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Rent To Rent Setup Checklist · The Property Unleashed Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: The must-have things you need in your rent-to-rent business.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to today's episode.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Fitzgerald.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's great to have you joining me here today.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to jump into it now.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to help you and I'm going to go through what you need in your rent-to-rent business, whether you're doing HMOs or whether you're doing service to accommodation.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess by now a lot of you who are getting started or have already got started in property want to make sure that they are set up to do the right things at the right time.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're all about here.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, in this great community, I'm always on standby to be able to answer any of your questions and help it support you with your property investing.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So in this little session here, I just want to make sure that you've got the right things set up in your property business, whether you've started or not, or not, basically.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to go through here the do's and don'ts of a rent-to-rent business and what you need to have in that business.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Equally to that, we're going to look at it from an HMO management perspective if you're doing rent to HMO.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to look at SA as well if you're looking at doing rent to SA.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So first things first, what you should need.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, somebody's going to say, Well, that's obvious, Mark.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I know for a fact that I need those bits and bobs.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no problem with that whatsoever.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: But let's just make sure we've got it all covered.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So your first, your rent-to-rent business, you're going to be looked to be setting this up.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going to be looked at setting up a limited company.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you set up a limited company, you need a company name.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So have a little think about that.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Have some fun with that.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I like to try and have either property or something to do with property in the actual title, but you could be somebody's name, it can be whatever you want.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't overthink it.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can change your business name later on if you so choose.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So don't get too hung up on it and say, Well, I can't start, I can't do anything until I've got a business name, and it's taking me weeks to get the business name.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have seen people do that.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, just use your initials.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I use my initials to start with, and I have changed company names since then as well.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So just get started.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: The only person that really ever cares about your business name, your company name is you.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody else really cares.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like we're going to be a big brand like Ford or McDonald's or Apple or something like that.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, maybe you will one day.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, most of those and a lot of those businesses change their names.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, not the ones I've just said, but a lot of them have changed their names as the time's gone on as well.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're also going to need a business bank account.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So when you become a limited company, you then for the limited company, you will set up a designated bank account for that company.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that way, then any money that you make through that business goes into that bank account, not into your personal bank account.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a sole trader, which I don't recommend, you would probably just have your own personal bank account.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: But you want to keep things separate here so it's easy to do those end-of-the-year accounts.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll have a business bank account that will link to that.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing I will say to you all is to just remember that any money that you make from your property business isn't actually initially your money, it's the business's money.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So don't forget that we are going to have to pay tax on that money.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if you just took all of the money out of that to live on and strangled the business, you could get yourself into trouble because it's not, it's not by the letter of the law, your money.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's the business's money.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just making sure that we are the property professionals that we want to be.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: What I like to do with my business bank account is to set up different pots for the accounts.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So as soon as money comes in, you know, 20% might go here for something else.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: All of those sorts of different things.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you're paying VAT again, another percentage for that, again, 17% for your VAT and things.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Have different pots for money to go in.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what I actually tend to do is with my HMO business is when somebody pays the rents and stuff, I have 10% goes into a void pot, 10% goes into a maintenance pot, then 20% goes into the tax pot.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then the rest of it is working capital in the business.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: But at least those pots are filling up.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now I might not have to spend the void pot, I might not have to spend a maintenance pot.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're just there because I might need them.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't need them, it's still my money.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's great.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: But equally to that, it actually keeps you on your toes because your business bank account can look like it's got lots of money in there, but you might owe tax, you might have to be paying some sort of, you know, rents and everything out of it.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got to make sure that a lot of that money is safeguarded and put to one side so that you can pay those things, and then you're just left with whatever profit is left in the business after you've paid yourself for the work that you're doing.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: As I say, one for voids, one for maintenance.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You'll need a handyman or woman, so you can build up a bit of a pot for that as well.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can pay people.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: You can pay people very, very quickly.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you've got a handy person working in your business, no matter what you're doing, and they're good, they're proactive, you want to make sure you pay them efficiently on time, or if anything, before time, because then they'll keep doing their little jobs for you.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we want.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be making sure that you're building up a list of handy people, so electricians, plumbers, handyman or woman in the area.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: What who are your local roofers, all of those sorts of things.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Who are your local trades in the area?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Put a spreadsheet together, start looking at different companies so that you've got a bit of a list.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a problem and you need to get something sorted, and the first person you call can't help you, at least you've got a list to go down.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're not messing about.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And whilst you've got that list, you can also look for recommendations, testimonials, and see if they're any good.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: As I say, build up a list, it'll really, really help you.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And as you grow, you might want to employ and have in your business a VA, a virtual assistant.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Have a virtual assistant that can run some of the day-to-day stuff.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So anything that's done behind a desk or a desk, should I say, that anything that's done on a computer that's done virtually, potentially a virtual assistant can help and sort out.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they can't go and visit any of the properties or anything unless they're based in your area, but they are a great asset to have and a very cost-effective one as well.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure that you do download any of the guides, which included the compliances and everything like that for your areas.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you go into your, if you're doing HMOs, you go into the HMO list on the council and do you download the HMO pack to see what needs to be done there?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: What is compliance in the area?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you're doing service accommodation, you've got to make sure that you've had your fire checks done.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to make sure that it's all fire safe.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, for those as well, a lot of compliances that might be coming in in the future that aren't here yet.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: So let's have a quick look at the HMO systems.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: You could first of all, if you're going to be doing this, you'll want a tenant management system.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can use Coho.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I used to use GoTenant.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then we used a system called Alto, which is really quite expensive.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I wouldn't recommend that.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: But we had a lot of properties when we used that at the time.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Coho is a really good one to get started with.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't personally used it myself, but I have heard good things about it.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it's up to at the moment because we've been happy with ours.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I used to speak to the people that designed it and built it, and they seem very on the ball, very proactive, very professional.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we recommend that one.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: For advertising your rooms, if you're doing HMOs, you're looking at open rent, you're looking at spare room.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, you can use Zupla, you can use Right Move as well, you can use on the market.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can also advertise on Facebook and things.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: But just be mindful and careful if you are going to advertise on social media because you really want to be doing your due diligence on the people that are going to be staying in your property.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: But spare room accounts and things is what you're going to be predominantly setting up for your area.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm ready for that.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to want to have the DPS, the deposit protection scheme.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a government-backed.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So anybody who moves into your property, you'll take a deposit from them, you'll put it into this government-funded government scheme, in which case then it's safeguarding that deposit.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that is a legal compliance when you are letting.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And some great tools and resources is join the NRLA, the Residential Landlords Association or National Residential Landlords Association, because it is a great, great tool to have.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can get professional help.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you can speak for you can speak to people there who will help you with the legals.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have got a problem, tenant, or you have got some sort of problem with the legals or a situation, you can speak to somebody from their legals department.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you can get some really good professional advice.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: I got there in the end, didn't I?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I got there in the end.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that can help you as well.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the NRLA, I would say, is a definite good one to join and to be a part of.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're also going to want to reference your tenants.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I use a system called Let's Safe.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's one called Vouch as well, which is pretty good.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But you buy credits and they do a really, really good thorough job.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: You want to have a business phone number.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can potentially do that through different apps now that you have on your phone.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: We used to use one, we don't anymore, but I used to use one called Hushed, which is really good.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can buy different numbers.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd have a number for landlords that were calling me, a number for agents, a number for tenants as well, so that I know who's trying to get in contact with the business at the time.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you can also divert those numbers to a virtual assistant when you're not about.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Get a good um CRM system, customer relations manager system.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you can keep a tab on everything.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can use systems like Asana or Trello for this sort of thing, or you can use one called Lesson CRM as well, which is quite cheap.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Tenant booking software, you could use calendarly, or you could use 10 to 8 software if you have a team, if you have more than one person to go on it.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Calendarly, I think now can do it for multiple people as well.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: It couldn't when I started out.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we used a system called 10 to 8, which I think beauticians use to book appointments when there's quite a few of them, but it worked very well for me.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I have tenant managers as well.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they needed to be able to put their schedules on there.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you're text messaging any properties, I would use text magic.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't use a WhatsApp group, use text magic, and then everybody.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, you could have a house, you can put set it as campaigns.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you could have one house, there's five rooms there, you can send one text message to everybody in that house to just say, you know, maintenance guy's coming around tomorrow.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just be mindful of that fact, he's going to fix the washing machine.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: But if somebody texts you back, the beauty of it is only you see what they put.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've got a dispute or you've got a problem in a house or something like that, somebody texts back and says, Oh, yeah, but this has happened, that's happened.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: They aren't telling everybody in the house about it, they're just telling you, which can make sure that you don't have any major problems with people falling out.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just a nice one to use.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, a task manager, as I say, is a Sano or Trello.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: They're free.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you're going to do inventories on a professional level, use something called inventory hive as well, or just use a spreadsheet, your phone to film things and take pictures.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Service accommodation must-haves are basically you're going to have a channel manager.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to use Toki when it comes to that.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to be looking at also at having some revenue management.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do I say by that?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, revenue management is your dynamic pricing.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, unlike a normal HMO where you would normally have one price, maybe a different price for different rooms, but it pretty much stays the same over the over 12 months.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: When you do service accommodation, you're going to be changing your prices potentially on a daily basis, weekly basis.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: You certainly will be on a monthly basis.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when it comes to your revenue management, you want to make sure that you stay competitive in the marketplace.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's no point in you stick sticking all your prices up top whack and everybody's undercutting you.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or, and also there's no point in you going really, really cheap when there's times of the year and the month and stuff where you should have your prices up.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if you use something like Price Labs, Price Labs will give you the average over that month.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: It'll really help to guide you to be able to get your price points in in the sweetest of windows so that A, you're not losing money because you're being too cheap, and B, you're not being too expensive when potentially you just want to rain it back and get some people to stay in there.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, if you're looking at different opportunities and deals and things, you can use Air DNA to have a little look at that.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can use the free tool, which is Air R O I, which is a free tool.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as in-depth, it's not as good, obviously, as a paid version, but it can give you a good broad idea about the occupancies, about what's working in the area, and about night eoccupancies as well.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a great little tool to be using.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you have your online travel agencies that you want to be on.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you've got your usual booking.coms, your Airbnbs, but there are a lot more than that as well.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: You've got inquiries only, silverdoors, uh, situ, you've got site hub, you've got working awayfromhome.com.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's the list goes on team stays, trade stays, rapid travels, trusted stays.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that we help everybody in my trainings to really understand all of the different OTAs that you can get yourself onto.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because obviously, the more that you can, and you can't go on them all initially.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you've only got one or two properties, you won't get on some of these.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: You need to have quite a bit of a portfolio of properties.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: But as you get bigger, it'll open up new portals for you and things.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's very, very important.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people miss this in their trainings and stuff because they've maybe only done a couple of properties, but we've built a very big portfolio with these sorts of things.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we understand that uh these doors will open up.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as I say, this is something that we really do help people who are doing our trainings and are part of our community to get the best results.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do I have in my business?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we have three virtual assistants that manage the day-to-day.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: There is one full-time and two part-times.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if I ever give you one bit of tip when it comes to virtual assistants, is when you have enough work to hire a full-time VA, have two part-time VAs.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Spread the workload because if one leaves, you've always got one backup one to train the next one.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I had a good VA, I lost a good VA.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had to start from scratch again.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So initially, my good VA had a backup VA, if you like.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I had two working for me part-time.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now one's full-time, but we've got two others that are part-time.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have two viewings managers, if you like.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one of them's the viewings manager, but I have a backup viewing manager as well to cover us.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So they do all the viewings, onboardings, checkouts, inventories, checks, and things like that as well.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it really, really helps to have those things.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have uh three handy men.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one of them is a woman, actually.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we have three handy people, I should say, old habits, who we can call on.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if we uh I have a 24-7 company that actually takes any calls if it's out of hours, if there's a major problem, they'll call our first handy person.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: They don't answer, or maybe they've had a few beers because it's the weekend, they'll call the next one.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: If by chance all three of them can't do anything, they will actually send somebody out to get the problem solved and sorted at a set price.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you've got those sorts of things set there as well and cover those emergencies so that you can sleep well at night as the business owner.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I have for the service accommodation at least two cleaning companies in a portfolio in every area.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we've always got a backup there that we can call.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a personal assistant as well that helps to manage my schedules, emails, and basically my life.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need all of this when you start out, and I've certainly built this up over the last eight, nine years now.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: But my business is there to serve me, it's not there to enslave me.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it's all about making sure that you put the right things in the right place at the right time.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: So all that leaves me basically to say here is I hope you've enjoyed this episode.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you need any further help or assistance, we have a multitude of trainings that we can help you with, in-depth trainings that we then will help and coach you and support you over a 12-month period to make sure that you're out there hitting your numbers, getting the results that you want.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why not?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if other people can do it, you can do it.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: So do check out thepropertyunleash.com or education toaction.com.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Have a look at those different trainings.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if anybody wants to have a little chat, see which training is right for them, I'm more than happy to jump on 20-minute Zoom call.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let's have a little conversation, see where you're up to, see if we can help you in any way, shape, or form.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can, obviously it'd be great to get you on board.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want anything like that, just look at the links below this episode.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we are here to help and support you every step of the way.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me, and I look forward to you joining me very soon.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.