Landlords Need Dreamers to Return to the Property Market

At the end of this month the Grand Designs Live exhibition arrives at Excel in London. Starting from the 25th April until the 4th May the show will enable visitors to salivate and yearn for their new and brighter futures.

Feeding the escapist fantasy, Grand Design has alongside a whole bunch of 'dream giving' programmes, fueled that human belief that "if only my life was different I would be happier."

We are a society that exists, distracted by the potential that a bit of a change would bring us fulfillment.

The property boom has been fueled by this 'if only' mentality and let's all hope the dreamers and that "if only" attitude returns to fuel the property market once again.

Let's face it the only two guaranteed facts in life, are you are born, and then you die, so why not dream in-between.

A landlord's dream, Margo.

Buy-to-let mortgage latest

Landlords its been a quiet week on the buy-to-let mortgage front with no more than a couple of announcements relating to new buy-to-let mortgage products and rates.

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Probably the most interesting was that by the Ipswich BS which launched a 4.99% fixed rate for second time buy-to-let buyers. The rate last to 31.7.11, max 75% ltv and with a £1599 fee. The downside is that it is only available to landlords with properties in a limited number of postcodes of IP, CO, CM, NR, CB and PE. That said, for second time buyers or those looking to remortgage and living in the required area it looks like a winner.

Other buy-to-let mortgage news courtesy of Emoneyfacts:

• Chorley & District BS
• Buy-to-let STANDARD VARIABLE RATE reduced by 0.26% to 5.49% w.e.f. 14.4.09....more

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Landlords can make money out of parking

Landlords there is more than one way out of making money out of property as I've recently discovered.

Partly as a result of a stalled development. I have found myself with a surplus garage. This inevitably became a repository to all sorts of rubbish, scrap material from previous development projects and at one stage an old car. In the spirit of the age I thought this was a wasteful use of a valuable property asset.

I therefore started researching how I could rent out my garage for extra income. After committing to clearing out some of the rubbish I answered a few speculative adds in Gumtree. Within several days I'd had one reply. A lovely couple who wanted to store their Mazda Mx5 over winter. As I'm an owner of one of these classic marques I immediately took to Sarah and Ewan. We met, were happy with each other and worked out a deal of £43 a month. By searching the Internet I found a free tenancy agreement for renting out my garage on a dedicated site called Your Parking Space

Now £43 a month or just over £500 a year doesn't seem much. However, with interest rates at 0.5% I'd have to have £100,000 in the bank to be paying a similar income. In this credit crunch environment it definitely pays to sweat your property assets.

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Landlords have a heart

Landlords have been asked by an animal home during National Pet Month to spare a moment for our fury friends.

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The Mayew Animal Home in London has appealed to landlords to consider accepting tenants with pets rather than implementing a strict 'no pet policy'.

Mayhew Vet, Ursula Goetz talked about her difficulty finding a property as a cat owner, she said: “I looked at hundreds of properties online and visited many of them only to be continually told that the landlord’s policy meant I could move in but would have to leave my cat behind. In the end I paid hundreds in extra rent to secure a property even though I wasn’t going to be living there for another two months.

The Mayhew CEO, Caroline Yates, said: “We hope that by raising the awareness about this issue over National Pet Month, private landlords will take into consideration how a well-trained pet can present them no problems whatsoever. They will also be directly helping rescue centres like The Mayhew by reducing the numbers of animals arriving to be handed over.”

The Mayhew proposes that Landlords ask pet owners for references from previous landlords and their vet in order to establish they are a responsible owner. They should also ask for all pets living in the property to be neutered, therefore eradicating any territorial marking of the property and unwanted litters of puppies or kittens.

Chris Horne Editor of leading landlord website Property Hawk comments "Landlords with a heart should also see this as a business opportunity. Landlords are experiencing high rates of 'churn' amongst tenants because of the numbers of 'accidental landlords' flooding some parts of the rental market. Securing a tenant with a pet, because of the tenants difficulty in finding alternative accommodation could also mean a premium rent and a long-term secure tenancy."

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FREE tenant vetting service

Landlords looking to vet their tenants will be interested in a service being offered by a company called Tenant Performance Bond. The service offers landlords a FREE tenant vetting service, plus a rent loss insurance, tenant damage insurance and legal fees cover. This avoids the need for landlords to take a deposit under the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.

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Most landlords then pass on the cost of setting up the bond to their tenants in the way of an admin fee. The company claims that tenants prefer paying a small admin charge rather than having to pay over a large tenant deposit.

For more details of the scheme landlords should go to the Tenant Performance Bond website



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Landlord uses facebook to plot the demise of her buy-to-let

Landlord Carolyn Lorimer was shocked to discover her buy-to-let apartment being 'recked' when using the social networking site Facebook according to a report in the Mail.

Carolyn was viewing some snaps of an old friends party when on closer examination of the venue revealed it to be taking place at her buy-to-let apartment.

She was shocked having thought that she had let the property to a respectable professional couple.

Pictures on the site showed how her buy-to-let property had been recked over an eight month period.

The tenants fled leaving an outstanding gas bill of £670 and rent arrears of £1350.

Chris Horne Editor of leading landlord website Property Hawk commented "This case shows just how vital it is for landlords to reference their tenants. We recommend that landlords increasingly should consider obtaining a guarantor especially when letting to younger tenants."

He warns "Nice looking middle class tenants can sometimes be nightmare tenants because they know how to exploit the system. Landlords should be careful about judging the book by its' cover."

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