Becoming a Landlord
Being a landlord is not just about owning property. A landlord is a businessman, his let is a business venture and his objective is to run an efficient and profitable service. The main prerequisite to becoming a landlord, therefore, is a sound assessment of:
- investment potential
- risk
- personal skills and capabilities.
Deciding to become a Landlord
As a first step, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I have some spare time?
- Am I ready to seek out facts and information?
- Am I prepared to accept responsibility on issues of safety?
- Am I willing to consult others for advice?
- Am I prepared to accept an element of risk involved in making a business deal?
If you can answer ‘yes’ to all these questions, you have taken a step towards becoming a landlord.
Identifying your personal skills
Being a landlord does not mean you have to undertake the day-to-day letting workload yourself. You can employ someone else to do it for you, my lettings agency in Desborough would be pleased to help; but if you choose to do some or most of the letting duties yourself, you will need to be able to:
- communicate with others
- organise effectively
- behave assertively
- respond to new situations
- stick to rules and guidelines.
Beginning the learning process
As a preliminary to letting, you must:
- Understand an assessment of the profitability of your planned let.
- Be aware of your legal obligations as a landlord, especially with regard to safety issues.
- Be aware of the two types of taxation you will encounter in letting.
- Know when and where to get advice and how to choose an adviser.
Making a start
You have already made a start by reading this far! By continuing you will:
- Become aware of factors which affect profitability.
- Begin to think about your own situation and start to make plans.
- Make an initial assessment
I will cover these aspects in future articles.
