Flat Rental Advice

[FnG]magnolia;18271910 said:
Nothing hangs around yet you think you can haggle the price down? Wow. Were these places dumps or just unwanted? The only reason an agent will EVER drop the price is if no one is prepared to pay it. That is what I said in my post that you describe as "rubbish".

For what it's worth, I lived in Surrey for a number of years and the trick was to stop the agent pushing the price up not trying to get it down.

Still, I'm sure you know best what with having rented two properties and all.
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OK, Mr. Sarcasm.

Fair enough, 2 isn't the largest count statistics wise, but depending on the landlord you can try and might be successful in getting the price down a bit. Both of my places in London have been 2 double bed flats finished to a similar / higher quality to the photos posted here (Hampstead / N12 where I am now). If you don't try, you don't get. If the offer is rejected, raise it.
 
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I Lived in a nice studio in Sheffield, brand new on the top floor with free parking and loved it! great for single people, i think even if you were a couple you should get a 2 bed though, would be too much invasion of personal space otherwise
 
MisChief said:
It won't be furnished, but I think i'd prefer buying my own furniture anyway.

snip

Is it worth £700pcm? :p
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I think that is a reasonable deal, especially because it is brand new. it looks like it has electric heating, see what sort of electric meter they have because sometimes you can get a special one for the heaters that is on a good rate in the evening.

If it has a separate bathroom and kitchen and it is purpose built like that, then it can be all right. Packing away the bed can get a bit annoying though.
 
I am still living at home with parents, but looking at this thread has made me realise, the area I live in is not that expensive at all.
My friends and I have been talking about sharing a house/flat. I am not really sure if it's a good idea as I am quite fussy ect when it comes to keeping thing's in order and clean. I don't want to fall out with them over it either although saying that, I am quite a laid back person.
I can't believe they are asking that much for that studio flat though :eek: Jeepers! that is bad. I thought it was quite bad in kent but I am quite wrong it seems lol.

Hope you find something decent soon. If I were to live alone, the most I could go to is about £550 a month roughly.
 
InvaderGIR said:
When it's your home, it really isn't, it's a massive negative. You have mates round...come into my livingroom/bedroom/kitchen, there is only space for a couple of you to sit down, rest will have to stand/wait outside.
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I share a room with my brother. When my friends are round we can get 6 or 7 of us comfortably in my bedroom playing computer or watching sports/movies. Granted, it's not enough space for a house party but it's fine for either a temporary stop off point or the late night boxing session. Frankly, my bedroom is better than our front room even though there's much more space down there.

Our 4x3(ish) bedroom has two beds and a massive bean bag. I guess I'm used to this being my living space though.

When I temporarily moved to Stratford to a Studio flat, it was much much bigger than my bedroom so I couldn't have been more chuffed. Then I crashed my car so I moved back home to save up again :)

I'm not sure what my point is, but I'm kind of derailing the bloke's thread.

Sorry!
 
Ok so turns out the flat wasn't as big as I expected it to be. Don't know if it's because the tenant is still there, shes moving tomorrow and she has a lot of stuff. Having a sofa in the middle of the room probably didn't help either. I don't think there will be enough space for all my clothes, shoes and handbags :o

Council tax is Band C and the tenant said it's £100 a month, electricity is £50 a month and water is about £100 a year or something.

Doubt i'll bother with a 2nd viewing unless the rent can be reduced to at least £600pcm. I'm not that desperate to move out, it's just that my commute to work at the moment is really annoying me because of the traffic.. 20 miles one way, takes me up to 1hr 20mins on a bad day :mad: I don't mind driving for 1hr 20mins, but sitting in stop start traffic really isn't fun. I guess i'll just have to put up with it for a bit longer.

So i'm going to carry on looking around and see what else comes up.
Thanks for all the advice guys, very useful stuff and now i'll know what to look out for in my next viewing :)
 
Janesy B said:
If you are basing this on a £700 place, your council tax will probably be over £100 a month even considering the 25% single person's discount. Expect your living costs to be £1000 including all bills. Then you have to factor in any property maintenance/management fees.
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I would suspect that most 1 bed apartment / flats will be band A for council tax ( higher than band A/B then that is an expensive flat ! ), so after 25% single's person dicount I would expect this to be under a £100 really.
Property manitenance / management fee to payable by the land lord.
The landlord would have factored this in to their rental value to cover these fees. Also landlords must pay Income Tax on lettings as well, and only the interest part of the finance mortage is deductable. So again landlords have to consider cash flow and covering costs.
So again I would expect rent prices to raise this year again.
 
Erm that doesn't sound a good deal. 700 for an unfurnished studio?? I'm paying 900 for a large 1 bed fully furnished flat in centre of Guildford. Don't do unfurnished, especially in a studio. Wait until you have your own place and then fill it with things you own. I'd say find somewhere cheaper if you want a studio.
 
I received an email from the letting agent guy today and he said:

"Was just after some feedback from the viewing yesterday evening!? I know you thought it was quite small whilst we were there, if it makes any difference I think the Landlord might accept £650pcm".

Sounds like the Landlord is desperate, or maybe the agent is just trying to see how interested I am in this flat.

I might go back for a 2nd viewing, simply because the flat will be empty now (tenant moved out today) and I will get to have a proper look at how big/small the flat really is.
If I still like it after the 2nd viewing then I might reconsider and offer £625 :p
 
By the way here is a seriously good tip that I learned recently and just used for the second time:

- go in with a low rental offer (if it's up for £700 go to £650)
- when they come back saying it's too low offer to put up 2 months' rent in advance
- if they still want the rent to be higher offer 3 months' rent in advance

Naturally this all relies on your being physically able to put that much cash up front but if you can you end up saving a LOT of money over the 12 or so months you'll be there and most landlords really value having money up front like that. It's also quite nice not having to worry about rent going out for a few months. Gives you time to recoup some money and relax a bit. Can work out really well for everyone.

As I say it's worked for me twice now. For example I've just taken on a new flat for £375 per week instead of the listed £420 by offering 3 months up front. That's a massive saving :)

Give it a shot if you're able to.
 
Jeez Louise!

I know I live in the "grim" North but my 2 bed semi, quiet cul-de-sac, with driveway, garage, and big garden, is £450 per month.

As a teacher, knowing that the pay is the same across the country unless you live in London, I don't know how people can afford to live in the south!
 
btw it's perfectly possible to rent a nice studio in west london (20 mins from centre) for about £700-750 per month. for a nice 1-bed you're looking at around £1300 and for a 2 bed you're looking at around £1650 for something really nice with a good size garden and close to a tube.
 
I thought living in Edinburgh was expensive but I am really shocked at how much that pokey little unfurnished studio flat is.

Personally I would find it a little depressing living in a flat so small and not have a proper bedroom.
 
mothermachine said:
By the way here is a seriously good tip that I learned recently and just used for the second time:

- go in with a low rental offer (if it's up for £700 go to £650)
- when they come back saying it's too low offer to put up 2 months' rent in advance
- if they still want the rent to be higher offer 3 months' rent in advance
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I will give this a try, thanks! :)

Assuming the landlord is putting the rent down to £650... do you think me offering £625, (or even £600!) will be taking the pee a little? :D

I would love to rent a place like this... St. Georges Hill, Weybridge.. £20,000 per month :eek::eek::eek: Perhaps i'll book myself a viewing.... :p
 
Yea I also don't understand this 'don't bother haggling attitude' what have you got to lose? :confused:

My small 1 Bed flat was up for £430pcm I offered 400 they said minimum would be £415, so I accepted. If I hadn't of bothered offering a different price id be £15 a month worse off.

FYI mine is band A and with single person discount is £73 a month.
 
Janesy B said:
Once you've negotiated to £650 and then you say; actually can you do £600? they are going to tell you to get lost.
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I haven't negotiated anything so far. I went to view last night, the agent asked me what I thought of the flat and I said it was smaller than expected.
He could obviously tell that I wasn't 100% happy with it, as he emailed today saying 'if it makes any difference I think the landlord might accept £650'.. and I hadn't even suggested price or anything.
 
Go lower than you expect them to accept and go from there. if you go in at a "reasonable" price they will just go back up to "unreasonable" if you see what i mean.

if it's on for 700 go to 600 first then expect to go to 600 + advance rent. if that doesnt work go to 625, then 650 etc.

just an extreme example but i went from 420 to 375 per week, which is a huge saving of £2340 per year! so it does work!

best of luck! (assuming you do go for it - even if you get it cheap make sure you're actually totally happy with the flat itself!)
 
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