Buying your first Buy to Let property
A clients' Review
Independent advice
We can provide independent help and advice with regard to building surveys, structural surveys, structural reports, independent valuations, property surveys, engineers reports, specific defects report, home buyers reports or any other property matters.
If you are buying your first buy to let property please free phone 0800 298 5424 for a friendly chat with one of our surveyors.
Buying your First Buy to Let property
We met our clients during the survey who were a couple who advised that this was their first buy to let property and that they were using cash from their existing home. The property was an end terrace Victorian conversion which had been divided into four flats/apartments. We surveyed a two bedroom flat which was on the first floor.
Meet the building surveyor at the property
If you have the time available and can get to the property whilst the survey is being carried out our surveyors will be more than happy to talk to you about any concerns and possible problems that you think the property may have together with any potential alterations and improvements that you may be looking to carry out to the property. We will, of course, be happy to speak to you about the survey report once it has been completed.
Beware of Estate agents linked to surveyors and solicitors
Our client had realised that the estate agent is linked to the solicitors and in addition the estate agents were also proposing that our client should use their surveyor. Wisely, our client therefore decided to have an independent survey (this is on the same day as one of our clients who we were about to do a survey for was talked out of having an independent survey and into having a survey with the estate agent owned surveyors).
Our Good, Bad & Ugly Surveys!
We would like to introduce to you what we call our Good, Bad and Ugly survey which is a building survey, sometimes known as a structural survey, and is something that we have developed over many years, in fact several decades. We have listened to feedback from our clients and amended and altered our surveys to make them easy to read and describe issues clearly. The key factor we believe is that our surveys are easy to understand in plain English.
What did the survey uncover?
Good points
The property like any property has good elements; as well as being superbly presented and decorated it also had a car parking space, was in a good location for the trains and the buses and would rent quickly.
Bad points
During the survey we found that the two bedroom property had movement and also a large flat roof area which was a problem as well as an old boiler.
The property was beautifully decorated inside although the communal areas hadn't seen paint for many years. The windows were so bad in the communal areas that we were able to put a screwdriver right the way through one of the windows.
Screwdriver going through
window
Personal experience on Buy to Let market
We were able to talk to them from our personal experience about the buy to let market and about having your own buy to lets and how it is very difficult when you first start and there is a steep learning curve. We included some relevant links to our website and advised of different books that we would recommend with regards to the buy to let market.
Other articles that may be of interest
We have written many surveying articles which may be of interest to you:
Useful Tips for purchasing a Buy to Rent property
Why are our surveys better than the competition?
Adding Value to your Property
Property management, its all about cash flow
How to buy a property at an auction
What do the circles and ovals mean in our reports?
The red circles are a system that we use within our structural surveys, building surveys and schedules of condition to highlight problem areas so that you are not left wondering what the problem is.
Our unique sketches help you understand the survey
If the report, along with our photos, does not explain the problem or characteristics of a property enough then we also have a vast range of sketches that we have had commissioned exclusively for us that we can use in our reports as illustrated below:
Air brick acts as gutter
Air brick acting as gutter
Air brick protected
Why have an independent building survey?
Always have an independent building survey as this will highlight any property problems. Caveat emptor means buyer beware and is why you need to have a building survey to find out if there are any problems within the property; the estate agent certainly will not advise you of any.
Remember the building Surveyor that you employ will be the only person working for you with your interests at heart.
Once again, we would reiterate that we highly recommend you always make sure when you have a survey you meet your Surveyor at the property.
Compare our website and compare our surveys
Please feel free to have a look at our website to see for yourself the quality of our website, articles and our Building Survey reports. We pride ourselves on our professional standard and easy to read reports which we have been carrying out for many years on every age, type and style of property across the UK.
We can email you examples of our building surveys
If you are thinking of buying a property and are interested in having a Structural Survey carried out or if you are trying to sell a property and would like a Pre-Sales Survey please call us on free phone us for a friendly chat on 0800 298 5424. We would be happy to email you several examples of our tailor made reports.
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