students

June 20, 2013

How to let a property in the summer

The summer season can be a frustrating time for letting agents, as they have a number of prime location properties that become available at the same time.

How to let a property in the summer

So what’s the problem?

In most cases, there are also a number of other prime location properties that come on the market with other agencies and landlords. As students finish up renting for the end of the academic year, their rental properties will normally come back on the rental market. With the exodus of students, the market sees a huge jump in the number of available units.

How to let a property in the summer

Having a property vacant for as little as 1 week will see a reduction of 2% in annual rent, bring that vacant period forward to a month and you are looking at a reduction in rent of 8%. One of a properties USPs is the rental amount and if you market the property at the rental value today and not at its peak you should see the property being let within a lot quicker time period. Another post of interest may be How to market a rental property.

Look at the numbers

Example1. Rent of €1000 per month. Vacant for 6 weeks

= loss of rent of €1385.

12 month lease =€12,000-€1,385 =€10,615

Example 2. Rent of €950 per month. Vacant for 1 week

= loss of rent at €220

12 month lease = Annual Rent €11,400 – €220= €11,180

Results

Renting for a reduced rent equals a saving of €565

Analysis

Reducing the rent by 5% of the peak renting value actually works out at increasing the landlords annual yield by 5% compared to having a void period of 6 weeks. In my opinion, this is how to let a property in the summer.

The main point here is that if you analyse the figures and discuss it, the landlord should not let the concern of a lower rent today impact the result of a higher annual rental yield.

Going forward

You can try to let the property for a lease term which brings in the property for renewal in August & September in order to increase the yield for your landlord.

By Andreas Riha

February 10, 2012

Students and renting:Part Two-Paying the rent

Rent

Firstly although this may seem quite obvious to most, students must ensure that they are financially able to afford moving out from home before they even think of logging onto Daft, Myhome or any other property website to start viewing your potential accommodation. You will be surprised at the amount of tenants in the property market who after one or two months of paying rent realise they are unable to meet the monthly requirements in rental payments. If you are unable to pay the rent on a consistent basis there is a chance of possible eviction from the property and an increase in rent or late fee based on the poor punctuality of payments.

To avoid any of these issues make sure and set a budget for your intended stay in the accommodation and match that with your sources of financial income whether it be a part time job, financial support from your family or student loan can do the trick! Getting into issues over missing your rental payments is the last thing you want as a first time tenant as it will affect your future opportunities of securing high quality rental property on the market and the ability to provide credibility to financial institutions in the future. Obviously sometimes students can find themselves in trouble with rental issues over simple mistakes and sometimes easily avoidable issues such as:

A lack of documentation detailing rents paid and upcoming rents
Inconvenient payment methods between owner and tenant
Paying the rent on time
Poor communication between landlords/estate agent and tenant

Above (Two different snap shots of the Rentview property management software that allows tenants to see communication from property manager and upcoming/past rental payments.)

Rent is usually paid on a monthly basis for most of property you are going to find this summer, on occasion a landlord may require you to pay on a weekly basis and I suggest you avoid this as speaking from experience (paying cast to a landlord) it is extremely inconvenient. Unfortunately there is no set method in the industry for collecting rent, you may be asked to do any of the following:

Pay the rent in cash
Deposit rent money into the owners bank account via your local branch
Transfer funds via the internet into landlord or agents account
Set up on a standing order with the agency or property owner

During my time renting I have experienced all four of the above methods for payment and a standing order set up by the agency or landlord is the best option to avoid missing your rent. Organising cash for a bank deposit or collection from the landlord can often result in someone not having the money on time, this has happened to me when house sharing with four others and it resulted in a 50e penalty fee. If you decide to house share with other students be careful about who choose to live for this reason as it can be unfair having to suffer from the actions of others.

If you are one of the tenants fortunate enough to move into a property where the agency is using the Rentview cloud based rent and property management system you will be provided with the following features through your agency account :

1. Access to your schedule of rents for the lease period

2. Comments from your property manager on your rent schedule

3. Automated receipts sent via e-mail when rent is marked as paid

4. Agency and property contact information

To access the information all you need is broadband connection and a desktop,latop or mobile device to login and stay up to date on your rental payments and communication from the property manager. This will help you ensure that the rent is paid on time and monitored efficiently so as to avoid any potential extra costs, communication errors and or disputes over payments. That’s all for today folks I hope you enjoyed the read and I hope students will find this information useful as they start to plan moving out for the first time. Please share the blog if possible and let me know your thoughts and comments on twitter @cormac_nugent!

In the next post I will cover further issues relating to your rent payments during a tenancy including proof of your payments and rent receipts, rent increases by the landlord during a tenancy, rent books and much more!

February 7, 2012

Student Renting Part One: Issues faced in the Irish rental market

Part one: A brief background to the topic of discussion and a look at the strained relationship between landlords/property managers and Students.

Above (DIT Student union reps at the launch of the USI Rentbook,Aug,2011)

At the end of every summer the rental market in Ireland experiences a boom in people searching for accommodation around the country. This is mostly down to the beginning of the college term with the rush usually lasting from the end of August until early October. Thousands of students will receive their leaving cert results and thousands more will return to major cities such as Galway and Dublin to flood the rental market and put a smile on many estate agency owner’s faces.

Why am I writing this blog?

However, renting for the first time when beginning college has proven to be quite a difficult and sometimes controversial issue in the Irish rental market. Having rented three different properties myself in Dublin over the last three years, I have experienced the different types of people you will be dealing with and the key issues you need to take care of and monitor during your tenancy as a student. During this series I will look to lay out an essential guide to finding, managing and leaving your accommodation hassle free.

The background? No Students Allowed 🙁

Unfortunately I am of the opinion that students have developed a poor reputation with landlords and agencies due to a small number who act poorly or overindulge in the benefits of having their own home, leaving the remaining students tainted with the same negative image. Students can often be seen as a high risk tenant for a landlord or agent to accept unfortunately, and this leaves the rest fighting it out for the scraps left on the property market.

On occasion the property in which they end up in often leaves the student paying above market prices for medium to low quality accommodation due to the image they have developed and the type of owner they may now have to deal with. From my experience I believe the following to be the major issues when it comes to students and their rented accommodation during the academic year :

Rental payments, missed or late rents and clarity on payment
Inventory and property condition before and after signing lease.
Adhering to contracts and lease agreement terms.
Poor communication between owner and renter.
End of lease issues-deposit retention and obtaining a reference.

The aim of this blog series is to analyse and openly discuss these issues a student will face and guide them to maintaining a stress free tenancy. It is an area I will be blogging a lot about during the summer months as Rentview continue to research this market with the aim of introducing a free service to students that aids the renting process. Next up I’ll be talking about everything to do with the most important factor of moving out, paying the RENT. I will approach the topic from a neutral perspective between the tenant/landlord as i don’t want either getting annoyed with my opinions :). You can connect with me on twitter @cormac_nugent or follow @Rentview_, thanks for reading and don’t forgot to share this blog and comment below if you like.