Ciao i miei amici!
Greetings all… So. Let me tell you about this week. There has been vague bits of progress. Specifically:
- Estate agents. Estate Agents came around on Saturday to see the flat and she said “it is a lovely flat” (woohoo!). She also said I’d be able to rent it out for more than I thought I could. Obviously that might not materialise in practice but it’s nice to have that as a starting point. I’m still not convinced going through an Estate Agent is the way to go! I think I’d still want to see the tenants and check references myself and I have a couple of example contracts so I think I could do it the same as/if not better than an Estate Agent that doesn’t have as much of a vested interested in my property. Going forward if I’m not in the country yes, it might be the way forward but actually it’s quite a big chunk of my monthly income that would go on this “letting” component. If there was some kind of come-back if they get in lame tenants that don’t pay, then I’d consider it but no, there’s not. The Estate Agent said they could just do the “management component” which might be worthwhile. The advertising component might be an issue but I could try www.gumtree.com and www.moveflat.com. If I don’t have any success then I suppose I could then go through an Estate Agent. Yes, think that will be my plan!
- Bathroom – the dreaded bathroom, yes! I’m getting an electrician in tonight to give me a quote on getting a ventilation fan and a heated radiator into the bathroom in order to make it rentable. <Later update – Oh how naive I am – why am I constantly surprised? I keep thinking, and I know this is ridiculous, I keep thinking that these tradesmen will turn up when they say they will. Fancy! Are there ANY Tradesmen that turn up a) at all, b) on time and/or c) that let you know that they’re late or just not turning up?! Any? Far from getting quotes from a bunch of businesses, at this rate, I would settle for any person that turned up with a spanner>.
- Spring (Summer?!) cleaning – I’ve been going through all my belongings asking myself the question “could I leave this in the flat and if not, would I take it with me to Italy?” which is good for de-cluttering! I think by the end of it, I’ll have a list of things that I will need to ebay next year before I move.
- Italy – Flying out to Perugia on Thursday so this will be my last update for a week or so. Might do a vague bit of investigating around the local area but in general, I could just do with some time off! I can’t wait 🙂
Right, off to walk Angus the Boring Dog. The electrician has missed his chance.
Ciao!
xxx
movetoitaly 