Recently a tenant asked us a question that we’re
expecting to hear more and more often. Did we have,
she asked, any flats with a room suitable for a home
office? She’s a single professional web designer
who mostly works from home: she wants a reception
room to relax, plus of course a bedroom – and
another room that’s just for work. We started
wondering how a landlord would advertise that sort
of property: two bedrooms, or two receptions? And
then we realised the obvious: the landlord should
really be calling it a property with a home office!
Aiming
at people working from home is a fantastic way to
market “one-and-a-half bed” properties:
those with a single room that’s too small for
a bedroom for an adult, but which would make a perfect
home office. Plenty of landlords worry about tenants
with small children – indeed, at Upad we see
plenty of adverts that specify “no children”
- so by advertising as a home office rather than a
bedroom, a landlords appeals to the professional tenants
they prefer.
Get connected
Anyone
working from home is going to need broadband –
but then again, most tenants will want this too, whether
they’re working from home or just playing on
Facebook. All landlords these days should be offering
broadband points as well as phone points.
If
they’re not already fitted, you will be faced
with a new tenant who wants to have BT or Virgin round
to fit broadband, and that means drilling into or
even through the walls, plus of course added expense
for your tenant. It’s better to have the connection
points fitted yourself; that way, you get to advertise
your property as “broadband ready” –
which again, will help to attract professional tenants.
If
you don’t have broadband fitted yet, talk to
your new tenant first: “Are you getting broadband
fitted, if so I’d like to be here when BT do
the job, please let me know when it is.” Too
many landlords take the “thou shalt not”
line, and forget that tenants actually have to live
in the place. If you prove that you’re flexible
and reasonable about what is not an unreasonable request,
you’re more likely to have your tenants respect
your property, consult you about changes, and not
try to sneakily fit broadband behind your back.
If
your tenant wants to get a broadband connection put
in, it might be worth making sure that it meets with
your approval. That’s one benefit of providing
broadband in advance: you can clearly determine where
the sockets are and authorise the work yourself. If
tenants have the right to chop and change broadband
suppliers then you could end up with a flat full of
sockets and wiring all over the place after a few
years.
