Camping itself may not seem like the biggest earner on the block, but if your land or garden is located in a prime position and can offer more than just the basics, it can be a worthwhile avenue to explore.

You don’t have to have masses of space available – small, more personal spaces can be more appealing to some people than a massive sprawl of campers – but you will need to consider what facilities you’ll provide and the all important issue of access to the site.

Land located in key tourist spots are, not surprisingly, really popular with campers, but your land doesn’t necessarily need to be in a tourist area to do well. If you get your business hat-on and think creatively, there may be opportunities to cash in on timely annual events, or major sporting events, where people need accommodation close by for a short period of time and will pay for the convenience and location. 

For example, in the same way that properties can be let for a short-term basis during major events and festivals, so too can land be let out to campers. Think music festivals, literature festivals, sporting events (horse racing, Wimbledon, football, rugby – even the Olympics), gardening or flower shows.

If you want to give it a go and test the waters to see if it’s a worthwhile sideline for you or to find out if it’s going to be too much hassle, then organisations such as Camp In My Garden are a great help for trying it out. The website is free to join and list your temporary private garden campsite and it could prove to be the gateway to a new property and land investment money-maker!

Many property investors who are buying property for investment purposes intend to rent it out, either on a short or long-term basis as renting a property can provide a good return on an investment. For anyone who’s going to have tenants living in their property, it’s essential that you produce an inventory first, before anyone moves in.

An inventory is a detailed list of everything that you supply within the property and needs to be completed by all landlords, whether you’re letting the property on a furnished, part-furnished or unfurnished basis.

The inventory is useful for tenants, as they know what is and isn’t included in the property, but it’s also very important for you, the landlord, as it helps you keep track of items that are missing, damaged or have changed when tenants are leaving. The inventory can be used as evidence for tenant deposit claim issues and a copy should be signed and kept by you, your tenants and a letting agent from the start of a letting period.

As well as details of particular items in the property, it’s also useful to use the inventory to make a note of serial numbers, models and manufacturers of electrical and household goods, plus details of any existing scrapes or damage to items.

For more details on the importance of inventories, read our previous post, on how to create an inventory for your rental property.

Check out the other posts in our A to Z of property investment:   

A is for Appreciation – http://www.investment-properties-for-sale.co.uk/2010/03/18/a-to-z-of-property-investing-a-is-for-appreciation/
B is for Buy-to-Let – http://www.investment-properties-for-sale.co.uk/2010/03/26/a-to-z-of-property-investing-b-is-for-buy-to-let/
C is for Contracts – http://www.investment-properties-for-sale.co.uk/2010/04/16/a-to-z-of-property-investing-c-is-for-contracts/
D is for Deals – http://www.investment-properties-for-sale.co.uk/2010/05/13/a-to-z-of-property-investing-d-is-for-deals/
E is for Experience – http://www.investment-properties-for-sale.co.uk/2010/05/31/a-to-z-of-property-investing-e-is-for-experience/
F is for Freehold – http://www.investment-properties-for-sale.co.uk/2010/06/28/a-to-z-of-property-investing-f-is-for-freehold/
G is for Goals – http://www.investment-properties-for-sale.co.uk/2010/07/a-to-z-of-property-investing-g-is-for-goals/
H is for Home Improvement – http://www.investment-properties-for-sale.co.uk/2010/10/a-to-z-of-property-investing-h-is-for-home-improvement/

There’s been encouraging news over the last year that demand for rental property has risen and along with it rental prices have gone up too. If you’ve been looking at the data and admiring the rents being gained by other landlords, then you may well be thinking about how and when you could increase the rental prices of your own properties.

But unlike other lines of business, the arrival of a new year isn’t necessarily the best time for a landlord to announce rental increases. For a start, if you’re using a letting agent to handle the letting process for you, there may be a line in the contract preventing you from announcing sudden rental increases. If you do want to do so, you may need to give a certain amount of notice to your tenants – it can’t be a sudden, spur-of-the-moment idea.

In some instances, there may even be a clause preventing you from raising the rent until a certain time – such as not before a tenant has been in situ for one year or more.

No tenants are ever going to be all that thrilled to learn their rent is going up. Although some landlords may have benefitted from increased rents, statistics released by the Association of Residential Letting Agents recently, relating to the final quarter of 2010, indicate that 40% of landlords have reported tenants slipping into arrears with their rental payments. So this suggests that perhaps now isn’t the best time to add more pressure by putting the rent up.

Overall, it helps to think about the pros and cons of rental increases and the effect it could have on your existing tenants. For example, if putting the rent up could force them to leave, then do you really want to risk the potential of an empty property all for a few extra pounds per month?

It’s a tricky issue, but perhaps the best way round for everyone of handling rental increases is to stick to doing so when one set of tenants leaves and the property is about to be rented out again. The new tenants will need to take the rental fee into consideration when agreeing to the property and, hopefully, you stand more chance of them being able to afford it.

There have been interesting discussions amongst landlords recently regarding Christmas and whether or not to send tenants cards. Some landlords are firmly for it, believing that it can add a positive note to landlord-tenant relationships, whilst others are slightly more indifferent or choose not to send cards to tenants.

Perhaps surprisingly, there are even landlords who go to the trouble of buying Christmas presents for their tenants, such as a bottle of wine, or giving them a small monetary gift, such as £10. One property investor who owns multiple properties even claimed to spend hundreds of pounds on giving tenants Christmas gifts.

Whilst it’s certainly generous to give gifts to your tenants and likely to be a good way of keeping them happy, in most cases, a Christmas card should suffice. It’s a nice way of wishing your tenants a happy Christmas and for showing you care, especially in cases where you usually have little direct contact with your tenants.

Of course, not everyone celebrates Christmas, so you don’t want to put your foot in by sending a card if it could be seen as offensive. So instead of sending a Christmas card, you could consider sending a seasonal greeting or New Year card instead.

1. Check with your mortgage lender first. Some mortgages may have a clause in them that prevents you from letting a room in your home to a stranger.

2. You can earn up to £4250 a year tax free, under the government’s Rent a Room scheme. If you earn more than this, then you’ll need to fill in a self assessment tax form. Full details can be found on the Direct Gov website.

3. Take time to choose and assess a potential lodger carefully. They will be living in your house and, probably, sharing many of your facilities, so you need to get on with them and feel comfortable when they’re around.

4. Interview potential lodgers, ask for references and check out their references. You may also want to ask for financial references, such as from a previous landlord, to ensure they’ll pay up promptly each month.

5. Check how having a lodger could affect any financial benefits you currently have. If you’re on certain benefits, such as housing benefit, then your entitlement could be affected by taking in a lodger. Likewise, if you live on your own and have the single person’s council tax discount, then this may need to change.

6. Have a proper contract drawn up in writing and ensure both parties sign it before your lodger settles in. Websites such as Lawpack provide inexpensive, but official, contracts that you could use.

7. Sort out any ground rules or boundaries in advance (and put them in writing in your contract too) so that everyone is clear from the outset. This could cover issues such as what’s acceptable for having friends over to visit or stay, cooking arrangements or even use of the TV and shared lounge.

8. Make sure that you inform your home insurance company that you’ve taken in a lodger. They will generally be fine about continuing to offer you insurance, but they need to be made aware of any changes as to who lives in your home.

For those that have a room or two in their home going spare, then renting out a room to a tenant can be financially profitable. If renting a room in your home is something you’re considering, either instead of another form of property investment or as an extra option to work alongside it, then here’s a look at the typical pros and cons of being a live-in landlord.

Pros of Becoming a Live-in Landlord

* You get to keep a closer eye on your tenant than if you were letting another property to them.
* You can get a better idea of the wear and tear that the property is suffering from, being able to step in and make adjustments where necessary.
* You can up your earnings even more by offering extra services, such as meals or laundry.
* If you’re frequently away or work long hours, then having someone else in your home may work out well for you.

Cons of Becoming a Live-in Landlord

* In order for the arrangement to work successfully for all concerned, you need to get on well with your tenant; if you don’t, all sorts of problems can arise.
* It can take a bit of getting used to having a stranger living in your home – it’s not everyone’s idea of fun, even if it’s brining in extra cash.
* Sharing facilities, such as a bathroom or kitchen, can be awkward, especially if you both want them at the same time.
* If you don’t set rules or boundaries, then it’s more likely that problems could occur.

The Pros of Using a Property Management Company

For fans of property or rental management companies, there are many benefits to be had for using their services. Some of the key benefits include:

• Being able to hand over the smooth running or your properties to an expert company.
• Not having to worry about sorting out plumbers, electricians or workmen to sort out emergencies at the drop of a hat, as the management company will do it for you.
• The ability to look after multiple properties with ease, leaving you more time to focus on your property investment business or other work.
• Not having to deal directly with tenant problems.
• The experience – when you’re new to being a landlord, having the backing and support of an experienced property management company can be a great help, especially when dealing with the legal side of things and setting a suitable rental price for the property.
• Access to a database of potential tenants, plus marketing and advertising avenues.
• It makes life easier if you live a considerable distance from the property in question.

The Cons of Using a Property Management Company

There are some downsides to using a property management company, especially for those that like to handle all of their letting side of their business themselves. Some of the commonly quoted cons include:

• The fee – it can seem like a lot to new landlords or property investors.
• Not being able to vet tenants yourself, as most companies will handle that for you (although with some input regarding the type of tenant you’d prefer).
• Not having much input into the price at which your property is marketed and, sometimes, the type of tenants they’ve decided to target.
• Not being able to do your own marketing, or not in the way you’d ideally go about it.
• Having to use a set list of tradespeople, when there may be others you’d prefer to handle problems.

What do you think about using a property rental management company? Are there any other pros and cons you’d like to add into the mix? We’d love to hear your views!

When you’re buying a property purely for rental purposes, home improvement may not be at the forefront of your mind. But there are benefits to be had in looking at how the property could be improved.

For a start, changing the layout of the inside of the property, such as adding an extra room where bedrooms are particularly large, taking down a wall to create bigger bedrooms instead of two small ones, or adding a corridor to stop bedrooms linking together could all help improve the rental value of the property, which would be good news for landlords.

Improving the look and interior of the property through decorating rooms, or updating bathrooms or kitchens, can also increase the rental value that a property could achieve. What’s more, when it comes to selling the property in the future, then carefully considered improvements may well help to increase the resale value of the property too.

Whilst home improvements to a rental property are generally a positive move, there is a fine balance involved in getting it right. For properties that you will be renting out, it’s far better to work from your head, rather than your heart, and look for cost-effective measures that suit your budget and the needs of your tenants, rather than pricey or fancy decoration that may be more to your taste than anyone else’s.

For more details on how you could add value to your rental properties through home improvements, check out this previous blog post.

It could be a bit of a gamble, but if it’s a case of getting some money coming in from a tenant, rather than spending out on lots of decorating, then it may be an option worth exploring. As long as the property is structurally sound and no major renovations are required, then there could be benefits to be had for both landlord and tenant if the tenant does the initial decorating.

Tenant Benefits

For a start, it will mean they get to choose the colours and design (within reason – setting some boundaries is advisable) and get to live in a property where they’re happy with the interior decoration. This could work two-fold, as a tenant is more likely to look after a property when they’re happy with its looks and, if they’ve taken time to do the decorating themselves, they may take even more care with upkeep in the future.

Landlord Benefits

For the landlord, the immediate benefit is that you don’t have to worry about getting the property decorated yourself and, if it keeps the tenant happy, then hopefully they’ll stick around for a while and enjoy their decorating creations.

Get it in Writing

On a practical point though, it’s essential that you come to a proper agreement over how much decorating can be done, what you’re happy for them to do and any definite no no’s in terms of colour or design. It may be helpful to set a budget and ensure someone checks the property for quality too, as slap-dash decorating or instances where carpets get ruined by paint aren’t going to do you any favours in the long-run.

To keep tenants happy and emphasise the benefits for them, it’s a good idea to be specific from the outset about how much money they’ll be saving per month or per year for doing the decorating themselves.

Consider new doors

When you’ve bought a new property and are getting ready to let it out, or are doing a quick revamp in between tenants, then changing the interior doors could help lift the look and help revive the property.

Interior doors can inevitably suffer from wear and tear, as most of them will be used on a daily basis. Not all tenants will take good care of a property, banging doors, sticking things on them and knocking them, for example when children play with toys that knock into doors.

In addition, older houses may still have older style doors on them (look for doors that are completely flat, rather than panelled and doors where the handles are higher up than modern doors) which, unless you are keen on promoting a period look, can date the interior of a property.

Changing the doors is an easy and relatively inexpensive way of helping spruce up the interior of a rental property and give it a more modern or up-to-date look at the same time. If you’re in contact with any local trades people, or have your own account at a trade store, then it’s worth keeping an eye out for offers on doors. From experience, they do frequently tend to have good door deals, especially if you’re buying more than one, and it can help cut the cost for landlords.

If there are any rooms of the property that tend to be particularly dark, such as a dark hallway or kitchen, then you could help add a bit more light into the house by choosing half glazed doors.

Once the doors are purchased, all you need to is hang them, fit door furniture (handles etc) and paint them. If you don’t fancy doing it yourself, then this is an ideal job for a maintenance person. Painting the doors finishes them off well, but if you’re pushed for time or needing to cut costs further, you can leave the doors unpainted if you wish.