MANAGING MADE EASY – PT2
Here at Property Hawk we realise that for landlords managing their buy-to-let property isn’t always easy. That is why we developed the Property Manager free property management software to assist landlords with the day to day process of building and administering their buy-to-let property portfolio. This online landlord’s property management software is simple and has been designed to be used by non-property management professionals. Landlord’s can put in as much or as little information about their buy-to-let property portfolio. Then when a landlord has more time it’s easy for them to come back and add in more details about their investment properties at a later date.
From time to time we want to highlight some of the features of the Property Manager free property management software that makes it easier for landlords to manage their rental properties.
Property Hawk are constantly looking for ways to improve our free property management software so if you do have any suggestions, please e-mail them to ideas@propertyhawk.co.uk
CASHFLOW
This can sometimes be a confusing financial concept, but it is vital to landlords trying to manage the finances of their letting business. Cashflow is not a record of actual financial transactions. It is a projection of what a landlord perceives to be the most likely financial outcome for their rental business. It’s important to do because it allows a landlord to be able to plan for the future of their buy-to-let portfolio. For instance, with the recent rise in interest rates many landlord’s mortgage costs have risen to put them dangerously close to a situation where more cash is going out in buy-to-let mortgage payments than is generated in rent. This is what is known as a being cashflow negative. For most landlords the only options are for them to attempt to raise the rent where possible and / or to cut their mortgage payments by moving to a lower mortgage rate.
The Property Manager free property management software allows buy-to-let landlords to see at a glance how much free cash they have at the end of each month and also for the whole year. Where they have a portfolio of buy-to-let properties landlords can also view the totals for their entire investment property portfolio. In generating their cashflow statement landlords shouldn’t forget to add in rental expenses such as landlords building insurance and contents insurance, property marketing and general administrative expenses to ensure an accurate representation of their buy-to-let property finances are achieved.
Landlords need to remember to add in details for their buy-to-let mortgage they will need to go to the mortgages tab and the rental figure for each investment property is set when a tenancy is created.
The great thing is once done this information will be entered into the free property management software right across the system so a landlord only has to do it once to help give them an accurate financial picture of your entire rental business.
EQUITY
For those buy-to-let landlords looking to expand their residential investment portfolios, most property investors will be looking at leveraging the capital tied up with their existing buy-to-let portfolio. In other words they will be looking at borrowing more money by refinancing one or more of their existing residential investment properties. In order for landlords to be able to monitor the funds that are available for these capital raising purposes the Property Manager free property mangement software has its’ own section called Equity. landlords can see at a glance how much they can borrow. Landlords can specify any loan to value figure, traditionally the maximum buy-to-let mortgage loan has been 85% loan-to-value. It is now however possible for landlords to obtain as much as 90% loan-to-value on some selected buy-to-let mortgage products. Landlords should have a word with our award winning mortgage advisors for some informal free advice on these and other specialist mortgage products.
VALUES
Landlords can also see what their profits are on their residential investment by going to the Values section of the Property Manager free property management software. This section will show what a landlords investment profit is after taking into account the costs of investment such as the landlord’s costs in purchasing and selling their investment. The Property Manager will even allow a landlord who has refurbished their investment property to account for their development costs in the calculation of the landlord’s total investment profit.
FORMS – assured shorthold tenancy and section 213 prescribed information
We know that many of you are making use of our FREE assured shorthold tenancy form with almost 9000 having been generated to date. These lettings forms are accessed through the Property Manager free property management software. What landlords may not know is that by entering in details of the tenant when creating a tenancy, these details are automatically copied across into their contacts giving landlords a constantly updating list of all their tenants. This information is more important then ever. This is because where a landlord takes a tenancy deposit, since the introduction of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme by the Housing Act 2004; they are required to provide certain prescribed information to the tenant. Therefore landlords should ensure that they keep their details and their tenants details up to date so that they can use the prescribed information form and that they don’t fall fowl of the legislation.
For more information on how to use the Property Manager free property management software to manage your investment properties have a look here.
This article is one of a series giving you tips on how the Property Manager can be used to make running your property business easier. If you have any comments or suggestions on how it can be improved, please e-mail them to: ideas@propertyhawk.co.uk
Tell a friend about this site.
FREE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
TENANCY AGREEMENTS FREE FOREVER
PROPERTY HAWK RECOMMENDED SERVICES
Special Discounted Rates for Landlords Insurance
FREE
Legal Updates
Join 160,000+
Registered Landlords
Leave a Reply