We recently sat down with Richard Taylor from Taylors Estates to chat about property investment.
Richard, what are your top tips for anyone interested in property investment?
Do it! There are plenty of opportunities out there for people who want to get involved in buy-to-let. Commercial to residential developments are a big thing at the moment, and they are very good from an investment point of view. The high street is changing, so there are a lot of city centre properties that have traditionally been shops, which are now very easily getting planning permission for residential conversions.
The rental market is stronger than it's been in the time that I've been involved; rents are going up year-on-year, and so investments are giving returns. And capital returns as well as those year-on-year returns.
So it's easy enough for someone to buy a property, let it out, and they'll start seeing returns?
If buy-to-let is something in addition to a full-time career, it's too easy to be caught out by the legislation. I would always recommend someone in that position to use an agent.
The amount of legislation, laws and changes that have happened over the last 4 or 5 years is a lot to try and keep up with, especially when this isn't a landlord's full-time business. And unfortunately the fines are increasing with that legislation. The biggest benefit to a landlord of having an agency looking after their properties is that a professional knows the legislation, knows the changes; we know what the property needs in order to remain legal, in order to remain legal in our efforts with the tenants in terms of chasing rent arrears, and so on. We can do things more quickly and efficiently to keep their property legal so the landlord doesn't leave themselves open to any kind of comeback.
The difference in cost isn't worth a fine. Most of the fines now start at £3000 and go up. It doesn't take long to recoup the fees.
Apart from the legal aspect, how else can a property management company help landlords?
We know where to look for tenants; we know how to process the applications and vet them. Referencing is only part of it, we meet, speak to that person, digging a little bit deeper with the right questions to make sure they not only look good on the credit score, but they actually look good in real life. They aren't going to going to destroy the property or cause issues. We've got the experience of meeting people day in and day out who are looking for properties, so we can advise which tenants are the best option, and not just on paper.
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