DSS Tenants – being a realistic landlord
You can't buy a run down old shack and expect to call it a 5 star hotel and neither can you buy a cheaper property and expect top end tenants. Yet this is exactly what some landlords think should happen.
Imagine buying a £60,000 property in the north and then expecting to get a doctor or professional to live there. It's unrealistic.
The fact is that you don't really have much choice about tenants if you want to have your investment property rented. We've had as many white collars as blue who have defaulted on their rent, damaged the property or otherwise not left the property in the same state (less fair wear and tear) that they found it in. No matter how much you think they seem like great tenants most people are 5 weeks away from financial difficulty and around three months from financial ruin. It's not an ideal state but it's a reality.
Department of Social Security tenants: A bee in my bonnet!
I don't believe in social security, I think it is what makes the UK weak, generations of lives wasted on government support. It simply creates spineless people who should be forced to get a job and earn a living but the fact is that we live in a country that feels socially responsible to destroy lives in this way and because of this DSS or Department of Social Security tenants are a fact of life. However DSS doesn't mean that you'll get tenants who don't pay the rent, many will and happily live off handouts for the entire duration of their tenancy.
Ok enough ranting about DSS, you get the picture. Don't buy a £60k flat and expect a doctor and their family is going to move in… clearly they aren't.
The truth of the matter…
I guarantee to get a tenant within 6 weeks because I know this game of property so well but if you are going to apply all your emotional baggage to the situation I cannot guarantee anything. Time and time again I have proven to investors that my way works. In fact I have over 2500 (actually a lot more when you consider re-lets) examples of my strategies working yet investors still think they know better and can hold out for the ideal tenant.
If you don't want DSS then buy something that a DSS tenant cannot afford but don't think cheap flat/expensive tenant it just doesn't work that way. The market is looking good for buy-to-let property investment – but not that good!
Live with passion,
Brett Alegre-Wood
P.S. I just had a chat with one of my sales guys who asked why I would publish this as it won't help sales but the truth is the bigger picture is that hopefully this article has challenged a few of your limiting beliefs about DSS and cheaper properties and for that it's worth it.
