Updating post from Reddit.
First time landlord (South East) just put up property for rent (using Openrent + Zoopla as self-managed). Price feels high (but is in line with other properties in area). How long would you wait for interest from tenants before lowering the price? What is the typical wait to find the ideal tenant and secure a contract? I’d personally probably aim for three months because of August still being in the holiday period, but experienced feedback would be much appreciated. Many thanks!
Actually, August is the peak for people moving. For example a lot of families move during the summer for schools, people also move for jobs as a lot of graduate jobs start in September, and students are also looking for acommodation in the summer in time for the new year of university.
If you are looking for tenants on your own, then I also suggest listing on gumtree and/or faceboook marketplace, I find I get a lot more interest from these platforms. I found tenants in a week at the end of July, and I am in the south east.
Do ensure to run any credit and ID checks before agreeing to let out to anyone.
Thanks so much, I’d imagine if they plan to move in August, tenants would secure their tenancies in advance but maybe it’s still ok. One day in and no enquiries yet, a little disheartening but unsure what to expect. Absolutely planning on running credit checks and ID checks, I’ve signed up to Open rent’s own services with this. Fingers crossed and thanks for your reply!
My agent finds them within the week usually. North East
Woaw, must be great! Thanks for the feedback.
My wife rents out her old flat.
A week has been the maximum. Last time she put it up wasn't too long ago. Within a day or 2 she had 2 different people make an offer. The flat was only empty 1 day between her old tenant leaving and new one arriving
3 months seems a lot. Renting moves a lot quicker than selling. I'd suggest cutting the rent you want as 3 month of no rent is a lot
Edit: should have said this is zone 2 in London
I have a couple in Brighton in the south east. I’d say about 20 minutes usually. Last time I listed it I had 76 interested parties in 24 hours. If it’s not gone within a week it’s priced too high.
It’s only been on for a day but no enquiries yet. Hopefully some will come in from here onwards!
Seems a long time - where I live things are signed and sealed within a week !
Lucky you! One day in and no enquiries yet.
It really depends on the local area - where is the property?
St. Albans
Not many students or the would be a good time.
Hospital HR might be worth reaching out to.
Local Facebook groups as well.
Oh great should re hospital! Will try that, thanks so much. I don’t have or use Facebook. In any case, it’s only been one day, but I wanted to have a plan of what to expect and when I need to intervene with a price adjustment if no movement. Sounds like I should give it one week!
I had 23 viewings enquiries within 30 minutes and rented it out in less than 2 hours.
I was slightly below "market rate" but was still making 10% yield
Was a July rental, they just finished their first year.
Woaw - this sounds great! The property is done to a very high standard and going below market rate feels a little premature but absolutely an option to lock something in. Thanks a lot for your reply!
OpenRent has a performance report in the dashboard
Thank you! One day in, no enquiries yet. Do you know if we can see who and how many people have been clicking on the ad?
In southeast should be fast to find tenants. 3 months is insane amount of time it be better to lower rent and aim for tenants to be moved in in 4 weeks.
Reduce the rent by a hundred quid below comparables in the area to gain quick interest if must be.
For me and empty property costs me 2.5k per month in lost rent and bills so reducing 1.2k per year to find tenants quickly saves me money.
This makes a lot of sense thank you. I think given not may similar quality / type properties exist in the area, I will keep for one week and Lowe the price if nothing. Agree that it makes more sense to have it rented. Thanks for the reality check!
Totally depends on the type of property, but anything student-shaped you'd expect to be flooded with messages at this time of year with everyone wanting to move in mid september.
Thanks, it’s a semi-detached 3 bed family home, renovated to a very high standard, integrated premium appliances etc. might try rightmove too, thanks a lot!
less experience with families, but I'd still expect lots of people to be trying to move in time for the new school term.
We put ours on the market just below similar properties in the area so we have lots of interest and can pick the best tenants. Within a week we get normally get 50+ enquiries. Use the auto reply feature if you do end up getting a lot of responses - asking any questions to whittle the list down
I think I’d like to try the higher price first only because it’s only been on for half a day so far. Maybe if nothing in one week, may reconsider. Definitely higher quality than others in the area though so not too keen to drop below market rate (just yet! Thanks for your reply!
Note that many platforms partner with other platforms to share property lists, but those partnerships usually take 24-48 hours to kick in and for them to 'alert' all the people who have set an alert for properties like yours. So you might need to wait a little for max impact.
Ah that’s a very fair point. I suppose I should be a little more patient. Thanks for the tip !
You're pricing high, but if it's empty for longer, is the higher rent worth it?
Thanks a lot - fair point. One day in and I just want to check what the interest point is. If nothing, of course it makes sense to go down in price, absolutely.
A few weeks, max 1 month
It nearly always comes down to price.
Renting it yourself only to take 3 months and counting, resulting in 3 months of lost rent, all in an attempt to save effectively 1 month rent worth of estate agent fees, is somewhat ironic
Yeah that’s a fair comment. I suppose with all the new restrictions, I am keen to get someone in who would be willing to pay for the higher price because this also means they have a higher affordability, and with that are maybe (though not always) more likely to look after the place. Only my inexperienced perspective though, so perhaps it makes sense to drop the price to a level that does trigger interest to avoid an empty property. Thank so for the very realistic perspective!
Gatwick - put a property up and within 2 days i had 10 viewings booked & had to stop taking more. Only on openrent.
Woaw, very impressive!
Last time one of mine came on the market I had 4 applications and 7 views within 10 days. There just isn’t any supply.
I'm London based. It it's a fairly decent flat it will go in days.
If no interest within a week then price is too high.
2 weeks from advertising to get a tenant myself without agency.
Thanks for that. I think I will also give it one week and if nothing I will reprice. Thanks a lot!
If you are doing it yourself just try and get rid of the wasters on the initial 1st call.
Asking them leading questions is the way forward, is this place close to where you work? do you have a car? Isn’t the house too small/big for your requirements/family etc.
I also ask them to bring all the documents to the viewing, passport - 6 months bank statements - payslips etc. if they can’t get them now they they may not be in a position to rent. If they can’t supply it NOW I’m not going to hang around waiting whilst they get their paperwork together.
Also ask them about a credit check, I have had people hang up on me when i say that. I think they believes diy landlords can be easily fooled suckers so they push their luck. Letting agents don’t fall for these scams so they go for new landlords.
List on spareroom too, plus gumtree if it's a cheaper property.
I’d expect 70% of interested parties to contact you within the first 24-48 hours of the listing being up. The other 25% will come within 5 days. After that, it’s ’on the shelf’.
If you have no one reach out within the first 24 hours and you’re letting in not unpopular area, price is likely wildly out of proportion.
I’ve reached out to newly listed properties and said I’d be interested in viewing but I think they’re advertised at 20% over market rate before as a prospective tenant. Ended up living in that house at the rate I suggested, I think cause I was the only person that enquired.
This is peak moving season for rentals. It dies off October-march.
Look at comparative rents and charge five percent less. You will get lots of replies and be able to select really good tenants that stay long term. Of no responses the price is too high. Never reduce. Take it off and wait a week the advertise it at a lower rent. I have done this successfully for a long time with good results
We have a 1BHK flat in basingstoke city center, took 1 weeks to find a tenant and one week for background checks and legals. In 2 weeks new tenant was in the house.