Be flexible on allowing pets to let your property faster
If your house is the bricks-and-mortar equivalent of Desperate Dolores in the lonely hearts column, that’s the reason for it. Don’t wait for your agent to contact you, but find out what feedback they get from viewings. Either the asking rent is too high (painful as it is, lower it decisively – having to foot 5% of your monthly mortgage payment is still better than 100% of it), or Dolores might need a makeover. Tenants only ever want bright and light. Act on what they say: don’t let an unkempt lawn or a peeling bathroom floor scupper Dolores’s future happiness.
Two other factors might be at work:
Soft criteria. These are your preferences on tenant types, letting furnished (or not), allowing pets, and so on. The narrower your brief is (‘single Aquarius with cat’), the smaller your pool of potential tenants becomes – and the longer your property will take to let. Don’t insist on leaving your furniture if all the applicants are families who want to bring their own. Being more flexible will help.
Hard criteria. If your flat is on the fourth floor with no lift, only available for six months or in an area with low demand, it will be harder to let. There’s not much you can do about that.
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