There's a lot of this going on currently - people investing in property because they believe they will get rent of £x, then being disappointed when it doesn't happen. And if I'm being completely honest, people only have themselves to blame!
We're in a market where rents are (slowly but steadily) rising. But you still need to be sensible with the rent you're asking. A good recent example came when we were asked to look at a 2 bed house in Semilong that an investor had just bought. These things rent well - you have to keep an eye on what sort of tenant you're moving in, but the going rate is £600 to £650 dependent on how nice a property it actually is. Our lady wanted £725 because "2 other agents have told me they'll get this". One was the agent who had sold her the property, and the other was another corporate agent who's lister (the person who takes rental properties on) is bonused for getting them on the books (so will say whatever they have to). So she went with both of them, and not with us. 14 days later she's reducing the price and by the time she's let it, not only will it be in the price range we suggested, but she'll have lost 4-6 weeks of rent also, which she'll never get back.
The simple way to avoid this is to do a bit of research. Look on Rightmove and look at Zoopla - using Semilong as an example you'll see that when 2 bed houses come up between £600 and £650 they rent quickly, and when they come up above this level, they hang around. So why is the one you're buying worth £725? I think "it's been recently decorated" was the reason given, but that's just nonsense and doesn't change the price boundaries. Equally if you're not sure yourself, take a bit of advice from someone who does know - and by that I mean a LETTINGS agent, not an estate agent that does a bit of lettings. That may be us, or there are a few other regulated agents in Northampton whose main business is lettings. In our example, the lady did this but she "didn't like them as they didn't think it was worth that much" - whereas alarm bells should have been ringing, she was actually critical of the lettings agent for being honest, and not giving her an inflated rental valuation! Thinking about it logically, we lettings agents generally take a % of rent for our services, so it's in our interests to get as much rent as possible without having the property sat empty. When a lettings agent says "no, that's too much", that's the time a landlord should start to listen!
The simple way to avoid this is to do a bit of research. Look on Rightmove and look at Zoopla - using Semilong as an example you'll see that when 2 bed houses come up between £600 and £650 they rent quickly, and when they come up above this level, they hang around. So why is the one you're buying worth £725? I think "it's been recently decorated" was the reason given, but that's just nonsense and doesn't change the price boundaries. Equally if you're not sure yourself, take a bit of advice from someone who does know - and by that I mean a LETTINGS agent, not an estate agent that does a bit of lettings. That may be us, or there are a few other regulated agents in Northampton whose main business is lettings. In our example, the lady did this but she "didn't like them as they didn't think it was worth that much" - whereas alarm bells should have been ringing, she was actually critical of the lettings agent for being honest, and not giving her an inflated rental valuation! Thinking about it logically, we lettings agents generally take a % of rent for our services, so it's in our interests to get as much rent as possible without having the property sat empty. When a lettings agent says "no, that's too much", that's the time a landlord should start to listen!
