How to Set Up a House for Multi Lets - The Nuts and Bolts
So, you have bought a house that you think is going to work as a room rental OR you have identified an existing house in your portfolio that would make a good conversion.
What next? Well - you need to spend a bit of money, time and effort setting it up and 'kitting out' the house ready for occupation.
Remember - your new tenants will turn up and stay for 3 months or 3 years.
They will arrive with a bag of belongings and not much else- you have to provide just about everything that you can think of! The house will need some minor adjustments and it will need furnishing - so let's deal with each of those in turn.
Minor adjustments (or works) are fairly simple.
You will have identified all 4 bedrooms and if you are converting a living room or splitting a room then you might need to put in a stud wall or similar - great if you can do it yourself or get a builder in for a few hundred quid.
I also put in TV points in each bedroom and the lounge - find a local TV installer to do this for you, it will probably cost £400 - £500.
None of my houses have SKY but you may want to consider it if you are aiming at an executive market.
Personally I don't want the extra cost and administration involved.
I put up a linked smoke alarm ( AROUND £50 FROM Screwfix ).
All bedrooms will need individual locks.
Now, personally I wouldn't use a Yale type lock because it's inevitable that some tenants will leave their keys in the room and hey presto you get a phone call at 3am for help! Generally I put in a mortice lock BUT for safety I blank off the inside key hole with a piece of metal (just in case there is a fire, your tenant is drunk in bed and can't find the key) - I then put a bolt of some sort on the inside so they can secure themselves in their room.
Finally all doors to the street should have thumbturns fitted - you can get them from Screwfix or similar for around £7 each and then cut keys for all tenants plus a couple of spares for yourself.
That's pretty much all the 'construction' type work to consider.
Furnishing and kitting out -- Well, this is where the list gets a bit longer and you will need to spend around £5000 on various bits and pieces.
My list is fairly well-developed these days and you can have a copy if you ping me an email.
But the idea here is that your tenants will roll up and get on with their life so you need to get your house ready for its occupation.
This is everything from beds, wardrobes and cutlery to washing machines and Hoovers.
Every bedroom will need a single or double bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers.
The kitchen will need a washing machine (I don't bother with a Tumbler) and big fridge freezer (or two) plus fully kitting-out with kettle, microwave, crockery, iron and board plus all the usual paraphernalia.
When shopping, remember that items will go missing and get broken.
I stop at towels and bed linen but you may want to add this as an 'extra' service! We also put in an electronic safe It's bolted to the floor and has a digital keypad plus a letter box type slot.
The safe has a number of uses - it's great for tenants to safely put their rent in and we also keep a spare bunch of keys in there.
You could also put an exterior 'keysafe' on the front wall.
These are secure units with a digital code (similar to a bike lock): pop in a spare key just in case and it also means a workman can get in without you having to be there! This is not exhaustive so please contact me if yo uwant more information.
You will have to pay for all utilities plus Council Tax.
We have our houses with Utility Warehouse - one bill for your gas, electricity, phone and internet (yes, we provide wireless broadband but we lock the phones down to 'incoming calls' only).
I might add that if you are the sort of person who gets stressed about tennats leaving the heating on FULL, windows OPEN and wandering around in t-shirts and flip flops then this might NOT be your ideal business!!
What next? Well - you need to spend a bit of money, time and effort setting it up and 'kitting out' the house ready for occupation.
Remember - your new tenants will turn up and stay for 3 months or 3 years.
They will arrive with a bag of belongings and not much else- you have to provide just about everything that you can think of! The house will need some minor adjustments and it will need furnishing - so let's deal with each of those in turn.
Minor adjustments (or works) are fairly simple.
You will have identified all 4 bedrooms and if you are converting a living room or splitting a room then you might need to put in a stud wall or similar - great if you can do it yourself or get a builder in for a few hundred quid.
I also put in TV points in each bedroom and the lounge - find a local TV installer to do this for you, it will probably cost £400 - £500.
None of my houses have SKY but you may want to consider it if you are aiming at an executive market.
Personally I don't want the extra cost and administration involved.
I put up a linked smoke alarm ( AROUND £50 FROM Screwfix ).
All bedrooms will need individual locks.
Now, personally I wouldn't use a Yale type lock because it's inevitable that some tenants will leave their keys in the room and hey presto you get a phone call at 3am for help! Generally I put in a mortice lock BUT for safety I blank off the inside key hole with a piece of metal (just in case there is a fire, your tenant is drunk in bed and can't find the key) - I then put a bolt of some sort on the inside so they can secure themselves in their room.
Finally all doors to the street should have thumbturns fitted - you can get them from Screwfix or similar for around £7 each and then cut keys for all tenants plus a couple of spares for yourself.
That's pretty much all the 'construction' type work to consider.
Furnishing and kitting out -- Well, this is where the list gets a bit longer and you will need to spend around £5000 on various bits and pieces.
My list is fairly well-developed these days and you can have a copy if you ping me an email.
But the idea here is that your tenants will roll up and get on with their life so you need to get your house ready for its occupation.
This is everything from beds, wardrobes and cutlery to washing machines and Hoovers.
Every bedroom will need a single or double bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers.
The kitchen will need a washing machine (I don't bother with a Tumbler) and big fridge freezer (or two) plus fully kitting-out with kettle, microwave, crockery, iron and board plus all the usual paraphernalia.
When shopping, remember that items will go missing and get broken.
I stop at towels and bed linen but you may want to add this as an 'extra' service! We also put in an electronic safe It's bolted to the floor and has a digital keypad plus a letter box type slot.
The safe has a number of uses - it's great for tenants to safely put their rent in and we also keep a spare bunch of keys in there.
You could also put an exterior 'keysafe' on the front wall.
These are secure units with a digital code (similar to a bike lock): pop in a spare key just in case and it also means a workman can get in without you having to be there! This is not exhaustive so please contact me if yo uwant more information.
You will have to pay for all utilities plus Council Tax.
We have our houses with Utility Warehouse - one bill for your gas, electricity, phone and internet (yes, we provide wireless broadband but we lock the phones down to 'incoming calls' only).
I might add that if you are the sort of person who gets stressed about tennats leaving the heating on FULL, windows OPEN and wandering around in t-shirts and flip flops then this might NOT be your ideal business!!
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