottled effect flooring doesn't show marks and stains as much as plain.
Aluminium or wood thresholds to all capeted rooms.
Washable paint to kitchens and bathrooms.
If it's likely they'll bring bikes into the hall, consider tongue and groove 1m high, or you end up with dented walls.

As a renter I didn’t want to spend money on window dressings if I could help it so definitely leave the blinds. Off white/ magnolia paint and definitely some picture hooks up. I’d be happy to hang on existing hooks rather than rectifying damage later.

Personally I wouldn’t want a 4th bedroom downstairs unless it was a shared house, I’d see it as you trying to get more money by marketing a 3 bed as a 4 bed.

Finally, we have cats and are lovely respectful tenants who have always paid on time and looked after properties. We’ve paid more deposit and had professional clean/ fumigation on check out. Never left any damage or been docked deposit. The kids on the other hand would have caused more problems!! What I’m trying to say is that by saying no cats you are eliminating a LOT of potential renters who may well be much better tenants than those without pets. I’d suggest considering allowing them with appropriate clauses in the contract to protect you.

The gardener is a good idea. Many tenants will ruin a well-maintained garden (don’t mean leave it to be overgrown with weeds but will lack in knowledge and time to care properly). Make sure he does fertilising, pruning etc. Lawn mowing you could actually leave to the tenants as it’s more straightforward.

I image the property isn’t registered as an HMO so will be let to family: go with washable paints and instead of hardwoods you could consider laminate or vinyl like Amtico.

Agree re. 4th bedroom, it could be used as a bedroom but it's not really.

Agree that tenants with pets generally want a 'home' for longer term. I'd allow cats if you're allowing dogs.

Neutral decor is best. Grey sounds cold. Agree with PP to go for off white/cream colours.

I'd make sure all cupboards/units had properly fixed handles, same as taps/showers/toilet/windows in good working order.

Put good lightbulbs in all fittings.

Don't try to market a 3 bed a 4 unless you're not looking for a family type set up as your renters. You are looking for reliable income so make the place as good to live in as you'd like to live in yourself.

No patterns, no garish colours.

Be responsive and quick to act on any repairs or queries they have. If you are invested in maintaining the property to a high standard, chances are they will be too and will build trust and rapport between you.

Don't leave any of your things in the property or outbuildings.

Be light touch and let them get on with their lives.

If windows are very large you could buy inexpensive plain coloured roller blinds or curtains as it can be really costly for tenants to buy these on top of their deposit, rent, moving costs and helps make the property look better. Some actions like this go a long way to making the tenants feel appreciated and want to stay longer as it meets their needs.

Interesting what people are saying about the dining room, the house was originally built as 2bedroom bungalow, with a “proper” upstairs extension with 2 additional bedrooms, so the original second bedroom became the dining room.
I’m taking on board what you’re saying so perhaps it would be better to market it as 4th bedroom/dining room. The majority of recently built houses in the area are 4 bed.
It’s absolutely not in a house share area, and it’s very rare for a house in the area to be rented out. (I’m aware this could go against us as much as in our favour!)

Would you really put up picture hooks ahead of tenants? There’s very little danger of damage to the walls as they’re all brick rather than plasterboard.
I’d be grateful if anyone else would share their thoughts on this.

Good point renthe doorstops, I’ll add this to the list, and also the washable paint, I’ll speak to the painter.

I have all the manuals for the appliances and the boiler.

@Harebel, you make a lot of good points, especially about investing in the property, whilst we’re not spending silly money, we aren’t doing work “on the cheap”. A longish term tenant would be the ideal, so yes it needs to be a home rather than “just a rental”

Bed 4/dining room sounds like it's really a 3 bed. If the room is used for a bedroom, is there enough space for a proper table to eat at in another room? If the living areas are big enough for a big table and enough seating (e.g. 2 sofas or sofa + 2 armchairs) and you mentioned 'bathroomS', then the house could be marketed as a 4 bed.

As I’ve said earlier both the living room and kitchen are plenty big for dining furniture, and there is a family bathroom with a shower, and an en-suite shower room to the main bedroom

I say it's a 4-bed.