I am looking at buy to let. What advice can you give me?

There are lots of things to consider if you are thinking of becoming a landlord. Here are my top tips :

1) Before making an offer, you need to have an accurate idea of the rental value and the work you need to do to maximise your rent. Then you can make a well informed offer, a common mistake first time landlords make is to offer before they have all the relevant information.This means they often come unstuck, end up re offering and as a result lose credibility.

2) Never rent to relatives, friends or work colleagues,without a written contract, proper referencing and a deposit.It sounds harsh but I hear of more tenancy's going wrong when relatives are involved than any other.

3) If you considering buying more than one property it is important to have a balanced portfolio between house, flats and also areas. This is because different types of properties rent well at different times. So you do not want to be exposed to the market with all your eggs in one basket.

4) Be careful what repairs you carry out, for instance a tenant will not want to replace a broken pane of glass and it could put them off renting.If you are replacing a kitchen make sure the draws have metal runners.