How can I attract good tenants?

A. This is basically common sense and market savvy. Of paramount importance is to offer a property in a good area. It’s still all about location, location, location. Good tenants will not choose to live in a dodgy area and if you can offer a property with good facilities, access to popular amenities and sometimes a parking space, you’ll be ahead of the game.

Have the confidence to write a sparky advertisement that will stand out from the crowd, one which focuses on the unique selling points of your property. Think outside the box about where to place your advertisement, target your preferred audience.

Once you’ve found your property and identified your tenants, have standards – don’t encourage drug dealers or criminals to take up tenancies and if you find that the seemingly perfect couple, model citizens you interviewed a month ago have morphed into blood-drinking vampire people throwing all night parties and destroying furniture (and very soon,your reputation), evict them. Serve notice and save face.

Finally, be a caring landlord without being intrusive – respond promptly to complaints whether they are about noise, repairs, etc but don’t hound your tenants and seek access when it really isn’t necessary. It’s a learning curve but ke