My new book – How To Be A Landlord – is out today!

Yes – my latest book, How To Be A Landlord, is out today! You can buy it here.

Where my previous book The Complete Guide To Property Investment told you exactly how to form a strategy and buy the right property, How To Be A Landlord tells you what to do once you’ve bought it.

How do you set it up so it’s a safe and desirable rental property? Where do you find tenants, and how do you make sure they’re the right tenants? How do you set the tenancy up so it’s legally compliant? What do you do about maintenance? What about increasing the rent, or asking tenants to leave?

How To Be A Landlord covers all of this – and more. A lot more.

Why I wrote the book

After writing The Complete Guide To Property Investment, I really thought I had nothing else long-form to say about property.

But then I kept getting emails from people asking questions about the management aspect – and biting my tongue while seeing friends taking a very casual approach to self-management that could land them in big trouble later.

I realised that I couldn’t really blame them – because while all the information is out there, there isn’t a single source that takes you through everything you need to know in a straightforward, step-by-step way. And certainly not in a way that’s actually enjoyable to read.

So I set myself a challenge: write a book that should be handed to someone along with the keys when they buy a property for the first time. And make it so simple and entertaining that they’d actually read it.

Getting help

As the owner of a letting agency, I get to see what happens with hundreds of tenancies each year – so I’ve got a pretty good understanding of what property management is all about.

But I don’t know it all – so I invited contributions from Property Geek readers who are experienced in self-management. I was blown away by what I received: well over 50 people contributed their ideas, many of which were brilliant yet I’d never heard before. Some of those ideas were so smart I pulled them out as individual “pro tips” – and others I weaved into the main text to make it even more comprehensive.

The result is that the book isn’t just suitable for beginners: when I sent out advance copies for feedback, a common comment was “I’ve been a landlord for years, and I didn’t know a lot of this stuff!”

What’s in the book?

The book takes you through the lifecycle of a tenancy, structured in five main sections:

• Preparing the property to let
• Finding tenants and referencing them
• Setting up the tenancy
• Managing the tenancy
• Ending the tenancy

There are also three bonus chapters:

• Finding and working with a letting agent
• Managing HMOs
• Lettings and management in Scotland

(The chapter on letting agents is actually one of my favourites. I firmly believe that even if you use an agent, you should still know everything in this book – but choosing the right agent and keeping an eye on them is a massively important topic in its own right.)

And, after you’ve bought the book you get access to a checklist of all the main steps for easy reference, and links to my recommended suppliers for all manner of things like insurance, furniture and eviction support.

Read the book now!

For this week only, the paperback costs just ￡10 – an incredible bargain, if you ask me, for information that could save you thousands of pounds and hours over the course of your life in property. (And to be fair, when it goes up to ￡12.99 next week that’s still a pretty decent return.)

You can buy the book on Amazon here – as a paperback and for Kindle.

(The audiobook is coming very soon – I’ll update this post when it’s on sale, and notify you by email if you’re on my mailing list.)

Not sure yet? Read a sample chapter here.