As landlords, we tend to get the name of being ‘greedy’. Well, we get called an entire host of other things too, but greedy is the one that sticks out.
I had a long conversation via email yesterday about this exact topic. This landlord, who was in the process of leaving their current estate agent in Croydon, wanted to know why his property was taking so long to let.
I broke it down in just one sentence.
Your rent is too high
The property in question was a 2 bed flat on the famous Chatsworth Road, Croydon, CR0, apparently of average to sub-average condition, no garden, no parking, and no bills included. He wanted £1250 for it, which seems reasonable, but from experience, some of those two bedrooms on that road are really in need of a good refurb, and from the pictures he had sent me, this was one of them. It wasn’t going to see a day over £1200.
Now here is that part that breaks my heart. The landlord did not ‘want to go below £1230pm’ and it has been vacant (hence why we were talking in the first place) for 3 months. 3 MONTHS. I want to cry.
This means that waiting for that extra £30 per month he has in-fact lost £3600 rental income from a vacant property. How long will that take to make up! And on top of that, the standard tenancy contract length in Croydon is 12 months with a 6 month break clause, so what if the tenants then leave at 6 months?
In all honesty, the agent should have enforced it on the landlord, and the landlord should have been open to the rental income changing. How the agent managed to keep him wrapped for 3 months is also an amazing achievement.
Well, don’t make the same mistake… give me a call / email on hav@CroydonPropertyNews.co.uk if you want to have a quick chat about how much rent your property should be getting and I will give you an honest, down to earth, REALISTIC answer.
