House hunt explained in many words and in a Youtube video provided below.
As a foreigner or student with new-found freedom from your parents' home, hunting for a place to live as a first timer in England may be frustrating, confusing and even worrying at times. Deciding between a house and a flat, finding a place that fits all your criteria, convincing a landlord that your financials are solid during an upfront payment negotiation may all lead to the question; will I ever find a place to live?
Having moved about six times in England, I will help you navigate through this process by addressing some of the basic issues you will face during this process. This article will be the 101 of house hunting but I’m starting a series on this topic to give you an overall insight about each process. More about that later, but today let’s get you started!
Where to begin?
The question of where to begin can be answered by the following equation:
Location Needs + Budget + Crime Rate Research = My New Home!
The most important thing is to decide where you want to live. If you have a job or will attend a course of some sort, this question is relatively easy to answer. On the other hand, if you intend to move to England and just "see how it goes", depending on your budget, I suggest you either stay in London or at a location that is an easy commute to London. Let's face it, the world does revolve around London in England.
Your budget should include the maximum amount you are willing to pay for rent, council tax (tax paid to the city council calculated as per your location and the sqm of your property), bills (electricity, gas and water), transportation and you must also consider the costliness of a city/town. Public transport in the UK is definitely not cheap! So, if you intend to commute on a daily basis to a specific location keep in mind that the transport expenses may render hunting for a distant but low rent house meaningless.
Your main tools to carry out property, location and budget search will be the websites Zoopla and Rightmove, both of which also have mobile apps that you can download. I personally find property search on the maps section of these apps most helpful when trying to balance my budget with my location expectancies. The maps section of these apps allow you to see the rent of each property within a secific location.
Lastly, if you have never lived in England before, not knowing where is safe and what to expect may be troubling. Therefore ,once you have the budget set out and a list of locations you may prefer to live in, the next thing to consider is the crime rates of these locations. This research can easily be carried out online from local police websites and Office for National Statistics for a more detailed review. This research will not only ease your mind but will also give you an idea about what to expect in your designated location as a demographic and the general city life.
What’s your criteria?
Some of the criteria that you may want think ahead of your hunt are; do you require a pets allowed home, should it be furnished or unfurnished, shared accommodation , will bills be included in the rent, are you looking to move as a family or student, do you require a certain amount of rooms or squaremeter, is upfront payment and deposit amount a criteria for you, do you want a flat or a house, do you want easy access to a nearby subway?
All of these criteria will be explained further in following posts but some tips to note for now are, if you want a pet allowed home, the chances are you are less likely to find a furnished flat and you may be required to pay an extra deposit. Furthermore, if you opt for a shared accomodation where you share the kitchen and/or bathroom of a house with flatmates may not be a family's cup of tea.
Hunting
The first thing you need to keep in mind is that visiting a property physically is essential as is meeting the landlord and/or the estate agent. Never trust the advertisements or those who post it. The house may be further away from the specified location, the criteria posted on the advertisement may be incorrect and worst of all, the person you are dealing with may not be authorised to rent out the property. Frankly, she or he may be a scammer and trust me, this is a rather frequent occurence in the real estate world. If you feel like something is fishy or too good to be true, it probably is.
You can search and verify landlord details including identity, rental property ownership, history of housing prosecutions and reports from other renters from the government suggested website RentProfile.
Negotiations
Once the hunt is complete and you are contempt with a house, the next thing you will have to do is carry out a tough negotiation. It is my personal experience that most landlords are willing to reduce the rent by 25-50 GBP per month but it is always a good idea to start the negotiations with 100 GBP discount. You can also negotiate that you will accept the rent as is but will need the bills to be included in the requested rent. Some landlords prefer bills included rent arrangements which not only helps you maintain your budget but it also takes away the hustle of taking on subscriptions at various entities for electricity, gas etc.
Another point of discussion will be the deposit which is usually non-negotiable (but is always worth to try) and other upfront payments. If you are a foreigner with no financial records in the UK and no guarantor (to sign your lease as the payee if you default in you payments), then you will most likely be required to pay six-months' rent in advance and start paying monthly rent after the first six months. You can either negotiate this amount or negotiate that the term of the initial agreement be 6 months with monthly payments to prove that you are financially reliable before signing a year-long lease with the landlord after the expiration of the six month period.
Lastly, it is my personal suggestion to include an early termination right for you as the tenant in case you need to move before the expiration of your agreement. It may be a good idea to include a right for early termination after 6 months' without having to pay the remaining rent amount. This may also be a tough point to negotiate depending on your landlord but how you negotiate and what you get in return will be up to your skills.
Lease Agreement
If you've had a good negotiation period with your landlord, now is the time to protect your negotiation awards. Make sure you read and understand everything in your lease agreement, make sure you include any and all revisions required as per the result of the negotiations and never think that verbal agreement will save you in a future dispute!
I hope that by the end of this process you will have found your perfect home with a perfect budget plan. I love changing homes and decorating to my taste so, enjoy the best part of moving and get decorating!
For the video version of this blog:
Next Up...
Following articles of this series will be:
1. "Flat vs. House"
2. "Real Estate Terms in England"
3. "House Hunt Mobile App Reviews/Comparisons"
4. "Alternatives to London"
5. "Lease Agreement Tips"
To name a few. Join me in the comments section if you have any questions or suggestions for the following articles of this series.
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