Bonsoni Blog

The hardest part of being a landlord is to rent a property after the tenants leave the property. A lot of times landlords decide to rent a room to individuals to minimize the risk of having a vacant house all together.

Finding a website to advertise properties to rent can be a difficult task as most of the websites are not free as they claim to be, or at least they stick a limitation of number of ads a landlord can post. If you are fed up with the limitations and the extraordinary charges of the property sites and looking for a hassle free way to advertise your house or flats for free then you came to the right place.

You can post a free ad to let your spare room or properties on Bonsoni.com  

Post free advertisement of your property on Bonsoni.com

Before we proceed to post a free ad to let your property, there are few things you need to prepare.

1. Take some excellent pictures of the property. If you are letting a room only, take a full picture of the room where it covers as much as spaces of the room as possible. Don’t forget to tidy up the room with clean bed sheet (if you provide) and clutter free table tops and other places. If possible you can hang some nice pictures on the wall, table lamps on the bedside table etc
2. Prepare a nice description of your ad. Your ad should contain-

• Is it a house or flat?
• How many bedrooms in the property
• How big are the rooms?
• Is it furnished or not?
• What appliances the kitchen has?
• Is it double glazing or not?
• What is the condition of the property?
• Is there any other tenants living at the moment? What do they do?
• Who will pay the bills?
• Telephone line, internet?
• Terms of deposit? How much?
• For how long the tenancy contract for?
• How far is the property from bus stop or tube station?
• What about supermarkets?
• Is it a safe area?
• Night buses?
• How far is the local shop?
• Where exactly it is? (post code on the map)

Now we are going to post the free ad on Bonsoni.

• You can go to Bonsoni.com by clicking here or if you are a Googler you can search “Bonsoni” on Google.
• Once you are in the homepage of Bonsoni, click “Post an ad” button on the right hand side corner.
• It will take you to the posting an ad page of Bonsoni

Step by step guide of posting a “House Share” or “Whole Flat and House to Rent” ad

• Ad title: Give an eye catching ad title. Use the full 100 characters limit on the ad title. Just think how would you describe your property or room in a sentence?
• Category: Select Accommodation from the drop down menu
• Subcategory: Select whatever appropriate for your ad
• Description: Fill this box as mentioned previously. Don’t forget to check the spelling!
• Add picture: Upload 3 best pictures (soon  the site will allow more than 3 images) of your property or the room you are renting
• Rent per week: What is the rent per week your tenant will be paying? If you prefer to charge your tenant per month then mention it on the ad description
• Local are name: What is the name of the area your property based in? Use the most common name of the area
• Post code: Give the full post code of the property. Very important! As most of the tenants like to see where exactly the property is before making any inquiry
• Your name: Give your real name
• Phone number: Give your phone number it can be land phone or mobile, whatever you use the most. Remember – potential tenants like to see the land lord is easily reachable.
• Email address: Give your email address
• Password: choose a password minimum 6 characters
• Then click on “post my ad” button at the bottom

Now at this stage if you are posting an ad for the first time on Bonsoni, it will ask you to verify your email address.

You need to go to your inbox (also check spam box if the verification email isn’t in inbox) and click on the verification link in order to make your advertisement live.

That’s it! Your ad will be live in a short while

Posting an ad page screenshot

You can check the status of your ad by going to your control panel by Logging in. It will show you the status of the ad i.e. Live, Pending, Rejected etc

If you are posting an ad for the second time, as soon as you input your email address on the email area the site will tell you that you have an account with the Bonsoni and you just need to enter your password, which you chose when posting an ad for the first time.

Some useful tips after posting rent a property or rent a room ad

• Know the market rate of the area you are letting the property or the room. Those “property valuation” websites are worthless. Do your own research by going to the property portal sites and house and flat rent websites.
• Once you post the ad – reply all inquiries even if it is a short one. If you have any missed calls or voice mails left, do reply them. Remember this is YOUR property and this is your responsibility to make sure you are losing any money by having no tenants!
• Check back after few days, is your property visible on the first page of the accommodation section? If not, post again (don’t forget to delete your last ads, or the automated system may flag both ads for having repetitive manner)
• When you receive enquiries for the house or the flat, do engage in a conversation with the potential tenants. Tell them about the property enthusiastically; ask them questions about their work, where did they live etc. Tenants are prone to rent from a friendly landlord or landlady than a serious one
• Be wary about the rent scam fraud takes place targeting landlords and tenants You can read the safety tips. Some of the news published on BBC can be seen on the links below

BBC News:

• Internet fraudsters in rent scam
• Londoners still being conned in flat scams

Here are some rules as a land lord you must know from Direct.gov.uk website.

Your rights under a tenancy agreement, your role and responsibilities

Letting your property

When you let your property, the tenancy will usually be an assured shorthold tenancy (AST). With the AST, you will have assurances and legal rights, for instance:

• you will get your premises back after 6 months furnished any fixed-term contract has finished along with you assigned your renter 2 months’ notification to leave the property

• you are able to ask for a market rent

• you are able to end a contracts anytime if the tenants do not pay the rent, conduct themselves anti-socially or ruin the property, such as in the 1st six months or original set period if the tenancy contract offers this

You need to be in agreement with your tenant the lengths of time the agreement can last and mention it in the tenancy agreement prior to they move in. You are able to accept a set period – referred to as a ‘fixed term’ – or you are able to make it open-ended.

A tenancy contract can be a written or verbal agreement between you the landlord and a tenant(s) describing the terms and conditions of a leasing contract. You should try to have a written contract prepared prior to a tenancy starts. You may have a verbal arrangement nevertheless they provide hardly any evidence if disagreements need to be resolved.

Protect your premises against fraud with Land Registry

In the event you possess a property or home and do not reside there it is very important to secure it from property scams.

To safeguard the ownership of your own property, ensure that Land Registry has current information about you and they can contact you easily wherever you reside.

Landlord obligations

• Your duties as a property owner include:
• maintenance to the structure and outside of the property
• maintenance tasks to heating system and hot water installations
• repairs to kitchen sinks, bathrooms as well as other sanitary installations
• security of gas and electric powered devices which you provide
• fire safety of furnishings and fixtures which you supply
• offering an Energy Performance Certificate for the property
• securing your tenant’s downpayment in a government-approved scheme

In exchange, your tenant is liable for taking good care of the property and paying the agreed rent on time. The tenant also needs to cover other charges – like Council Tax or utility bills – except if you have currently incorporated a sum for these in the rent payments.

You need to pay Income Tax on your gross rental revenue excluding your day-to-day operating costs.

In case you have a mortgage on the property you want to let, you need, or must get, permission to let the property from the mortgage lender

Source: Renting out your home . Direct.gov.uk - retrieved on 8 Nov 2011

This blog is brought to you by Bonsoni.com, an online marketplace and classified ads site for buying and selling items, properties, finding a flat share, jobs, local services, free to collect items and many other categories. Our aim is to provide a simple, safe, friendly but nimble platform for people to connect with each other, and trade goods and services

So you just passed your A-levels and now heading to University? This simple easy to follow money saving tips for students will save you quite bit of money every year. Saving money isn’t very difficult if you know how to and remind yourself that you are a student and you need to save money during your student life at University.

Student bank accounts

Probably the most essential thing to do while you start university is having a student bank account.

Most of the banks will attempt to lure students by giving big rewards, for example complimentary rail cards and cashback for starting a student account. Simply because when you finally open an account with them it less likely you are going to move to another bank, except if you are genuinely not satisfied with their services, therefore the bank can have you as a customer for a lifetime and of course they will be able to have your money on their kitty.

Whatever incentives they offer you, don’t forget to get interest free overdraft. But be careful about this, although at the beginning it seems that this is your money but you have to give back the money at a certain time. Stay away from the bank accounts which give you free this and that and charge a monthly fee. Most of the banks will be more than happy to have you for free as well as offer you all of the incentives come with a student account.

Insurance

Although most of the so called “money saving experts” will advise you to get cheap(?) insurance for your laptops, mobile phones etc, but if you check the background of those “experts”, somehow you find them they are related with those “cheap insurance” companies. Either they get an incentive for recommending them or they are registered with them as an affiliate (for giving them a new customer they will get commission).

In our opinion- simply forget about insurance. Be vigilant about your possessions. If you have an insurance – you will less likely to be careful with your stuff. So cut the insurance expense, be savvy student by being cautios about your stuff. You will see how much money you are saving at the end of the year. But if you are “forgetful” type and don’t mind to fork out some extra expense to be in the safe side, then go for it. But do shop around – compare them with each other. Check your bank if your student account comes with insurances.

Bills

Council tax

Students don’t need to pay council tax when residing in student halls, or if all of the tenants in a rented property are students. If it is a mixed hose share, the tenant who is a student may not be required to pay the tax. Contact with the local council and ask for more information about this.

Water, gas and electric

The best house share is where landlord includes the bills and the council tax. Firstly try to negotiate with the landlord about the bills and pay a fixed monthly bill to the landlord, who will pay the rent on behalf of you. If not – then compare the providers, if required switch them to a new one. Landlord should be happy with this as long as you can prove, it will save you money as well as save him money in the long run. Stay away from those “pay as you go” electric keys. They are more expensive than the post pay electricity.

Broadband, TV and Phone

First of all you should really consider how much time you are likely to be in the accommodation. In case you are not staying there for a year, then there is no reason subscribing to a yearly contract.

Negotiate with the landlord about these services. Most of the landlords should be understandable about student finances. You never know the landlord may agree to include those bills on your rent too.

If the landlord don’t agree with this, and it becomes your responsibility to pay those bills, try to go for a bundle. Where all of those three comes together and look out for promotional offers. But stay away from those door to door sales people. They maybe very good at selling and talking, but at the end of the day you have to pay the bills and deal with the companies.

Budgeting

Aiming a low cost budget to suit your needs is the main element to save money. For weekly and monthly shopping use big supermarkets and lookout for offers.

Avoid buying big brand items, buy the supermarket brands. Trust us – they taste more or less the same! Also you will be surprised to find out that sometimes your local corner shops offer milk and eggs cheaper than the supermarkets. Be nosy, find out where you can find products cheaper than other places.

Here are few more tips which will save you money during your student time at university.

Have an NUS card – This should get you special discounts in excess of 100 stores, like TopShop and Amazon, and based on the NUS it helps you save as much as £500 annually by utilising it. Discount rates start from 10 %, therefore this is the card which is certainly worth owning. It charges £11 annually, but worthwhile to make the savings.

Discounts and vouchers – keep an eye on your student union office or website, sign up with their newsletter. You will be surprised seeing how many companies offer discounts and voucher codes. But don’t start buying stuff you really don’t need just because of the offers. Restrain yourself from the unnecessary shopping.

Young person’s railcard – This provides you 33% rail journey all over the UK. It charges £28 annually, or £65 for 3 years. But only get this if you need to use train a lot. There are few other options which is cheaper than railway. There are few no frill bus services around the UK. Try to use them. Sometimes they offer intercity journeys for £1. Don’t expect any luxury from them.

Buy and sell your used books and other stuff online – Those big books are quite expensive and sometimes they can strain your budget heavily. Once you finish your course don’t keep the books to remind your last semester memories. Sell them online on a site like Bonsoni.com. Also you can search for used and second hand books on Bosnoni.com. Not only books – sell your old mobile phones, clothes, jeans, whatever you don’t require anymore. Also on the similar note, you can search for cheap stuff on site like Bonsoni and find some bargains.

This blog is brought to you by Bonsoni.com, an online marketplace and classified ads site for buying and selling items, properties, finding a flat share, jobs, local services, free to collect items and many other categories. Our aim is to provide a simple, safe, friendly but nimble platform for people to connect with each other, and trade goods and services.