You may have been thinking for a while about becoming a landlord. It is certainly a good way to earn a living, and also a good investment for your future, as a retirement fund, or a future home for your children for example. But if you do not know much beyond the fact that you are going to be renting your house out, what are the things that you need to know?
It can be expensive – you need to remember that it isn’t just the buying of the house and that’s it – letting agents and maintenance costs also need to be paid. Of course, you can rent it out yourself without using a letting agent, but most people prefer to use one as they are knowledgeable and take over the additional work of it for you.
You may also need to refurbish the property – and in between tenants the property should be cleaned, as well as possibly given a fresh coat of paint, and all fixtures and fittings should be checked, and repaired if necessary. You may need to replace more complex items that you will need to get a professional in for such as boilers, and things such as a metal meter box. You can find new metal meter boxes here https://www.meterbox.co.uk/
You may also need to consider that sometimes you may have periods of time where the property is not generating any money as it has no tenants living in it, but the property will still be incurring costs, so make sure that you are able to cover this during these times.