Landlord Mistakes to Avoid

If you would like to make money from your landlord activities and avoid any unnecessary hassles, you will need to do your homework before you get started in earnest. Many people become a landlord without giving much thought to how this change of status might affect their day-to-day life and their personal finances. With our guide, you won’t make the same mistake!

Mistakes to Avoid as a Landlord in Leeds

Whether you live in Leeds, as we do, or somewhere else in the UK, you should avoid making any of the following mistakes when becoming a landlord for the first time:

• Not Taking Your Responsibilities Seriously – Whether the income you derive from property rental is just a little extra that helps you meet monthly expenses or your main source of earnings, never make the mistake of treating your property portfolio as a hobby. Doing so is the fastest way to lose large sums of money with little to no effort on your part. If you want to make money as a landlord, you need to keep your eye on the ball at all times.
• Failure to Vet Tenants Properly – After the above mistake, this one can be the most costly in terms of time, trouble and money. You need to perform comprehensive checks on every single tenant before signing an agreement together. Failure to establish whether a tenant has the legal right of abode could land you a spell in prison and that’s just one of the many possible negative consequences of not vetting prospective tenants properly.
• Not Familiarising Yourself With Your Own Tenancy Agreement – Many new landlords make this simple but potentially costly mistake: they go to the trouble and expense of hiring a lawyer to write a bespoke tenancy agreement for them and then fail to acquaint themselves with the terms and conditions it contains. If you agree to accept certain responsibilities in the tenancy agreement, you must ensure that you don’t forget them. Don’t antagonise your tenants by failing to deliver on your promises.
• Not Scheduling Frequent Property Inspections – It can be very tempting to just leave your tenants to enjoy your property, especially as it relieves you of the responsibility of visiting them every couple of months. You can even tell yourself that you are doing it to make them feel more comfortable but whatever your reasons, this is a mistake. Frequent property inspections help to ensure that small issues are discovered and dealt with quickly, before they have a chance to become bigger, more expensive issues.
• Stopping After Acquiring One Property – If you really want to make money as a landlord, you need to build a multiple-property portfolio. Managing a dozen properties is not that much more difficult than managing one, and can be far more profitable.

If you would like to become a profitable landlord without all the headaches, please don’t hesitate to call and speak to us about our property management and landlord services in Leeds and the surrounding area.

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