How Much Rent Should I Charge My Tenants?

How Much Rent Should I Charge My Tenants?

Don’t be a greedy landlord. Don’t be too generous, either.

Set a fair asking price for your rent in order to minimise void periods and to maintain a healthy and sustainable cash flow.

Strange. In the last week I’ve had 2 landlords email me with lengthy descriptions of their properties, followed by the question, “how much rent should I charge?”

I guess I should make it clear that I’m not a letting agent on my contact form, because I’m really not. While I do appreciate emails with lengthy descriptions of properties…actually, no, I don’t. So stop it.

I’m actually surprised that landlords are asking me how much rent they should charge, because obtaining the answer is pretty simple. Or perhaps it’s not all that simple, and I’m just being a patronizing know-it-all knobber. In any case, it is an important question that needs answering correctly before marketing a property.

I see many landlords make the mistake of being ridiculously unrealistic with their asking price, whether that be under or over valuing (it’s almost ALWAYS over valuing, though). Overpricing can be an extremely expensive mistake to make because it could mean the property remains vacant longer than it has to be, which will effectively cost more than having a realistic asking price in the first place. Obviously if you undervalue, you’re immediately losing out on monthly profits. So whichever way you go, you’re losing out in the short and long term.

Landlords commonly overprice their properties because they put their heart and soul into getting a property ready, so they put a value on their blood, sweat and tears, which gets passed onto the asking price. In reality, tenants won’t give a shit how or why a property looks the way it does, as long as it meets standards. So refrain from passing on that stealth tax, it’s ridiculous.

Before I start marketing a property, I check to see how much other landlords are charging for similar properties. When I say “similar properties”, I mean in terms of location, size of property (number of rooms), type of property (furnished/unfurnished) and condition of property. This allows me to see the current rate of what I should be expecting to receive for my property.

Check for similar properties on Rightmove

This is by far the best method of finding out how much rent you should be charging, in my opinion.

Find similar properties available for rent, in the same area, to the one you’re looking to rent on Rightmove, and find the average rental price.

It might also be worth checking the other major property portals, like FindAProperty, PropertyFinder, and Zoopla.

Check for similar properties on Gumtree

Besides from checking the major portals like Rightmove, I also check on Gumtree for similar properties.

I check Gumtree because a lot of private landlords directly advertise their properties on there, whereas on Rightmove, letting agents advertise for landlords. Consequently, on Gumtree you’re able to see what landlords (not letting agents), like yourself, are expecting to receive. Sometimes landlords have different ideas on what the rental rate should be compared to letting agents, and that’s always interesting to see.

Check local newspapers

If Rightmove and Gumtree don’t have many properties available for rent in your area, you may find it difficult to identify how much you should be charging. In that case, it’s worth checking your local newspaper. Most local newspapers will have a property section with properties available for rent in your local area.

Check local letting agents websites

Similarly to checking the local newspapers, it’s always worth checking your local letting agents websites and/or shop window if you can’t find similar properties on Rightmove and/or Gumtree.

Consider extra commodities

It’s important to carefully price your property because the biggest mistake you can make is to misjudge the value of your property. If you overvalue, you run the risk of scarring tenants away, and you may find yourself with a property that’s vacant longer than it needs to be, which is an expensive mistake. If you undervalue your property, you won’t be maximizing your full earning potential, which again, can be an expensive mistake.

If you happen to find a very similar property to yours by using any of the methods listed above, make sure you compare the commodities. For example, features like white goods, furnisher, garage, parking space, and garden space will affect the asking price. Needless to say, if you’re offering any of those features while the one you’re comparing your property to does not, you could very well increase your asking price accordingly, and vice versa.

Talk to a letting agent

Even though you may not want to use a letting agent to market your property, it might be worth tapping into one or two of their minds for local knowledge. Simply describe yourself as a landlord that will be shortly looking for tenants, and you’re currently in the process of gathering information about how much rent you should expect for your property.

Local letting agents will know how much rent your property is worth, and more importantly, they’ll know the climate of the area. For example, some areas are notoriously sought after by tenants they’ll know about it. If that’s the case with your property location, you’ll have the advantage of low supply and high demand. Draining that kind of information is useful.

But be careful, I’ve often found that some letting agents drastically inflate their quotes to get landlords interested in their service. With that said, take their figure with a pinch of salt if it sounds too ambitious, and talk to a few different agents for clarity.

The most important tip I can offer is to be realistic, and don’t allow greed to contaminate your asking price.

Does anyone else have any tips, advice or thoughts on how landlords can determine how much rent they should be asking for?

12 Join the Conversation...

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John 21st March, 2012 @ 09:26

The biggest mistake I see all the time from Landlords is over valuation of their properties. For example they say things like "I simply must get X for my property" when the realistic value is about £50pcm lower (a relatively small amount) then the property is empty for 2 months because of this. If we say that the rent is £1000pcm vs £950pcm after 2 months the Landlord has lost £2000 if he/she had marketed the property at the reasonable rent of £950pcm and got a tenant straight away it would have taken nearly 3.5 years to accumulate the same loss and with annual rent increases probably never.

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John 21st March, 2012 @ 09:32

Another quote that makes me cringe is "The last tanant (who was probably only in the property for about 6 months) was paying £1000pcm so this time it must be worth £1150pcm". Not taking into account things such as current market expectations, condition of the property or seasonal restrictions etc.

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ciaraboo 21st March, 2012 @ 10:06

Ask a letting agent? I agree. Get a free valuation, then market it yourself. Also like this article for tips, written by an experienced landlord - http://lovemypad.com/minimise-rental-voids/

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Glen 21st March, 2012 @ 10:13

It seems common sense doesn't it? Not sure if these people should be landlords...

I agree with the article and always check Rightmove for similar properties. Also I have in the past got 2 different agents to look at the property and give an idea of rental cost.

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Armin 22nd March, 2012 @ 13:00

I'd also recommend to

* check local community websites

For example the Sheffield Forum has a very active "Properties To Let" [http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=90] section which makes for excellent rent price comparison.

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andrewa 28th March, 2012 @ 17:42

I ALWAYS price my properties about 10% under market and do the letting myself for the reasons mentioned by John PLUS I then get plenty of applicants allowing me to pick and choose the tenant I want. Remember if you let it yourself you can discount the rent by the rental agencies commision without losing anything except a bit of time.

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Cameron 3rd September, 2012 @ 12:09

Always check your local agents for the average price for your type of property, also check rightmove, zoopla etc and then work out the pro's and con's of your property over the others for rent, e.g location, transport links, car parking etc etc and then price accordingly. The more competitively priced yours is the quicker it will rent(obvious i know but you will be amazed how many people don't follow this simple rule).
[email protected]

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martin 12th January, 2016 @ 02:30

Thanks.

Interested in future tips etc

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Lee 6th October, 2016 @ 12:26

You should charge the actual price no more than the goverment charge or get the fuck out of this buisness people will rise one day and everybody hates theiving landlords

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Tan hong bee 14th May, 2018 @ 02:13

Isit after five years then can rent my newly gotten house at 448c BT btaok west ave9?

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Tahir 26th October, 2019 @ 07:48

lots of good advice thank you

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Anna 4th July, 2020 @ 18:22

That's funny. I am not an experienced landlord by no means... it just happened I had to rent out my property. Well I did think it through, so before all that happened, just at the beginning, when I bought the property few years ago I pumped in some money to make it look better and oh boy... it did make a difference. So now, my little pod is going to be let at (nearly - the nice lady who stole my heart asked for dropping the rent a little bit) what I expected after one day of viewings and lots of wows from the people who came to view it. We made the place for us so it was very homely yet would fit taste of nearly anyone who viewed it(there is one really red wall which some people wanted to paint !!!). I really felt that I hit the right market, as the property we are renting out is a one bed house with little garden. The decor is modern and is aiming at young professionals(like I am), there is some nice wood and tiles the walls are painted grey but there is a feature wall (why not? everyone loves feature walls), kitchen is white with some quirky decor. All is modern but has some traditional touch (white skirting boards, comings). Sorry I got super long, but bottom line. Just be smart and know who is your customer/tenant :) and then compare your property with other, similar ones on the market. Cheers!

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