Rental: cheeky potential tenants

[erloe]

I have a rental which was my home before I met dh. It’s a one bedroom flat in a very very sought after development. I listed it for £3,200 a month and got no interest. I reduced to £3,000 and got one viewing. They offered £2,700 a month.

I got another message asking if the kitchen appliances had been updated since the pictures because the washing machine looked 20 years old. I have now had new pictures taken.

Have other people had tenants haggle on price? I rented it for £2,700 in 2019.

The thread seems pretty much done.
The pictures needed updating and price might have to come down.
We are not sure who the tenant who would be having their lifestyle subsidised is (as opposed to the landlord) but we can leave that open perhaps.

@Sweden99 @rainingsnoring it's not even worth engaging with people like that, their focus is on "winning" the argument than actually having a constructive conversation. That's why the belligerence and swearing begins when they start "losing".

In terms of this thread, I'm glad to see that more and more tenants are refusing to be exploited any further than they already are - landlords need to be held to account just like any other business or service provider is.

I don’t think the OP is coming back!

OP is reading with great interest

Haha, I think the OP isn't gonna come back to this as it just turned into an argument with not much useful information for her.

End of the day she was optimistic on pricing, there's nothing wrong with that. People are entitled to bid what they want, people also are entitled to set the price at what they want. Doesn't mean it'll go ahead at that price, the market decides.

In the end she got a bid at 90% of the asking price.

Either you can accept, reject or re-negotiate. But before doing that it might be useful to check out what the competition is. £2,700 might still be an excellent offer, or it might not. But if it was the only offer and there are few viewers, then that makes rejecting harder and the evidence suggests they are closer to the real price than you are.

Either way, nobody can tell without reference to the market and nobody has that information. Saying it's expensive in an absolute sense is not useful; in the same way that someone buying a £1m flat in London could be getting a bargain but people would slag it off on here without even knowing what/where it is because they couldn't/wouldn't pay it.

For what it’s worth here is an update. Without getting drawn in to the arguments above.

I had one more viewing yesterday from two sharers.

They offered full asking price on a 12 month contract.

I informed the couple who offered 2,700 that I had received another offer. They replied saying they are offering a 24 month contract and are a couple vs two sharers.

I informed them that the other offer was at full asking price so this was their chance to make their best and final offer on the property.

They responded saying no thanks. Fair enough. I’m just happy to have tenants who are paying market rent.

expect demanding tenants. because that what £3000 commands.

Congrats, everyone is happy at the end of the day.

It's the act of posting on Mumsnet I swear that triggers the property gods! Must have been fairly ironic to have few offers/viewings and then as soon as you post on here out pops someone that offers full asking price, seen it a few times now.

The couple were right though. You will have to worry about two incomes paying the rent and two mates/strangers falling out/moving on. So you will have more void periods further down the line.

Sharers are also far more likely to cause a noise nuisance for your neighbours.

So - greed saw out. Good luck with that.

Congratulations!
@KievLoverTwo The market rate is what people will pay. I suggest being happy for OP who has come out of this well.

Why are landlords so absurdly bad at medium to long term financial planning and risk management?

How do people with such an enormous amount of financial illiteracy and greed end up in this position?

Because quite often landlords are not absurdly greedy or business gurus.

Many dingle property landlords fall into it because thier work takes them abroad and they want to keep thier house for when they get back, or they need to take up caring responsibilities for a relative but still want thier own place when those responsibilities end. Or they may have inherited a family home but rather than sell thier own home they rent it out instead.

I don’t really care about OPs happiness and idk why you think I should be concerned about it.

Well I guess that means we need a landlord license to protect those people from themselves and all the poor people renting from them.

Yes, what an amazing coincidence! Such a coincidence that the same day the OP posted complaining about the 'cheeky tenants' who made an offer, she apparently manages to secure what she thinks is 'market rent' from two other people who suddenly turned up, hours after she posted.
Perhaps it's true but I'm sceptical.

Because couples never split up…

I am a landlord and I do indeed have to pay for a licence.

@KievLoverTwo has a point. If there's a void at the end of the 12 month tenancy that was anything over 2 months then OP has lost the profit from the extra rental amount.
But OP is happy so tbh that's fine !

You are correct. I definitely won't be responding again. Sadly, there are too many people like this who are, apparently, never ever wrong. I wonder how they manage in the real world!
Also agree that some landlords don't understand that they are providing a service and need to be held to account as they are in other countries.
I've said this before and have been too early but I think that rents will fall rather than rise. A lot of people, some of them landlords, don't seem to understand that there is a limit to what the market can afford. As the economy deteriorates, as it is v likely to, that limit will go down rather than up.

Shrug

People move out of house shares far more frequently because they have formed new relationships and want to move in with their partner than the ratio of couples splitting up. At least that’s my experience of observing dozens of London friends who house shared for 10+ years.

@AX35 be careful what you wish for. Make it too expensive and difficult for the one property landlords and you will end up with big corporates buying all the rental properties.
Corporates do not care, they will drive the prices up until they physically cannot go up any further.
Its happened in several industries now.

What amazing coincidence! Now the OP suddenly has two set of potential tenants...

If this is even real my question would be how can 2 sharers live in a one bed flat?

How is that going to work exactly? one sleeping in the living room? Odd set up for an expensive flat....

I definitely won't be responding again.

Good.

2 single beds instead of a double.
Its done all over the world.

I was also wondering the same thing? Unless these shares planned to share a bed, how on earth are they going to make that work?