OK, the news that seems to be hitting the property and landlord magazines is that in some places rents have stalled but in many places they are now on their way down. It gets even gloomier with forecasts that rents could drop next year with the ever increasing number of properties that can’t be sold coming on to the market.
So given that cashflow is still landlords number one issue, (and will be for a good while yet) what else can we do to help improve it?
Well, one thing for sure it to start scrutinising all your property related costs and really ask yourself the question ‘Do I really need to be incurring this cost for my property business’?
If it is a cost that you don’t need to be incurring then stop paying it or atleast look at alternative ways on how you can reduce it.
The classic example is the payment of property related insurance premiums and I have to admit I have been guilty of falling foul of this over recent times. Isn’t it quite easy to let your insurance premiums automatically renew without contacting other suppliers for quotes?
Well this is exactly what I have been falling foul of, despite using the ‘Early Warning’ reminder system that is integrated into our landlord’s property management software.
Our landlord software alerts me that an insurance policy is due for renewal and then I just wait for the renewal letter to come through.
However when I got one such letter I thought that the renewal quote seemed pretty expensive. As chance would have it, at the same time I also saw an advert for Directline’s own landlord insurance policy. So I picked up the phone and called them.
Suffice to say that after the telephone conversation had finished I had ended up insuring three properties for the same price as insuring one property with my previous insurer!
So as you can guess., I’ll certainly be picking up the phone or be using the price comparison websites to make sure I can get cheaper insurance policies when other properties come up for renewal.
