So perhaps you’ve had a shock departure from one of your properties; someone has upped and left and you’re stuck with an unoccupied property and a mortgage to pay before next month. You need to get some tenants in quickly – what do you do?
Marketing and Viewings
When marketing your property make sure you stress that it’s available for occupancy as soon as possible, and that means as soon as possible! Allow your tenants to go at their pace but don’t be afraid of letting the right tenant move in quickly. Most people will want at least two viewings, a few days apart for any property (as they’re usually making comparisons) but keep a copy of your contract handy on your final viewing just in case you can sign there and then.
Deposits and Rent
You might need to be prepared to ask for an advance from your tenants to cover mortgage shortfalls; you can do this by charging rent upfront for, say, three months, and then reverting to monthly charges after this period. Beware, however, there’s usually a gap between asking for and receiving rent – if you are having real problems with mortgage shortfalls you may need to use your Rent Guarantee Insurance.
Screening and Assurance
Despite timing issues, however, you definitely don’t want to go asking the wrong tenants to move in. You need to be sure you’re conducting the same screening processes you would with any other tenants, whatever the cost of your time. You can be assured that moving the wrong people in will cost you considerably more in the long run than any immediate shortfalls.
So, don’t panic, don’t rush but get your property out there as soon as you can. Whatever you do though, make sure you have the right people to move in – a month without rent because of an empty property is much better than three without rent because bad tenants just won’t pay.
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