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My Guide to Renting out Your House
- Joanna Ditzel
- Jul 4, 2021
- 11 min read
Updated: Oct 17, 2025
Welcome back! For those who are visiting our blog for the first time, I am Jo, a part time Veterinary Surgeon from England hoping to leave behind my home and job in search of a more meaningful life; ideally in a converted van, in South America, September 2021... Since writing this post I've separated from my ex-boyfriend, so please ignore the 'we' and 'our's!
With less than 9 weeks to go until we are both jobless and homeless, we thought now was a good time to write a blog about the work we've done so far renting out our house.
We've had lots of messages the past few months from big dreamers, wanting to take a leap of faith and travel full-time. So, whether you are conjuring up a once in a lifetime trip like us, looking to make some extra money through rental or interested in renting as a side-hustle, here it is, our beginner's guide to renting out your house.
Disclaimer!
We are NOT experts and are NOT doing this to make huge amounts of money. So if you are looking to do this as a full time venture and get minted, this post probably isn't for you. We are renting our house out for convenience, so that when we return from our travels we can move straight back in and earn a little pocket money in the process. We found that information was all over the place and difficult to understand, so we've done a lot of research and put it all in one easy-to-follow place. Hopefully you find it useful and it saves you hours of reading like us!
1. Money: Is It Worth It?
Budget, Budget, Budget
The first thing we did was ensure we wouldn't lose money. Whilst this is arguably the most tedious and time-consuming step, it is also the most useful when figuring out whether renting is for you or not. Most people feel uncomfortable talking about money, but we think it would be more useful if we were honest about the numbers we were working with, so we'll openly include our figures.
Start by considering your mortgage (if you have one, of course), as you will continue to pay this throughout your rental and it will be the biggest cost regarding the house. Ours is £800pcm for a 4-bed, 3 bathroom, semi-detached house with a huge garden in Hertfordshire (we are VERY lucky and grateful!).
Then it's time for market research. If you use an estate agent (more on this later) they will do this part for you, but we would always recommend you have a look yourself. We found that some estate agents were a bit cheeky with the price they suggested (either because they want more commission or want it to sell fast), so it's best to have a ballpark figure in mind first.
We scoured the main online renting portals in the UK (Rightmove, zoopla and onthemarket) and followed houses similar to ours for a few weeks, taking note of how much their rent was and how long they stayed on the market for.
For example, we saw a lot of similar 4 bed properties in our area go for £1200-1500pcm and they only seemed to stay on the market for a few weeks - a good sign that they were in high demand!
We are always very cautious people when it comes to budgeting, so even if we got the lowest price of £1200pcm, after our mortgage came out (£800pcm), we were already £400pcm in profit. Ka-Ching!
Bear in mind that you are taxed on any profits that exceed £6200pa.
Unfortunately, the costs don't stop there...
2. The Complicated Bits - Estate Agents
If this is your first time renting, use an estate agent. Just do it. Jo is very frugal and wanted to try renting without one so we could make more money, but when we read more about what was involved, we decided that we didn't want that responsibility hanging over us whilst we were away (and potential family and friends who we would inevitably ask for help).
When choosing an estate agent, websites like RentRound can help you compare agents in your area and include details on their fees, average listing time and approximate rental price - IGNORE THE RENTAL PRICE! The latter is an automated calculator based on minimal details and is rarely accurate, so ignore it. Ours originally said £900pcm but we ended up getting a LOT more...
https://rentround.com/
The main factors for us were reviews and fees. You can google your chosen estate agent and add 'reviews' to get a quick idea of the agency. Our chosen agent had a lot of 5* reviews on Trust Pilot and websites like All Agents, so there were no immediate red flags.
When you look at fees, there are usually three different options you can choose from:
NOTE! Remember to add 20% VAT here in the UK to all estate agent fees... This caught us out a few times.
Tenant Find (8-12% commission) For these packages, the estate agent will only create floorplans, put your property on the market, show tenants around, check their references, credit check, obtain references, suggest suitable ones to you and draw up the contract. Some can also offer extras like collecting the first month's rent and deposit (which by law has to be deposited in a special protected scheme), inventory (see below) and a check in on moving day. But generally, once you find a tenant, their help stops there.
You will be responsible for collecting rent, answering queries and dealing with repairs. This can be a massive burden if you plan on going travelling... If you choose this option, at least make sure you get really good landlord insurance (see below), especially one that includes rent protection. This ensures that if the tenant doesn't pay their rent for some reason, you still get paid.
Tenant Find and Rent Collection (9-12% commission)
This mid-range package involves all of the above, as well as collection of rent. Some estate agents will also follow up payments that haven't been made but not all of them will guarantee your rent.
Full Management (10-15% commission)
This all-inclusive package covers all of the above as well as day-to-day running of the property. They will handle any repairs, maintenance, inspections, inventory, queries and complaints, and handle the deposit before and after the tenant leaves. They may also go the extra mile to negotiate new rent prices if they think they should be increased with inflation, and provide legal notices e.g. in case you want to come home early and ask your tenant to leave. Most importantly, these packages often guarantee your rent too, so you'll get paid no matter what.
This is the option we went for, as we didn't want any hassle whilst we are away. Patagonia and the Amazon don't have great phone or WiFi signal, so we'd hate to have to organise an electrician or plumber to go around and repair something in the middle of the night 6000 miles away... No thanks!
Avoiding Disasters
When we started telling friends and family our plan to rent our house and travel, the horror stories started to roll in. From those, it seems that the two worst scenarios are the tenant not paying rent, or completely destroying your house. Here's what you can do to try and avoid these:
Rent Guarantee Insurance As we've already mentioned, this is a must if you are relying on your rent to pay for your travels! We are using our savings to travel and topping the pot back up with the rent, so we aren't massively reliant on it, but... we did this anyway for peace of mind.
There are two ways you can guarantee your rent; either through your estate agent, or through a landlord insurance provider. Most estate agents offer their own rent guarantee insurance, so you will be paid, even if your tenant doesn't pay their rent. But do double check their fees, as it is often more expensive to go via them as they add commission - sneaky!
Landlord Insurance is probably the best way to go and is covered in more detail below, but check the policy details carefully to see how much you are covered for and for what period of time, as there may be a cap. For example, some policies only cover you for up to 3 months of unpaid rent or £500, so if your tenant fails to pay beyond that, you're on your own. Ours covers us for up to 12 months of unpaid rent and £5,000.
Property Damage
Again, both your estate agent and insurance provider can help here.
All estate agent packages should hopefully include an 'inventory' - ours is an extra £240 one off fee. It's usually charged per room, and is more expensive if the property is furnished. Ours is a furnished 4 bed, so it's pretty expensive... An external company visits your home, taking notes and pictures of everything in your property - and I mean, everything. Every scuff on the wall, stain on the carpet, light bulb and plug socket, everything is noted down in immense detail. This is crucial to establish what your house looked like before your tenants moved in. If you come home to find damage done to your property and didn't get an inventory taken beforehand, you can say goodbye to your chances of compensation in court. Without evidence of what things looked like before, you're screwed. You can do it yourself, but it's risky. Jo is pretty thorough, so we are going to try and save the money and do it ourselves...
Landlord Insurance can help with property damage too and is discussed below.
3. The Complicated Bits - Landlord Insurance
Landlord Insurance is not a legal requirement, but of course, we recommend it. You will need it instead of your usual home, contents and building insurance, which are void if you rent the property - don't forget to cancel them when the rental starts! As with any type of insurance, there are lots of goodies to mix and match, depending on your needs (we got most of them, because, as you can tell, we are very cautious!):
Landlord / Public Liability Insurance
Protects against injury or damage to a tenant or visitor as a result of your property e.g. electrocution due to dodgy wiring or a fall due to a wobbly bannister. Lewis works in public liability insurance so we know first-hand how massive these claims can be (sometimes in the millions...). This is a must.
Landlord Building Insurance
Protects against large-scale damage to the property e.g. fire, flood and storms. Includes infrastructure like walls, floors and roof etc. but not contents; this is covered next.
Landlord Contents Insurance
Protects against theft, destruction or damage of your belongings that are left in the property, not the tenants - they will need to take our their own insurance. This includes things like white goods, bed frames, wardrobes etc. if you leave these behind. We would recommend leaving the house as minimally furnished as possible if you're just starting out; it's easier.
We are leaving a lot of our belongings locked away in our loft so will need this - you are allowed to do this, as long as you state it clearly in the contract and advertisement. For examples, if you advertise a 2 bed with a garage and then use the garage to lock away your things, without access, your tenants will likely complain that it was falsely advertised and either leave, or ask for a price reduction. Be as transparent as possible!
Accidental Damage Insurance
This is what most landlords are after - protection again accidental damage to the property e.g. carpet stains, broken windows, painting when they shouldn't have (a friend of mine had a tenant that painted his living room bright yellow without permission!!). This doesn't include normal wear and tear, like well-trodden carpets - only substantial damage.
Landlord Home Emergency Insurance This gives you access to 24/7 emergency services like plumbing, electricians, boiler servicers, locksmiths etc. Check with your estate agent, as they may be able to offer you a decent deal with their company instead, especially if you have the 'full management' package.
Rent Guarantee Insurance
As discussed before, this ensures you are still paid even if your tenant doesn't pay. Again, check the policy for caps on this e.g. some only cover your for 3 months of no pay, or up to £500.
Loss of Rent Insurance Different to the Rent Guarantee, this ensures you are still paid if your property suddenly becomes unsuitable for your tenant to live in e.g. due to a fire or flood.
Alternative Accommodation Insurance Similarly, if your property is not longer habitable, this insurance will cover the costs of the tenant living elsewhere.
Unoccupied Property Insurance If you are renting your property to many different tenants (e.g. via Airbnb), then you may want to look into this. This will ensure you are paid rent, even during times where the property is unoccupied. Again, this may have caps and extra requirements, so read the T&Cs carefully on this one - it sounds too good to be true to me...
Legal Expenses Insurance
Last but not lease (this was a typo but made me laugh, so I decided to leave it in, ha!) this provides cover for £10,000+ worth of legal fees. "Why would I need a lawyer?" I hear you cry. Well... this is where a lot of our friend's horror stories ended up. Excessive damage, unpaid rent, evicting hardcore party goers... most of them refuse to comply and you end up in court, sometimes months or years later... And lawyers are expensive. Again, we'll be getting this for peace of mind.
Landlord Insurance - Price
Obviously, this varies. For our 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, semi-detached house worth between £350-400K, with all insurance types included, the best price was £400 at the time of writing this. That's a one off fee for the year, or £70pcm.
This may sound like a lot but we really believe that you can't put a price on security and travelling without a worry, but obviously if your profit margins are tighter, you may want to consider the risks of each and what you are comfortable with.
In the end, we chose the following:
Liability (<£2,000,000)
Buildings
Contents Cover (£10,000 - £12,500 for white goods, bed frames and the hot tub!)
Accidental Damage
Legal Expenses
Tenant Default (also known as 'rent guarantee', this ensures we are paid no matter what)
We ignored Emergency Cover, as the estate agents use their own company for repairs, so our final quote was £360pa.
4. Overall Price Breakdown
Our price is per month and is very personal to us - it will of course be different for everyone!
+ £1400 (rent - may be £1500 if we are lucky)
-- £800 (mortgage)
-- £150 (9% estate agent commission +VAT, full management)
-- £30 (landlord insurance)
+£420 profit per month (£210 each)
From the estate agent, there was also a £220 initial fee (ouch!), £90 fee to assemble our gas, electricity safety and £75 for the efficiency (EPC) certificates. We already had an electricity certificate done when we did an extension on the house and decided to do the inventory ourselves, saving £240. Plus VAT, that was a hefty £460 one off fee. Spread over our 12 month rental, that was £38pcm, taking our overall profit to:
+£382 profit per month (£191 each)
Again, we know we've spent half just under half of our profit on insurance and estate agent fees, but we're hoping it will be worth it for the peace of mind - which really, is priceless to us. When we come back from a year abroad, we'll hopefully have £2,292 each to come home to - tasty!
5. Buy to Let Mortgages
I'll start by saying we are a bit rusty on Buy to Let Mortgages as we didn't use one for our house. Check with your mortgage provider what their requirements are. We are with Santander and they allow a short-term let (less than 12 months) without changing anything on your mortgage or charging you any fees - woohoo! We just had to complete a Consent to Let form that was quick and easy to do. Otherwise, you will be asked to change to a Buy to Let mortgage.
Renting obviously comes with its risks, and that's why you will need a Buy to Let mortgage with a much higher interest rate, as compensation for your provider. You will also need to pay income tax on any profit you make (which is crap, I know!) and often need to earn at least £25,000pa and put down a big deposit. We can't offer much more advice on this except the profit margins are very narrow - you could easily end up losing money if you aren't cautious and do your research, so budget carefully.
These websites have great calculators and more information:
Overall, renting a property is really overwhelming at first, and we are honestly terrified about trusting a stranger with our beautiful home. However, it's totally possible. Don't be greedy, and get all the help you can afford until you feel more confident to be your own estate agent, or shop around for better insurance.
But if your dream is to rent out your house for the year and go travelling like us, we are here to tell you, your dreams can happen!
Love, Jo
@wherejowanders
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