Income Tax

Want To Rent A Room? Finding A Flatmate Is As Easy As One, Two And Three

As the cost of living increases and job security wavers, many people have decided to take on a lodger and offer a room to rent. This private renting of a room will help them cover their household bills and their mortgage – giving them a bit of a financial cushion.

The number of potential flatmates too may be on the increase as some tenants may find that they can no longer afford to rent a flat on their own. Instead, they may turn to a private renting of a room in a house or flat to spread the costs.

The potential income from renting a spare room can be substantial, especially if the room to rent qualifies under the Government’s Rent a Room Scheme.  This allows property owners and tenants offering private renting of furnished rooms in their home to earn up to £4,250 of rental income tax free – a bit of good news for cash-strapped homeowners and tenants.

Three tips for offering a room to rent and finding a flatmate:

1 Get ready to take on a lodger
Before you offer your spare room to rent, get prepared. Make sure your mortgage lender knows about your plans and ensure your home meets all the safety requirements.  If you are a tenant, you’ll need your landlord’s consent.  You should also find out the going rate for a renting a room in your area and decide how you want to share the household bills. Be sure to prepare the room to rent for your lodger by getting any maintenance work done, giving it a good clean, and putting in the furniture.

2 Decide what type of flatmate you want
As you will be sharing your home with someone make sure you have a clear idea of what type of flatmate you are after. Do you want a male or female, smoker or non-smoker… carnivore or vegan? Would you prefer to rent a room to a student, recent graduate just starting their career or established young professional?

3 Advertise your spare room
It will make your life easier if you think carefully about where you want to list your room for rent. You could use just the corner shop or local paper, but then only locals will see your advertisement.

Alternatively, those looking to rent a room in their home can list it online.  This has the advantage of promoting your room to rent to a much wider audience, including students and young professionals looking to relocate to your area.

Instead of hoping that your ad to rent your spare room sparks interest with the right type of person, you could use a new online property portal that aims to link potential landlord with tenants and home owners with lodgers, such as that offered by u-rooms.

This innovative new website lets people with a room to rent or property to let explain the type of attributes they are looking for in a tenant or lodger.  It also lets potential tenants and flatmates create a profile online. Landlords looking for tenants or homeowners (or tenants) offering the private renting of a spare room can look through the profiles to see who is looking for accommodation in their area. By linking these two parties online, u-rooms can speed-up and simplify the home searching process.

With more people looking to offer a private renting of their spare room to help with their household expenses, and more students and young professionals looking for a  flat-share, at last an online property website has connected the two – making finding a flat-mate a breeze.

Buying Homes The Best Investment Idea


Buying homes is certainly one of the most lucrative investment plans. People have been investing in real estate as the returns are incredibly high and quite quick as well. As a general rule, buying homes can appreciate approximately 4 to 5 percent in a year. While some years are more, some would be less. The figure, however, varies on the basis of localities and regions.

Although 5% rise might not seem to be extremely good initially, stocks often appreciate more, and this could earn over almost same return by making safer investment in bonds and treasury bills. If you are buying homes at the rate of 5 percent annually, priced at $200,000, it would increase its value by $10,000 during first year. You can see the annual return on the investment would be 25%.

You would also be making some mortgage payment and would have to pay property taxes for buying homes, together with several other costs. However, since interest rate on the mortgage and the property taxes are deductible, your government would subsidize your purchase.

Buying homes also gives some tax benefits and ensures that you are getting adequate returns on your investment. This makes real estate one of the most feasible and lucrative investments of all times. The tax and financial benefits of buying homes can be discussed with experts dealing in real estate and properties and also with bankers who have great experience in this field. Buying homes can help you save on income tax, have stable monthly earnings and housing costs, and forced savings too. Making wise decisions for buying homes can eventually turn out to be the best investment of all times.

 

Sell Home Owner - Free Advice for Buying Homes, Selling Homes, Latest Property News, Property Investments, Mortgages, Home Loans, Leasing, Renting, Landlords to help you start your property venture. Remember, its very hard to go wrong when buying a property but it is always good to do your research and get advice from real estate experts.

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