renting me home help ?

[leeandjoanne]

iwe have just paid out for hip but have now decided we are going to rent ! as it not the sellers market at present ! so what do i have to do or is just as easy as find the people and let them move in and we move o9ut do we have to make changes to our mortage or anything ?

[bednobs]

you have to have the permission of the mortgage company to be able to rent your house out - they are not obliged to give it and may move you to a different mortgage.
you also have t have all the relevant safety checks done (gas etc) and provide certificates. I would guess your local council would be a good place to start to find out about that.
then you can either commission an agent to find you tennants, and manage the property for you (they take a proportion of the rent the tennant pays) or you find people yourself (for example if you know someone, or cards in newsagents windows etc) there are pros and cons to both

[bednobs]

with agents, they can credit check the potential tennant/s to ensure they can afford it and arent just ging to do a moonlight flit. You also will have to get a tennancy agreement in place with the tennants, which an agent can do for a cost, no doubt.
you seriously have to think about what is going to happen if there are periods where the property is empty (between lets) as the mortgage will still need paying, and presumably you will be paying rent on the place where you are lving - could yu afford both mortgage and rental payments?

[Twenty20]

If you dont know what youre doing with letting out a property then do it through an agent, at least to start with. If you dont do it right you could end up in an expensive mess.

As bednobs says, make sure you can afford to pay the mortgage when you have void periods (periods between tenants). There's a glut of rental properties on the market at present due to people in the same position as yourselves letting their homes out so you will have void periods.

Make sure that your figures stack up financially. Some of the costs to allow for are maintenance, fees to the agent, tax, safety certificates (gas is the only compulsory one), insurance etc. But the biggest cost is paying your mortgage when you dont have a tenant.

[mandimoo]

some agents will give a free six month rent guarantee as well. 6 months ago i started renting out my property and i would happily recommend using an agent if you dont really know what you are doing (which i didnt), they will guide you along. yes, you have to pay a percentage of the rental income, but this is only gonna be about 10% cut off what you gain.