7 Reasons

Tag: Rooms

  • Guest Post: 7 Reasons Landlords Should Select The Right Tenants

    Guest Post: 7 Reasons Landlords Should Select The Right Tenants

    There are a vast number of strange people in this world. Despite our best efforts to understand the litany of weirdness that surrounds them, we are often left baffled by their mysterious ways. If you’re a Landlord looking to let a property, then the last thing you want is The Crazy Guy living under your roof.

    Unfortunately, the ‘good tenant’ is a rare and elusive creature, who is greatly outnumbered by the ‘odd-squad’. Thankfully for you, we have listed the seven reasons for landlords to select the right tenant, and more importantly, just how to spot them.

    7 Reasons
    "Hello, I'm your new tenant. Don't worry, I only turn dead animals into bagpipes."

    1.  Hello, Is It Me You’re Looking For? As Lionel Ritchie once famously sang “hello, is it me you’re looking for?” The short answer is no! One of the best things you can do is meet with the potential tenant in advance. Nine times out of ten you will know if something is amiss. Tell-tale signs are any of the following:

    • The everlasting handshake: If your arm is still being violently thrusted up and down after 10 minutes, then loosen your grip and head cautiously to the nearest exit.
    • Soap dodgers: Tenants should treat this as they would a job interview. If they turn up in filthy clothes and covered in muck, then this is a clear insight in to their own living habits.
    • Everyone needs good neighbours: One of the quickest ways to get evicted is getting complaints from your neighbours. Ask your tenant what their likes and hobbies are. Playing an acoustic guitar at 5pm may be soothing. Belting out heavy metal from your electric guitar at 3am is something quite different.

    2.  Show Me The Money. You want a tenant that will be financially responsible. This means someone that will pay their rent on time. Ask to see copies of their recent pay slips and even speak with their employer. Avoid anyone that asks to pay in small change or colourful buttons!

    3.  Run A Credit Check. Even if their wallet is bursting at the seams, they could still be in more debt than Greece. Find a professional company to run a credit check, they will be able to tell you if they have a history of paying bills on time. It will also check their monthly income and if they have any outstanding debt.

    4.  Welcome To The Zoo. Whether you hug puppies, or feed mice to hungry anacondas, liking ‘pets’ and having them reside in your home are two different things. Be clear what your rules are if allowing pets. One hyperactive dog can leave you with thousands of pounds worth of damage to your property.

    5.  Brush Up On Your History. The best person to ask about their living habits will be their previous landlord. Ask to speak with them to find out if you are inheriting a problem tenant. Be careful though as they may be some what forthcoming with the truth in an attempt to off load them on you. Remember, if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.

    6.  Lifestyles. Do they move or switch jobs often? If the answer is yes then they are unlikely to be a long term tenant. If their last long-term employment was their school paper round, then they may struggle to regularly pay the rent.

    7.  Two To A Room. Be extremely clear as to how many occupants you allow per room. Even Noah made the animals enter ‘two by two’. You don’t want to find your cosy one bedroom flat has twenty people living inside. Clearly state in your contract how many people are legally allowed to live in your property.

    By following these simple rules you can rest easy that your tenants are living in tranquillity, while the nutty and quirky are left safely locked outside.

    Author Bio: Andrew Potter writes for My Online Estate Agent where you find useful guides such as how to advertise on Rightmove and other useful property tips.

  • Guest Post: 7 Reasons Student Accommodation Can Be Rather Tiresome

    Guest Post: 7 Reasons Student Accommodation Can Be Rather Tiresome

    Something a bit special is happening on the 7 Reasons sofa today. For the first time ever, one Lee is being replaced by another. I, Jon, am stepping aside and handing control of 7 Reasons over to my brother, Rob. This may backfire quite substantially, but for the sake of me having a day off , it is a risk I am more than happy to take. If you enjoy Rob’s ranting you may be interested in reading his first book, Shattered Souls. It contains no ranting, but does feature a place called RedFjord. Amazon are also currently offering a very generous 90p discount which is quite a bonus. Right, here’s Rob. I’m off out to buy some more asterisks.

    7 Reasons Student Accommodation Is Bloody Annoying

    1.  The Fridge. The fridge is always too small. Always. What is it about landlords and small fridges? Do they not think that their tenants might want to buy food? We don’t all survive on takeaway and ready meals y’know. Some of us can even use rudimentary kitchen utensils, or combine ingredients that aren’t cheese, tomato sauce, and frozen chips. Despite this, it’s always a case of having one shelf in the fridge. I don’t know about you, but cheese takes up about half the space in mine, let alone any other food. And no I am not willing to freeze it. Frozen cheese is an abomination. Step one, get bigger fridges.

    2.   The Builders. Why is it that student landlords always have builders doing ‘things’ with the house? Things which are seemingly unnecessary, and even these are invariably done badly. So the landlord is called; he/she is forced to come round; then they call back the same builders who did it wrong in the first place!* Even worse, they give them keys to the property. Yes, do go in, don’t mind them, they’re just sleeping**. The landlord comes out with things like ‘don’t lock your door so my builders can get in’. What? I’m not leaving my door unlocked in a student neighbourhood – I may as well just leave my valuables on a park bench with a ‘Take-Me Big Boy’ sign. I’m also not letting some Charlie I’ve never met, wander about, knocking bits out of the place I’m living, without someone there to stop him. (Or her. We’re very broad minded here).

    3.  The Neighbours. Student housing has neighbours. Invariably only about two feet away from you and separated by a wall about as thick as a cream cracker. This is not good when one wishes to sleep. Especially because the neighbours always seem to be nocturnal and have absolutely no taste in music. Music which they broadcast to the entire street***. Neighbours shouldn’t be allowed.

    4.  The Parking. There isn’t any. Many students have cars so they can move their collection of road signs, traffic cones, novelty hats and foreign vodka from one place to another. Lots of cars and no parking is an equation that doesn’t work. It also means walking anywhere becomes a game of car-dodgems from idiots who, having shared their lack of taste in music with the street, have decided to drive down the one you’re walking along.

    5.  The Bathrooms. There’s only ever one. This is annoying when you’ve just got in from a post seminar drink and discover you have to wait half an hour to use the facilities. Either that or you nip back round the corner to the local public house to use theirs and nearly end up locked in because you’ve discovered the only pub in the area which kept to a closing time of 11pm when all the rest changed to an hour before dawn****.

    6.  The Annual Quest For Housing. Unless you happen to be lucky enough to be in a house which is not leaking, falling down, being sold to a private individual who doesn’t want to live with students, being sold to another landlord who seems to think letting to undergrads will be easier than letting to postgrads, a pit, too small, too big, too expensive, neighboured by idiots called Nelson who keep getting stoned and wandering about outside shouting ‘Hash’ at 3am in the morning***** and then playing their music so loud that industrial-level earplugs make no difference, then you invariably find yourself moving. (Insert breath here). This effectively entails scouring housing lists on the internet and engaging in the blind battle that is finding the only decent place before all the other people do. This process is annoying, especially because it also means parting with large amounts of money in the form of deposits which you’ve only just got back from the last place******.

    7.  The students. There’s far too many of them*******.

    *Not all builders get it wrong, some are very good at their job, however, student landlords like it cheap. Cheap and good don’t go together in building work, ask the bridge builders of Delhi.

    **No, not as you may imagine at 3pm in the afternoon, but in fact at 6am when the banging starts. And by banging I don’t mean another apparently favourite activity of the undergraduate student.

    ***Unhappily half the time much of the street is broadcasting back, and Classic FM it certainly isn’t, it’s not even Radio 2.

    **** This may or may not have happened. It does not particularly help if you just returned from a smart do and are dressed in black trousers white shirt – the staff may think you work in the cellar. This also may or may not have occurred.

    *****This did happen. Many times. Many many times (a little classic comedy nod there, if you know what it refers to then I’m sure Julian and Sandy will see you right).

    ******Yes, everyone renting has to pay deposits, so feel free to join in being annoyed about this point even if you’re not in the university system.

    *******As a postgrad I don’t consider myself a student, especially since I teach the little terrors (ahem, the academic future of this country) too. Postgrads are excluded from the above rants. Unless Nelson ever becomes a postgrad. I won’t worry about him reading this; I don’t imagine he knows how to read.