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first time renting - advice for me please!
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
just looking for advice really on renting a property. Me+my fella are considering renting this time next yr+then buying once im qualified+working full time, etc.
So,share your wisdom pls: advice, places online 2 look for properties, best wholesale ppl to go thru, money saving ideas all welcome!!
I know its still early,but i want to start thinking about things now!
Thanx
So,share your wisdom pls: advice, places online 2 look for properties, best wholesale ppl to go thru, money saving ideas all welcome!!
I know its still early,but i want to start thinking about things now!
Thanx
0
Comments
Go to letting agents, look in local paper. I found my flat from the internet.
You've got plenty of time and if you are sharing you should be able to afford somewhere quite nice (depending on where you want to rent!)
Think about whether you want somewhere furnished or unfurnished, there are benefits to both.
A flat or a house? Garden or not? Garage or not?
If we knew how much,roughly, bills each month would be,we'de be able to calculate a rough idea of how much we can afford to spend on the rent itself.
i think we'de prefere a house, just a 1 or 2 bedroom one, and would prefere unfurnished as we'll be buying our own stuff for when we buy anyways+so we'de be able to store our stuff we buy in our place we're renting.
Not really too bothered about a garage for renting or gardens either.
Some places include some bills, like my flat I don't have to pay for hot water or heating.
I don't know where you live but you can usually rent small houses pretty cheaply in most places. Not many 1 bedroomed houses though!
Someone told me you should be able to take your monthly rent (eg £200), multiply it by 2.5, and that should roughly be your monthly take home pay. Others say rent should be about a third of your income.
i live in cheshire+we're thinking of renting in that area. Cheapest place ive found on net tho was about £375 per month and that was a dingy little flat above a shop in a very rough area
i think we'de only have the essentials+wouold be very tight+careful with what we used,etc.
Also, we were thinking by renting over the summer, gas bill would be less cos of not needing central heating - what do u think to this?
Thanx for your advice it really helps! Nice to speak to someone who's doing the renting thing!
Yes bills are cheaper in summer. A lot of places have a minimum 6 month contract though.
Look around, it took me a while time to find my flat, which was a fairly good price, and in a nice area. Go to the area and look in letting agents, or email them all your requirements and they will send you details of suitable places.
Unfurnished is good as you choose all your own things and take them away with you, I suggest you start saving up or asking round for basics such as fridge/cooker/bed as it can be very expensive otherwise. Or else go to Ikea/Asda.
The 6month contract wouldnt be a problem, bcos we'de hopefully start looking to buy about september/october by which time hopefully we'll have been renting for about 5/6 months!
By letting agents, what do you mean - are they like halifax, swetenhams, coulby conduct etc?
www.findaproperty.com
www.rightmove.co.uk
2 best sites....
Just local ones, they will be all down the high street, there is a whole row of them here. They will have some up in the windows and more inside.
It can take a long time to buy a house just bear that in mind. Wish I could buy somewhere!
If 1 of us is earning £220 a week and the other is earning about £350 a week, how much rent do u think we could afford to pay out of that (works out as £570 a week, or £2280 a month)
Back in 2002/03 we only had a joint income of about £2000 a month and we managed fine renting a 2 bed flat for £470 a month (this is bristol!). Plus all the bills and £100 a month coming straight out of wages for a loan so i am sure you will be fine.
Things to consider are also if propertys insist you take out your own contents insurance which will cover damage to pipes inside etc, most will insist on this as part of your contract.
It can be less than £10 a month though.
Also council tax you are looking at not much less than £100 a month.
We pay set amounts each month for gas and electric which is £30 and £40 a month. We tend to be in credit come the summer though.
Then theres water,i *think* we pay £40 a month for that too although not 100% sure as chris pays most the bills .
Then if you have a car you have all those costs to consider.
Well thats all i can think of for now.
As for letting agents, type in "letting agents in *******" into google.
You know how when you want a mortgage you get the building society to go through all your finances and they tell you how much you could afford to borrow for your mortgage, taking into account bills and earning,etc, do letting agencies do this??
you've made me feel quite good about it, as neither of us have loans+our car insurance is cheap for the both of us.
Hope our bills will be 1 set price, as it sounds as if it'll work out alot easier!
I think it worked out 3 times the yearly rent we had to be earning for the last place.
That was £595 a month so we had to be earning £21420 a year. We weren't at the time as i wasn't working. We ended up with 2 guarantors!
i know we aint actually gonna start looking til this time next yr (once ive done my dissertation at uni), but its nice to have an idea of things now.
We've both started saving already+buying a few things, but obviously we'll need to save up lots to afford bigger stuff like fridge freezer, washing machine, oven...which we cant buy until we move into a place!
Look around, you don't have to buy everything brand new.
Check the back of the local paper or bargain pages, people sell home appliances a lot, for cheap prices.
Asda is good too, I got a microwave there for £25, and a good hoover in the sale at argos for £20.
Although, looking in ikea - cookers and fridgefreezers seemed quite cheap in there.
just a thought, i know you are looking forward to moving but for only 6 months is it really worth settling in to somewhere new only to move out and have to settle in somewhere else, you're waiting a year anyway.
Also, we would move out today if we could, but we cant while im at uni cos of money issues, so we want out asap - thats why we're gonna rent for abit until im working full time!
first of all, i would speak to people you know and get a rough idea of how much your bills are going to be, you need to budget more if you want sky/broadband. as someone said before, council tax is your biggest bill so before you buy find out how much that would be so that you know how much to budget. you need to think about how much you'll need for food too, we budgeted about £200 a month for both of us which i think was about right.
good luck
£200 a month for food is good (£50 a week for both of us)! i was thinking it'd be way more - but maybe thats bcos wen i go food shopping with my parents they end up spending way more than normal bcos i see lots of stuff i like, he he. We'll be living of value baked beans for a while anyway!
and as for council tax,fingers crossed we'll be in a lower band!
Shelter has a really good article on Finding a place to rent which you might find useful
i always imagined food to be such a big bill, and i know £200 is still a big bill but you dont even have to spend that much! we could have lived on normal food and spent alot less. Meals actually arent that expensive if you eat sensibly. for instance you can have mince and potatoes for next to nothing, mince you can get for about £1 from asda, add some gravy and onion. potatoes are about £1 a bag. so all in all its about £2.50 to make mince and potatoes for dinner for two people, if that! its not as expensive as i imagined food to be!