Landlord new year's resolutions 

Losing weight, cutting down on the drink and exercising more are all generic New Year’s resolutions that are set every year - only to be broken a few months down the line.

If you’re a landlord, why not make some resolutions to combat this and make your investment work harder? From making your properties more desirable to choosing the right tenants, take a look at our top 5 New Year’s resolutions for landlords.

Form Stronger Relationships with Local Tradesmen 

A good tradesman is worth their weight in gold, but not all are created equal.

Forming relationships with local tradesman offers a number of benefits including reduced rates (particularly if you have more than one property), better reputation with tenants, higher quality of service and the assurance that all work done is compliant with necessary laws and regulations.

If you’re struggling to find trusted local tradesmen, check out our landlords guide to hiring the right contractors.

Maximise the Rental Yield of Your Property

If you’re preparing a new property to let or have a rental void meaning the property is empty, why not invest in property improvements to improve the rental yield of your property? Even small changes can make a big difference when it comes to rental price, some key drivers include:

• Give the property a deep clean and paint job - painting the front door always helps in increasing its desireability. 
• Furnish the property.
• Hire a professional photographer to take high quality photos of your property.
• Improve the kerb appeal of your property, ensure windows are clean, garden is well kept and gutters and in good condition.
• Consider adding luxury extras such as security systems, power showers, Jacuzzi baths and high-end kitchen appliances.
• Ensure that your rate of rent isn’t lower than other similar properties in the area.
• Remove or renew old carpets.
• Allow tenants to bring pets into the property.
• Add features that appeal to the type of tenants you are trying to attract, couples, families, young professionals etc.

Keep On Top Of Property Maintenance

As well as reducing the rental price of your property, failing to keep on top of maintenance can result in tenant dissatisfaction. If you use a contractor, ensure that they are carrying out (and logging) maintenance on a regular basis.

Be sure to communicate with your tenants and ensure that any maintenance they request for you or your team is being carried out in a timely manner.

Keep Tenancy Voids to a Minimum

Frequent or extended tenancy voids have a serious impact on the profitability of buy to let portfolios. As well as having proper marketing in place to get vacant properties filled quickly, landlords should put measures in place to avoid tenancy voids becoming an issue in the first place, these may include:

• Responding to tenant queries quickly and efficiently.
• Carrying out routine maintenance as and when agreed.
• Make contacting you easy, offer tenants several different channels (call, email, text) so they can use the one that’s most practical for them.
• Offer a renewal incentive.
• Be open to suggestions and improvements.
• Respect the privacy of your tenants when arranging maintenance or inspections.

Finally, if a tenant does decide to move on, you should offer them a feedback form so they can highlight any areas of your property and service that they feel could be improved upon – this may help you highlight and address anything that’s putting tenants off. 

Spend More Time on Yourself

Being a landlord can be tiring and thankless job, so make sure you make time for yourself in 2019.

For landlords, 2018 could be considered a tough year, with numerous tax and regulation changes having potential impacts on profitability. If you’re struggling to keep on top of ever-changing legislation, or just want to free up some time to spend with family then consider using a property management company to manage your portfolio.

A Fully Managed Service for Landlords

At Abode, we provide tailored levels of service for our landlords, from viewing only right through to full management. If you’re looking to relive some of the pressure that comes with managing property, we can help.

Give one of our expert team a call today on 0117 973 8866 or fill out a contact form and we’ll back to you.