Letting your house on a long term lease?

Property market will pick up in September?

Also if you let it out at all you’ll have to pay capital gains tax when you do sell it.

Where is your bungalow, Southdowns? Maybe in the South downs? We are looking for a bungalow! Our only experience of letting was not a great one, and we ended up selling after a year of letting. Luckily, it sold quite quickly. The agents didn't seem to pick up on any problems on their supposedly regular checks, and as we lived about 100 miles away, it was in their hands. Good advice from others above about seeking other estate agents' advice.

Do you have masses of bungalows in your area in that you can't sell? Where I am they are like hen's teeth. No sooner for sale sign up that Sold is all over it. Have you valued it reasonably? Seems unusual these days not selling. Wouldn't go for leasing, too complicated these days.

Anywhere around here, bungalows are like hen’s teeth, and comparatively expensive.
Are you sure it was priced competitively? It’s not exactly unknown for estate agents to overvalue, because a) they think it’s what the vendor wants to hear, and b) in order to get the business.

I am not saying that they are any good but have you had a firm which buys properties within weeks to look at it ? Some are better than others
It may not be that your bungalow is not overpriced but not presented the best way? maybe it needs to be presented in a more neutral fashion . If you don't intend to take the furniture with you then get rid of the unwanted items and then rent furniture as some developers do with new houses.

i would just add that in certain areas where there are lots of bungalows you may want to get an agent who will advertise the benefits eg near public transport ? I keep seeing bungalows for sale but no buses for over 3 miles .

A friend with a small rental house in Devon had a tenant who stayed for around 15 years, until he died. That was no problem.

But with new legislation, you’d have to be 100% sure that you wouldn’t want the property back, if you had a tenant who wanted to stay very long term.

Two small bungalows near me sold in less than a week earlier this year. They were very small (no cupboards!)
An extended one which was much more expensive, took a lot longer.

At present there's a bungalow up for auction, in a bad state but in an enviable position. It's had thousands of online views and could be a bargain for someone but my electrician told me that the land behind it has been designated for building more houses.
Is there something you can think of southdowns which could be the reason your nice bungalow is proving slow to sell?

There is a lot of misinformation on here regarding renting out and being a landlord. For a start the Renters Rights Bill has come into law yet. Likely to be early next year. Go to a letting agent and discuss the option with them. Not here.

When I left my flat in Aberdeen in the hands of an estate Agent - I could have wept! They were renting the flat for me and supposed to take care of it. Unfortunately the flat above leaked into it and the carpet was ruined. They asked me what I wanted the carpet replaced with, I said something similar. The similar carpet was a grey instead of fawn. My next lot of tenants turned out to be a bunch of students who locked themselves out, so they bashed the door down The door was pretty old and I never got a penny towards replacing it. I gave up and told them to sell the flat. Living in Yorkshire meant it was difficult keeping and eye on Aberdeen. The brochure they had made for the flat had a wire dangling down behind a chair which looked like a crack in the wall. Not too surprisingly I didn't get as much for the flat as I would have liked, but I just wanted rid of it!

Grandma600

Another landlord here, and my advice is not to rent out your property. The current tenants are lovely, but in 13 years of renting properties, my experience has been far from rosy, and I'm now getting to the age where I don't want the hassle of fixing and maintaining

Absolutely! Headaches galore, a lot of tenants just do not give a monkeys about the property, lazy, filthy, entitled expecting instant repairs not tomorrow because the plumber can't make it until then! Delinquent with rent. I let my father's house out to offset his care fees. Nice seeming tenants turned into gremlins even with due diligence done, subletting, drugs, prostitution, pets when on agreement no pets, one was running a daycare centre on the qt & had diva meltdowns if I needed 24hr notice access. Never ever again!

Thank you all - lots of excellent advice here for which I am very grateful.
I have now reduced the price, had some new photos taken - this time by a professional independent photographer, and bookings to view have now taken off!

Even if you know who you are letting to, you have to be careful.
I have a friend who lets their Edinburgh flat while they work abroad.
A friend moved in with girlfriend. At first it was fine but then the couple split up and the man stopped paying the rent and stopped all contact.
Eventually he moved out, with the help of an on the spot Factor (another friend) and they let it out to a single mum on housing benefit.
The rent is paid although after 10 years now they can seldom get access to the flat.
It's probably in bad shape.

I'm currently letting part of my large house. New lodgers moved in today
Since I live in the same building, I can keep an eye on things but even then, in the past, good furniture has been wrecked and once someone left the bath running when they went out.
Luckily I saw the drips.
I don't like being a landlady but I can't afford to live in my house without the rent money.

It is usual to let on short term leases renewable periodically.

Bungalows usually have quite large plots all are salable even if the bungalow is a wreck the plot is valuable to rebuild. Here bungalows are sought after, one closeby was 1930s 3 bed sold for £400k. It was demolished and 2 new ones built!.

hi you could try we buy any house or something similar youll get a little bit less but still be able to sell it and they quite good thats how i sold my previous house luckily i got what i had in mind for it

Earthmother9

Bungalows have always been hard to sell, families don't want them and the old are downsizing.

I'm afraid that this just isn't true, there are so many threads on Gransnet with people looking for bungalows when they are downsizing. Possibly the only problematic ones would be those that are too big for an older couple, but they usually sell like hot cakes.

Grammaretto

Even if you know who you are letting to, you have to be careful.
I have a friend who lets their Edinburgh flat while they work abroad.
A friend moved in with girlfriend. At first it was fine but then the couple split up and the man stopped paying the rent and stopped all contact.
Eventually he moved out, with the help of an on the spot Factor (another friend) and they let it out to a single mum on housing benefit.
The rent is paid although after 10 years now they can seldom get access to the flat.
It's probably in bad shape.

I'm currently letting part of my large house. New lodgers moved in today
Since I live in the same building, I can keep an eye on things but even then, in the past, good furniture has been wrecked and once someone left the bath running when they went out.
Luckily I saw the drips.
I don't like being a landlady but I can't afford to live in my house without the rent money.

Letting to a friend is fatal, daughter let her place said friend left the place in a mess after 9 months. The children wrecked everything it cost £2000 to put right.

Dont do it !.

Southdowns

Thank you all - lots of excellent advice here for which I am very grateful.
I have now reduced the price, had some new photos taken - this time by a professional independent photographer, and bookings to view have now taken off!

The very best of luck, you should sell very quickly.

Ah that's excellent news Southdowns. I'm so glad for you and will keep my fingers crossed for you. Let us know when you sell, if you remember to.

I have a small rental flat, we've had it for nearly 15 years and it has been let for most of that time with few problems. We've on had one bad tenant, he used to dry his washing indoors with the windows closed and the walls soon developed mould which we have cleaned, treated and painted over.
I currently have a very elderly tenant who has a cleaner and gardener, the place is looking fine, we're happy and so is he. His daughter lives locally, However when he leaves we will sell it, the legislation that is in the offing would make it very hard to get a bad tenant out or to sell the property.
We currently pay 9% for rental management which seems to work well, though the building management is expensive and not so good.
Personally I wouldn't recommend that anyone rents a property out at the moment, the legislation is turning more and more anti-landlord.

I would be very careful about choosing a letting agent. A relative of mine rented out their house and specified no pets. A neighbour told them that there were several dogs there. My relative told the agent who made an appt to check the house and surprise, surprise no dogs. The dogs are still there cuasing. a lot of noise to neighbours and goodness knows what sort of mess inside. My relative lives abroad so is unable to do much other than persist with agent but is getting nowhere.

Earthmother9

Bungalows have always been hard to sell, families don't want them and the old are downsizing.

Funny that you should say that because around here the developer has just changed the site plans to include some because of the high demand, even though we have so many already.

We have one because our small daughter had visual issues with steps, but, I agree, few people who have never had one and are fit might not even think of it.

I loved when mine were young that the bathroom was right by the front door (muddy child boots and all straight in to the bath <LOL> ), bedrooms doubled as play spaces so few toys in the lounge.

How long has it been for sale? June/July/August are often pretty slow.

If you live in commuting distance of a city, you might want to think about putting it in the hands of a city estate agent, as you are likely to be cheaper than their local homes.

Sounds like your estate agent is being a bit lazy - they have set a price, so perhaps look a Rightmove and see if there are similar at the same value range - have they advised on condition, style, layout that might affect saleability?

If you are looking forward, perhaps go through the furniture and ornaments to decide if some of them can go now if you are not taking them with you. If you are planning to buy new things, perhaps you could do that now?

As to renting I would think carefully about whether you want the paperwork or hassle.

Good luck

Witzend

Anywhere around here, bungalows are like hen’s teeth, and comparatively expensive.
Are you sure it was priced competitively? It’s not exactly unknown for estate agents to overvalue, because a) they think it’s what the vendor wants to hear, and b) in order to get the business.

Yes, they are here too, because none have been built around here for about 40 years. Some linger on the market because they have strange layouts. Anything with a sensible layout in a good location goes very quickly.