97 listings. 6 worth a viewing. Here’s how to tell them apart.

I’ve been a mortgage broker and a landlord for twenty years. The properties that cost me the most were never the ones I said no to. They were the ones I drove across the county to see when the answer was already in the listing. So here are the checks, in the order that kills the most listings fastest.

1. Is it actually what you asked for?

Sounds daft. But in that brief above, 73 of the 97 listings were the wrong type of property, and 3 were retirement homes you couldn’t let to most tenants anyway. Filter hard before you start reading.

2. What did similar homes really sell for?

An asking price is a wish. A sold price from HM Land Registry is a fact. Find the middle price of similar homes sold nearby in the last two years. If the asking price is well above it, the seller needs to explain why. If it’s well below, so does the listing.

3. Why has the price been cut?

4. Is there a fee hiding under the price?

This is the one that catches people out.

Online auctions can be great value. Just put the fee in your figures, and make sure your finance can move that fast.

5. Does the rent stack up?

Ignore the agent’s “achievable rent”. Look at what similar homes to let nearby are actually asking, and use the middle figure. Then the quick test: yearly rent divided by price. £950 a month on a £150,000 house is £11,400 a year, a gross yield of 7.6%. Set your minimum before you look, and don’t talk yourself under it. Our free yield calculator does the sums for you, including cash flow after the mortgage.

6. How much work, honestly?

Look at the kitchen, the bathroom, the windows and the ceilings, not the staging. Put it on a ladder: ready to let, cosmetic, moderate, or full refurbishment. “Full renovation required throughout” in the Bristol listing above means exactly that.

7. The quick fire four

• Tenure. Leasehold? Check the years left. Many lenders get nervous below about 80 to 85.
• EPC. Most rentals need an E or better today, and the bar is set to rise. A G means work before you can let it.
• Council tax band. It shapes who can afford the rent, and what you pay when it’s empty.
• Lender red flags. Non standard construction, flats above shops, very short leases. Find them now, not at valuation.

If a property fails one of these, you’ve saved a Saturday. If it passes all of them, book the viewing tonight.