How are you guys conducting viewings at present? Have any of you got your existing tenants involved?
My flat will be vacant from 1st July and i want to get it back on the market asap, but, as it is currently tenanted, even virtual viewings are tricky. So i was thinking of offering my tenants a financial incentive, say a one-off payment of 100£, for doing live video calls with viewers (and me on the call as well).
Any thoughts/suggestions?
Good idea, as long as you have a good relation with the tenant and are happy with his living arrangements, e.g. tidiness, room appearance, etc. Do a dummy run first to make sure you are both happy, with one of you or a friend pretending to be a prospective tenant. Record it. You may find things in the video you did not notice at that time and change your mind!
However, it is both safest and best for you to wait until the present tenant has left, then you will have an idea as to how long it may take before you can rent it out again after any clean up and redecorating you think you need to do.
I recently let a property this way. We did a walk round video which we could send to the tenants. It worked well. I think technically though viewings are now legal although difficult if there is a tenant in situ. I think you would need to wait for them to vacate.
In case this is of interest to other landlords in a similar situation, i got my tenants to do videos of each room/area in the property. I then found that prospective tenants did not then need a live virtual viewing. However, almost all have insisted on viewing in person. Luckily my tenants have agreed subject to the usual precautions.