As someone that might be new to renting, it can be a bit of a scary and overwhelming process for first timers, so I have decided to put together this little guide to help you along the way.

The first thing to do is to decide what it is that you are looking for.  If you have an idea of what you want, it will help to make the process a little smoother.  Do you need 2 or 3 bedrooms?  Is it important to you that you have a particular type of heating, or do you really need to have a garage at the property? Do you have a pet that you need to have at the property?  The more that you have this list narrowed down, the easier it can be to eliminate properties that will not suit your lifestyle or needs.

A requirement of our office will be that your rent will not take more than 40% of your income.  This is so that you are not placed into financial stress by renting a property that is outside of your affordable range.  This is a criteria that we have across the board in our office, so make sure that you are looking at properties in the affordable price range for your income as well.

Once you have decided on the above items, you can start looking online at properties.  Lots of people look at the online portals, which gives you what is available across all agencies in your local area.  You can expand these searches and you can also filter them, to meet your list of criteria from above, that will stop you from looking at properties that are not going to meet your needs.

For our office, currently we are asking people to apply for a property prior to being given a chance to view the home.  There are a lot of reasons for this decision, but it is the way that things work in our office and anyone that you speak to from our office will give you the same answer, so be prepared to apply first here – but that will not necessarily be the same over all agencies.

For your application form, in most instances you will be filling this in online.  Things to ensure that you have correct are all of your contact details, as this is how we will contact you regarding the application, if they are not correct, then we wont be able to reach you!  Make sure that you are answering all the questions that are needed on the application form and that you provide the documents that are requested.  These documents are usually for identification, you will need to provide 100 points of identification.  From there you will be asked to prove your income, with some payslips and also to provide any relevant documents for where you are currently living.  If this is your first time out of home, you can put this onto your application into the notes or about me section, so that the property manager has as much information as they need to process the application.

From here, an appointment will be the next step, where we will want to take you to the property, so that you can work out if it is what you are looking for.  Once the appointment has been completed, you would be letting the property manager know if you wanted to proceed with your application and we would take this to your landlord.  The landlord is the one that makes all final decisions regarding which tenant they approve, so you may need to wait for us to receive some instruction at this point.

If you are approved for a property, we will call you with the good news and then we will confirm the approval in writing for you, with instructions on what you need to pay and when.  We can hold the property for 7 days for you from the day of approval, so do not start looking too early, if you are not yet ready, we cannot hold for long periods of time.

The money that you need to pay at this time will cover your holding deposit (1 week rent), a bond (4 weeks rent) and your first week of rent (1 week rent).  This is 6 weeks of the weekly rent.  These funds will all need to be paid prior to being able to pick up the keys to your new property.  The holding deposit is generally needed immediately and the rest of the money must be paid prior to the first day of your new lease.

We will send you documents to sign, so make sure that you read them well and you understand what it is that you are signing up for.  A fixed term lease is a contract between yourself and your new landlord and both of you will have obligations and rights to each other.

Best of luck as you start your renting journey!!