Renting

We've never rented, but we are thinking we may rent out our current house, instead of selling it, when we move later this year.

We don't really know what people expect of a rental house, do you think furnished or non-furnished is better? And if non-furnished, is there stil stuff you'd expect? Curtains/blinds etc?

And do you prefer totally neutral decor or a bit of colour and life? I'd hate to live in magnolia-land!

We've got to re-do the paintwork in most of the rooms anyway, and get new carpets in the two childrens bedrooms, and we need to do a few basic jobs, so whilst we're at it, we might as well plan it properly.

It's a mid-terrace, with a sitting room, large kitchen/dining room and downstairs loo, and then three beds (one huge double, one decent double and a single) and a decent sized bathroom upstairs. It's got a garage and two further off-road parking spaces. It does have a loft, but we would possibly have to store some of our own stuff in their - do you think that would be acceptable?

Thanks all.

We rent and prefer something quite neutral. Don't mind a bit of colour on a wall but mainly plain. Non-furnished for us as we have pretty much everything we need-including washing machine/white goods. It is very useful to have curtains/blinds though. We also appreciate a lawn mower for the garden if needed.

hth x

I dint think there is any norm with renting. We've rented bad quality ff places and fresh White spangly places with nothing but curtain rails. Some places say they can be ff or uf. With ff you need a full inventory service. I'd talk to a rental estate. agent and see what's popular in your area. Personally I'd go with some light and neural, because whilst it's a bit boring, you can live with it, but certain colours might reallyturn people off.

I rented a house out for years. I rented it not furnished as a landlord I wanted less hassle. I also did it through the Estate agents so I rarely had any contact with the tenants. It suited me this way but obviously I paid more for repair etc through Estate agents.

Thanks.

I think whatever we do (sell or rent) we'll probably keep colours safe, we have a light sage green in the Mouse's room, and apricot white in the nursery. The bathroom and downstairs loo are white. The kitchen is light grey/blue and the sitting room is cream with a biscuity wall. We're going to do one wall of the stairs/hall/landing in pale yellow as it gets a lot of sun anyway and looks lovely flooded with sunlight, and then need to do something in the master bedroom.

Have a feeling we'll be getting a decorator in or I'll be waiting for this to get done for the next 5 years!

It's good to keep an eye on the entals in your area, give you an idea of what's on the market and how quickly they get snapped up.

A a tenant I prefer unfurnished and neutral decor

We rent our UK house out unfurnished. You're responsible for furnishings, if you provide them, and we didn't want the hassle. Don't forget that you're liable for PAT testing of electrical items, for example (including lawn mowers). Anything that breaks or needs replacing and you're the one footing the bill. The things that go on the inventory for an unfurnished house is long enough (bathroom: door, white bath with two taps, white toilet, white sink with two taps, tiles to floor, tiles to walls, shower rail, shower curtain, wall mirror, towel rail!); I'd hate to do it for a furnished property.

The reason lots of rental properties are magnolia is it's cheap! Tenants tend not to care for a property as an owner would. Magnolia can be repainted much more easily. And it makes a property look much better (and therefore command better returns in rent) if it's been touched up between tenancies.

Personally, I wouldn't leave anything in a house being rented out. Even if it's on the inventory (which it should be, to stop it being removed), what's to stop the tenant using it?

One thing I would say is make sure you have adequate landlord's insurance. One of our ex-tenants tried to sue us, so I know how important it is to have very good legal cover. (They were trying it on and the case got thrown out of court, but still a great big PITA.)

I find it much easier to have a letting agent manage the property, rather than try to do it ourselves, so I'd say consider that. Although, obviously, it costs.

I am currently renting. We have a lot of furniture ourselves as we owned a house but we sold our white goods so we have white goods here. Fully furnished implies that all plates, knives, forks, saucepans etc are there. I wouldn't bother with all that hassle in all honesty. If I was going to furnish, I would have a couch/chairs & coffee table in lounge with maybe a tv table (no tv). Then a kitchen table and beds in the bedrooms & white goods. Thats it. We have been allowed to decorate ourselves, provided that we agree to paint it neutral on leaving if the landlord doesn't like what we have done.

TBH I wouldn't store your stuff in the attic. It would turn me off renting a house if someone was storing stuff. I actually asked the landlord here to remove their stuff in the garage when we were moving in.

There's more demand for furnished but it depends on the area. Magnolia is popular as it's cheap as Nichola says but also you don't need to keep records of what colour is where, you may need to redecorate between tenants as it can look shabby quickly and it's easier if you can just get the decorator in and he can do all that needs doing in one go.

We rented two houses out and I did them in nice safe colours to start as I thought magnolia would be bland and tbh it was a mistake. If you don't like magnolia pick white or a warm cream but the same throughout and stick to it.

It will need doing before you rent it as even if it looks well now once you take your furnture out you will be surprised how chabby it looks