What to look for in a R2R Property?

Do you know what to look for in a Rent-to-Rent property?

Discover the nine things I look for when deciding to add a property to my Rent-to-Rent portfolio…

In this episode, I'm going to break down the nine things I look for when viewing a potential Rent-to-Rent property when deciding if the deal is viable. 

Let's get into it.

Number one - the bathroom

Firstly, there are two things to consider: the number of bathrooms, as you will know, the more bathrooms, the better. The second thing to consider is the condition. Ideally, you want to look for modern, clean bathrooms. So, for example, if I check out the property online first and see an avocado bathroom suite, I immediately know the property is not for me. 

Number two - the kitchen

It's similar to the bathroom, and the kitchen is the heart of the property. So you need to make sure that you have a good kitchen. 

The main reason we are starting off this list with bathrooms and kitchens is that they're expensive. When selecting a property for a Rent-to-Rent deal, you want to keep your break-even as low as possible. So we need to inherit a kitchen in good shape. 

Top tip: Make sure that you look inside the cupboards. Sometimes you will find the wear and tear only beyond the surface. 

Number three - flooring

Carpets, hard flooring, and tiles will make sure that these are in top condition if you go into a property and see that there are brand new carpets. That's a big plus! If not, I'm looking to see if an average tenant would find the carpets acceptable or whether the landlord would be willing to replace or clean them. 

Number four - wallpaper

The next thing I look for is the walls. 

For example, some properties will have wood chip wallpaper. Nine times out of 10, you will be able to paint over these, and they will fade into the depths of the room. 

However, if you have this style of wallpaper throughout the property, it's probably not going to appeal to a high-end professional, but it could still potentially work.

In this case, you may need to switch up your target tenant. For example, the student market might be a good option. Not all properties have to be high-end. However, you need to match the quality of the property to the type of tenant. 

Listen to the rest of this weeks episode to discover the final five things I look for when selecting properties for my Rent-to-Rent portfolio. 

Podcast Transcript↓

[00:00:00] What I look for in a rent to rent property on this video, I'm going to break down nine things. I'm on the lookout for when I view a property. Hi, I'm Simon and I specialize in rent to rent, property, HMO, and essay. And then I use that cashflow to reinvest in assets. The IO. For the long term, I've done countless rent to rent deals.

[00:00:23] Now I've plowed that into purchases and I'm helping as many people do the same. So if that sounds good, hit the subscribe button right now and join me every single week for the best rent to rent content. You're going to find anywhere on YouTube. Disclaimer, I promise you that comment below. If you have.

[00:00:46] Well, if you don't agree, so all good. So on this video, I'm going to break down nine key things that I look for when I'm looking for a rent to rent property, and I'm going to focus on the condition. Okay. Things that would scare me off things that I would like, and this is going to apply, whether you're doing hate Shemot rent to HMO or essay, because if you follow me, you will know.

[00:01:13] That 90% of rent to rent is the same. Whether you're doing rent to HMO or rent to S a N I personally believe you've got to do. Okay, you've got to diversify. You can't rely on one. Hey, if I was just doing one, when COVID struck, I probably would have been wiped out instead. We've managed to scale. So let's get straight into this.

[00:01:37] You've managed to get a lead. You're going to see the property, or maybe you're looking on right move. And you can actually assess some of these online to save yourself time. Number one, bathroom. Okay. And this is a sort of a two factor scenario. First thing is the amount of bathrooms is important. You know, more bathrooms will be better.

[00:02:01] Naturally. The second thing is the condition you want, modern clean bathrooms. So if I go into a property or find one right move, and I can see an avocado bathroom suite. That property is not for me. Number two. And it's similar it's kitchens. The kitchen is the hub is the heart of the property. And therefore you need to make sure you've got a good kitchen.

[00:02:30] I should also state that. One of the main reasons bathrooms and kitchens are important is they're expensive to put, right? We're not going to put a new bathroom or kitchen in a property. Okay. So we need to inherit. In good shape. So kitchens, we want modern kitchens, you know, solid flooring, good cabinets.

[00:02:54] Make sure you look inside your cupboards because sometimes it's the inside that takes the wear and tear. The last thing we want is cupboards that are all rotten and damp and have just been totally trashed because that's going to make it tricky for us to, to get it in the right place. So look for kitchens, you want modern.

[00:03:15] Now they don't have to be the best kitchens in the world. And top tip. Sometimes what you can do is you can just change the doors or I've got a really good connection now to wrap kitchens. So you can actually wrap a kitchen. Um, w you know, like you would wrap a car or you see these guys doing PlayStations in that, and completely change the color and the vibe of the kitchen for a fraction of what it would cost to repair the lot.

[00:03:44] Also top tip bathrooms and kitchens. Okay. You can add about 10 to 20% in terms of how they look by changing the floor and painting. So if you've got a kitchen or bathroom that doesn't flow, get the floor screed and put a nice new vinyl. And that should help. Number three is flooring. So I'm talking about carpets, hard flooring tiles.

[00:04:10] You want to make sure that these are on a top, top. Now, if you go in a property and I see that there's brand new carpets, that is a big plus. If not, what I'm looking for is I'm looking to see if a normal tenant would find these carpets acceptable or whether the landlord would need to replace or clean them.

[00:04:31] Anyway, I only ever changed carpets that I. I just didn't like the color or they were okay. But I wanted better. If these carpets would need changing for any tenant, please don't pay for them. Make sure the landlord pays for them or that you at least come to some sort of contribution around. Terms of hard flooring.

[00:04:55] You know, if you've got any properties with cracked tiling or ripped vinyl, it's not too expensive just to screed it over and put some hard flooring, whether it be LVT or vinyl, but once again, This can add massive value to the feel of the property. The fourth thing I'm looking for is the walls. Okay. And you know, you've got certain properties that are wood chip tore.

[00:05:19] They've got really ugly wallpaper on and nine times out of 10, you will be able to just paint over these in a brilliant way, and they will fade into. You know, fade into the depths of the room. Of course, if you've got wood chips throughout the whole property, is it going to be a top high end professional property may be not, but it could potentially work.

[00:05:44] If you switch up your target, maybe two students, for example. I remember, not all your properties need to be high end. And in terms of your target market, sometimes if you see a property that's a bit tired, it might work for X tenant. The key thing for you is just knowing how to match them, because then that will allow you to do.

[00:06:05] Deals. I never ever plaster or rent to rent, never done it. I have had to strip a few rooms and I've, I've done 'em line in paper, which works at about half the price of, of fresh plaster. Other than that pay and decorate, nice feature walls, do your best. And it will make a big difference. Number five is appliances.

[00:06:25] So is there a washing machine? Is there. Is there a fridge freezer, you know, is it in good shape? Sometimes I've actually inherited properties with TV's. You know, if there's an electric shower, how's it feeling? How's it looking? These are the type of things that sometimes are overlooked and it's not till you get the keys and you open the fridge and you realize, oh, it stinks.

[00:06:49] It needs replacing. That it dawns on you, and then it's a bit awkward for you then to go back to the landlord. So when you're looking at the property, do an appliance check and have a look at the standard and then have that conversation. Once only once you've agreed on the rent and the term. And I've got a video where I break down the exact steps of how to get a rent to rent deal.

[00:07:16] And what I will do is I'll put a link below, so you can check that out after this. One extra thing on appliances is don't scrimp and say, this y'all going to buy them. Get on aol.com 200, 250 pounds. A good figure for a fridge freezer, tumble dryer, washing machine, a piece, even for a TV, get the guarantee, the warranty and all that.

[00:07:39] And then you can sit back and relax, knowing you've got good stuff. One thing I have seen with a lot of landlords by the way, is. If they are leaving the white goods in, sometimes it's in good faith and they won't want to be responsible for them. And that's fine, you know, if you're inheriting stuff and it goes wrong, then you, you get permission, replace it.

[00:07:58] And then you would own the new one. But at least, you know, you've saved a bit of money at the star. Number six furniture, particularly in hate Shemos you may inherit some items of furniture and there's two things that you want to. The first thing is, is there anything that you can keep that can save you money?

[00:08:19] So if there's sofas or a wardrobe that you can keep, um, a common one I find is some rooms will have built in storage. So that means I don't have to buy a wardrobe and I'll have a checklist and I'll look at the furniture I can keep, and then I can then process my costs. The second thing is furniture. You can't keep, what are you going to do?

[00:08:42] Now the optimum scenario is the landlord will remove and dispose of it. The second thing is if the landlord's not open to that, you can offer to potentially dispose of it on their behalf, you know, help them out. Um, but it will come at a cost because it can be quite expensive to get rid of stuff like that.

[00:09:04] But one thing's for sure. Do not keep any furniture. That's like. Do not do not keep mismatched furniture, get rid of it. Some landlords will be precious on the furniture that you don't want to keep. So imagine a five bed HMO, and they've got furniture that they're happy with. They don't want to get rid of it.

[00:09:29] And. In theory, if you replace it, then you would have to then donate your furniture to them. At the end of the agreement, typically, I don't get too caught up in this. I try and, you know, Let them know, look, this furniture is not good enough and we'll cross that bridge in five years because the fact of the matter is if I buy furniture for our house in five years, it's probably going to be on its way out anyway, so they probably can have it.

[00:09:55] But as I said, number six, furniture can keep it great. If you can't get rid of it and replace. If you're finding this useful smash, the subscribe button right now in any questions you've got on, anything covered in this video. Comment below I check every single day. Number seven is parking. This is a key one properties with parking come at a premium.

[00:10:19] So if you've got off-road parking, that's a big advantage, especially for professionals. I don't know about you, but there's always a professional that is adamant. They won't park their car on, on street parking and I feel their pain. They got some brand new car. They don't want to honor. Uh, terrorist story.

[00:10:38] Now, look, if you've got everything else going for it, they might be willing to do that. But if you can get off-road parking gray, if it's permit parking and they can apply for a permit, Dan can sometimes be better than just standard on road parking for sure. Um, but if you're seeing a property and you have to park on a different road or it's on a main road and there's no parking or it's an apartment and there's no parking for CS.

[00:11:03] That is a big, big red flag. You need parking. And if you're in a bigger city like London, that will come out even more of a pre. Number eight is electrics and plumbing. And this is Uber important because this is the lifeblood of the property. The end of the day, you can have it looking as good as you want, but if there's no hot water or the electrics keep chipping, you're going to have a big issue.

[00:11:30] So you want to check the. Find out how old it is. Find out if it's got a recent gasser and if not, get that done. Also look at getting a service of the boiler done as well, just to keep it in optimum condition. Another bonus it's often overlooked is a thermostat. So if I see a modern hive thermostat, that's a big.

[00:11:53] Because I can also get the access to that, to cap and control the bills. Okay. This is something that I highly recommend. So you can get a hive where you've got an app, and then you can also check on the status of the heat in and make sure that is off when people are out and all that kind of stuff as well.

[00:12:10] But yeah, look plumber. What's the condition. Look at the fuse box, get an EIC or Don to make sure that it's all legal and ready. Top 10. In the agreement, you should not be responsible for the boiler or the mains electrics. Okay. So worst case scenario, the landlord would have to replace these anyway, by it's just one more issue.

[00:12:34] I recently had a deal where actually the landlord replaced the boiler, um, as I was doing my refurb. So it's a brand new refurb, brand new boiler they put in, they funded and now we don't need to worry. We've got it for five years and we can just crack on last but not least. I know Mike will like this one software.

[00:12:50] But curb appeal. Okay. You know, first impressions are everything. I actually had a scenario where I saw somebody took on a property that was essentially in a, a state. Okay. And tenants, even though it looked nice inside tenants just did not like it. They did not like it. It was in this big block of apartments.

[00:13:13] They did not like it. So curb appeal ask yourself, would you want to live. Okay. Would you want to live here? Has it got a garden outdoor space? Is it neat and tidy? And obviously this can be pretty expensive. I've actually got a deal with, I think it's got about one and a half acres of. And it, it takes so much to maintain this stuff, but I had a conversation with a landlord.

[00:13:40] I was like, look our sorted, but you're going to have to fund that. But then we invested money clearing out the whole front drive, getting rid of the shrubs and stuff that we didn't need so that it's now got the full parking first impressions do really count, be careful of big garden. The property has got a big garden, make sure that your rent, your offer reflects how much it's going to take for you to maintain it, and then outsource it to.

[00:14:07] So those were the nine key things I look for when finding a rent to rent property, it applies for essay and hate Chemawa. I hope you find it useful. Any questions? You've got comment below. Let me know if I forgot anything. You know, maybe something slipped my mind. I'll see you in the next video and make sure whatever you do.

[00:14:29] You subscribe right now. CSC.

[00:14:43] Thanks for listening. For more information, check out Simon Smith, online.com. See you next time.