The Joint Equity guide to renting a room (part 2 - advertising the room)

Lots of first time buyers (and some second time buyers, me included) have rented out a room in their homes in order to help with mortgage payments and bills.

I have to say, it's a good plan, but you should take a few careful steps to make sure you get the right lodger, and that your relationship with them runs smoothly. Trust me, it can be a minefield, and I learnt the hard way!

By the way - this guide assumes that your mortgage or lease allows you to rent out a room in the property. Some mortgages and leases do preclude sub-letting, although under The Joint Equity Scheme you can rent part of your home to a lodger.

In this series of blog posts, I address the following topics:

1. Setting the rent
2. Advertising the room
3. Preparing the room (and the rest of your home)
   
4. Holding viewings and interviews
5. Taking deposits
6. Signing tenancy agreements
7. Setting ground rules
8. Dealing with bills (and other stuff)
   
9. What happens when they move out

Today, we're Advertising the Room:

You are unlikely to be surprised to hear that I favour the internet for advertising rooms to rent.

There are so many great sites out there now that can help you do this, and I'm going to take you through the process step by step:

• Do your research

Remember looking through all those ads to see what the going rate for a room in your area was? Well, some of those ads will have jumped out at you straight away, and others won't have. Have another look at the ads that you liked, what techniques did they employ that attracted your attention? Make a note of those things and think about using some of them in your own ad.

• Write your lodger-specification.

All housemates are not created equal. Figure out what you want your lodger to be, and state it clearly in your ad. e.g. 'Non-smoking, cat-friendly, professional female', ' sociable male or female smoker'. This doesn't mean you won't get responses from unsuitable people, but it should reduce the amount of weeding out you need to do at an early stage.

• Decide when you can do viewings.

You are likely to start getting responses very quickly, and you want to get your room let as soon as possible, so block off some time in your diary when you will be able to show people round. An ideal block is 1 weekend (daytimes) and the following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. This means that you should be able to get all the viewings out of the way quite quickly, and that your personal schedule is not disrupted too much in the process. Also, your respondents will get a better service from you, as you can tell them immediately when you will be available to show them round.

• Write the ad.

Don't make your ad up once you get to the point of submitting it. Craft some finely honed sentences in Word or another word processing package so that you can copy and paste when you submit. It will save you time.

Don't be afraid of bullet points listing the advantages of the property, and include features like furnished/unfurnished, distance to transport/shops, availability of parking, if the street you're on is quiet, etc. Tell them about who else is living there (don't include details that are too personal, please! Your safety is important).

Remember to include your lodger specification in your ad.

• Take pictures (of the room and the rest of the property).

Many sites now allow you to include pictures for free. This is worth doing, as pictures will always sell any item faster. However, you do need to tidy up before you take the pictures, and make sure that any random items are tucked neatly away. Take several pictures from different angles, and just use the best one or two. Ideally, you should include a picture of the room, one of the living room or kitchen of your property, and (maybe) one of the outside, if it's pretty or you have a garden/patio.

• Upload your ad.

Put your ad on a few different sites. My favourites are: Gumtree.com, Spareroom.co.uk, and Loot.com. You can also try Facebook.com, if you use that already.

• Monitor your ad & tweak (if necessary).

All the above sites have high traffic volumes, so lots of people will see your ads. If you don't get much of a response, then go back to your research and tweak your ads to reflect the good bits of other people's postings.

• Be ready to answer questions.

Get ready for a LOT of questions. This is great though, as it allows you to hone your pitch and weed people out early without having to spend 20mins showing them round your home. If you can't take many personal calls at work, put your email address on the ad as the point of contact, and not your mobile number. You can give your number to any of the email enquirers that you think would be worth speaking to do directly.


If you can follow these steps, you'll have a great advert and have let the room out in no time.

Next week, we'll address preparing the room (and the rest of your home), and 'yes' it is a vital step.

Take care,

Tam