It can be hard to attract the right tenants to your property, and it’s a careful balancing act between price, longevity and income. In addition, you to make sure that your tenants are creditworthy enough to afford the cost of the tenancy and that all the legal boxes are ticked. Ultimately, you need to find the perfect tenant who keeps the house in good repair, enjoys good lines of communication and stays for the long haul.

Get Your Property Looking Good

The first stage is to ensure that your property is in the best condition it can be. This means ensuring the walls are clean and have had a good lick of paint. In addition, the carpets should be well maintained, all fixtures and fittings must be in good order, and everything should be documented.

Get the windows clean, the garden tidied, the boiler serviced and the electrics checked. Here, you’re preparing your property to ensure everything is immediately ready for the prospective tenants – and so that they feel an immediate connection to it.

You should also check that all the certificates that you require are up to date. These include:

• Gas
• Electric
• Oil
• Chimney
• Landlords’ insurance
• Energy performance certificate

Essentially, having all of these certificates up to date means that you’re more likely to attract the right kind of tenant: one who pays attention to detail and cares about having a good, well-maintained property.

Finding the Right Price

Pricing your property can be a bit of a balancing act, but our advice here is to reward good tenants with a slightly lower price that keeps them in the property for longer. Also, the longer the tenure, the less likely it is that your property will remain empty between tenants moving out and moving in.

That’s why it pays to go a little bit lower than the maximum price for the area most of the time. A £25 discount may cost you £300 over the course of the year, but if it keeps your tenants happy and in the house, it’s worth it.

Get the Listing Right

The listing has to detail everything that the property includes, especially desirable features. Most tenants won’t bother emailing or phoning up about the minutia or to find out about any features which might have been mistakenly missed off, so getting this part right is important. This way, you can highlight key features that make the property attractive to your target market. If, for example, you’re looking for families, you might highlight the distance to the nearest school and the size of the garden, or if you’re looking for single professionals, you might emphasise the distance to the train station or the local business park.

High-quality photos are also useful, as they show off your property. Again, make sure you focus on the details; highlight the key features of your home.

Find Out Their Background

It’s a good idea to look into your prospective tenants’ background before making a decision. Areas of concern include multiple CCJs or eviction notices, and a history of house-hopping could raise flags. A lack of income or documentation definitely raises questions, and you need a certain level of documentation to cover yourself – tenants now must have the legal right to remain in the country, and it’s up to you to show that they have it.

Of course, there’s a lot more that goes into finding the ideal tenant, but this covers the basics. If you want to learn more about selling your home – particularly if it still has tenants in situ – check out Yopa’s homeowners’ hub.

You may also be interested in: Real Estate Strategy: Income Properties

Writer: Yopa

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