renting to students earns you nearly twice as much rent as you would expect from a family or a professional. The house is slap bang in the middle of a university area so renting to students is the wisest option.
To be fair all the students I've rented to so far have been great! The only headache is having to find a new set of tenants every academic year as they don't tend to stick around longer than one year. I have found a lot of them tend to find girlfriends/boyfriends they decide to move in with When the new tenants move in, you have to go through the inventory and other check-in procedures again which can be a pain. Finding the tenants is not an issue as a university owned lettings agency does that for me.
As the house is rented on a multiple occupancy (a contract per room), I have to find a group of 4 friends each year as it has 4 bedrooms. For the past 2 years 1 random person has joined with a group to form a group of 4. This could be risky just incase they don't get along! So far however, it has worked out fine.
Also just to add, the university lettings agency has laid out strict rules with regards to renting out the property:
- Hard wired smoke alarms on each floor and a carbon monoxide sensor in the kitchen.
- All furniture has to abide by fire regulations.
- All rooms have to either have a escape window or a fire door.
- Valid EPC and gas safety certificates
- All electrical appliances have to be PAC tested.
- Deposits have to be protected through an external agency (ie MyDeposits).
- The property has to be fully furnished (This includes bed, desk, chair and wardrobe in the bedrooms. Kitchen has to have a washing machine and all essential appliances and white goods. The communal room needs to have sofa seating enough for the number of tenants and a dinner table etc.
Some or all of these apply to normal landlords too but they tend to be stricter with student landlords.
There you go, you got your long winded explanation
Are there any other student landlords on here?
EPC's are my role - so you can add another trade to the long list of occupations on here
on a side note - you said your cousin can "do" electrics - as you have to provide Electrical Periodic Test - this must be done in accordance with the 17th Edition of the IEE regs - if he isn't qualified - you may have problems ??