Ever thought about venturing into the real estate business? It requires a lot of work, yes, but if you think about it and put some effort into it, it could turn into quite the lucrative endeavour. Either buying and renovating a house to sell it at a better price, or buying a house or a block of flats and renting them out as a landlord, you could find yourself in quite the favourable position of sitting back while generating passive income. People are moving house all the time, and there are always people that will need housing and could be your own potential tenants. All you need to do is focus on the ideas that will attract the most customers and get you the best deal. Here are some tips you can use if you settle on this idea.
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Look for the right spot.
- Real estate can be very profitable if located in the proper place. When buying a property, you should always consider the type of customer you will have, and picking the location is often the key to filtering future tenants. A big house near a university, for instance, could very well gain you quite the customers in the form of students, and if you present it properly, it could be a fraternity house, for which you can charge even more as your potential customers will most likely be of the wealthy persuasion. If you are seeking to house families, look for houses at communicable locations, such as a place in the suburbs, or something near shops, markets, convenience stores, and schools.
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Look for the right building.
- Block of flats or a house? The only difference, really, is the amount of people you will be dealing with and the amount of maintenance you will perform. This will be quite tedious, if you want to be the hands-on approach type of landlord, but then again, you might want to invest in a property manager as well. This means more spending, yes, but less dealing with all the tenants. What you also have to consider is should you look for a newer building, and immediately refurbish it and start spreading ads in news papers and real estate agencies, or an old building and renovate it. The former will cost you a lot on the spot. The latter will definitely be more costly in the long run what with all the renovation and refurbishment, but the property will come at a much cheaper price, and you will be able to do everything one step at a time. Buy the property today, earn some money, then invest in the refurbishment, and so on. Also, there are scarce options for new houses in profitable locations.
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Inspect and invest.
- Once you settle on a property, you should start inspecting it top to bottom. What you should be looking for are current and potential problems to fix. Broken appliances need to be repaired, and accumulated rust or mould need to be cleared up immediately before they become a problem for the whole building. Check the whole building’s electrical system and inspect for malfunctions – even the smallest things can cause shortages and could cost you in the long run, so you better work on such problems before you get tenants who will constantly complain about them as you are trying to fix them.
Invest in furniture and repainting the place. - A better-looking house will always attract more customers, so an exterior and interior paintjob is vital. Refresh the whole place with some neutral colour to make it attractive, then work on the interior design to keep the potential tenants around. Adding furniture will be costly, but you cannot expect that just about anybody can afford their own. Some of the people that come to you will only be able to pay rent, and you have to provide the best. Costly at first, you can charge a bigger rent, and this will be profitable in the long run, so don’t worry if your tenants are not coming with a removal van behind them.
And this is how to start your endeavour as a successful landlord. A good start will soon bring about a few tenants and moving companies along, and you can start gaining profit and experience.
Read more helpful tips and tricks at: successful removals in Wandsworth
