It is important to keep it occupied at all times if possible. If you don’t, the mortgage, council tax, and any other bills will be coming straight out of your own pocket.
Winter is never a great time for landlords to find new tenants, but hopefully, if you follow these tips you will never find your property unoccupied:
Long Term Contracts
Having people come and go more regularly can be quite disruptive and one-year contracts work much better for both landlords and tenants.
Once the contract is up, think about asking your tenants whether they would be interested in signing another contract – you don’t want to get into a rolling contract if possible, as it gives you less peace of mind, knowing they could up and leave at any time.
Move Fast
Once you know your current tenants are planning on moving out, try and visit your property as soon as possible to find out if anything needs fixing or replacing. Get quotes for any new furniture or appliances and book in contractors to carry out any work needed as soon as possible.
The best time to do up your property and give it a quick lick of paint is during the first week after tenants have moved out. This means the house will be available for viewings quickly, hopefully resulting in brand new tenants.
Look After Tenants
The easiest way to avoid an empty house is to look after your tenants as well as you can. This may sound obvious, but it is easy to just ask tenants to sign a few contracts, hand over the keys, and walk away.
Build up a relationship with tenants and try and solve any problems they may have as quickly as possible. If your tenants do move out, having a good relationship with them means you can ask them what the reasons behind their move are. If it’s something that can be changed you can do so before any new tenants move in.
Advertise
Choose an estate agent that lists their properties on major property portals such as Zoopla and Rightmove.
You can also take matters into your own hands and put adverts on local notice boards, post information about your property on social media, and ask friends and family to let people know about your property through word of mouth.
Make it Easy
Consider opening your house for an open day, whereas many people as possible can come and look at it.
If you can, think about cutting out any fees possible, as this will make applying for your house cheap and easy, and make renting your house even more appealing. If you have a large void of tenants at any point, you could even consider dropping the rent down a bit.
