UK Landlord Forum / Life

HI all, let me first thank you for giving me your time. I appreciate that I'm new to this forum, but am keen to not be a one post wonder, and will keep an eye on the forums for posts I can help with.

I've got three multi-occupancy properties in Doncaster that I'm letting through an agency that specialises in this kind of thing. They've been ticking over fairly well for the last few months, with me taking up to £500 net profit (after mortgage, insurance etc.) per month. However, I've just had a bad couple of months with low occupancy and a couple of tenants who absconded owing large amounts that have erased a lot of my recent profits.

I know that this is to be expected, and I've been through bad patches before, but this time I feel like I want to actually change something, rather than just waiting for the good times again. When I got into the buy-to-let game, I had a good job, that easily let me offset losses, so I didn't really bother too much. But now I'm earning a hell of a lot less, and don't like the uncertainty of potentially being £1000+ in the red each month (which is how June went for me).

Options I've thought of are:

DO NOTHING – stick with the same agents, giving them a strong warning to get the occupancy improved. Things should improve, and this is the easiest option. But if things don't improve, I'm still paying for empty rooms to be sat there.

CHANGE AGENTS – find another agent, and give them a chance. There's no guarantee that this will be any better than staying with the same agent.

GUARANTEED INCOME AGENTS – move to a guaranteed income agent, aiming to cover all my expenses but take less (or no) profit. I'd need to ensure I can get one that will cover my costs, but are there any other pitfalls of this approach? Can I even get an agent like this does covers multi-lets? And I've read horror stories about this approach. And I've got a few tenants still there, so how would this affect them?

SELL ONE OR MORE – sell one or more of the properties individually. Given how everything in the economy seems to be tanking right now, I'll probably take a loss on my initial investment, but at least I'll get some hard cash back, and limit any future losses. But it'd probably take ages to sell them individually, I guess? Or I could sell by auction, but I thought this kind of thing was usually for properties that needed renovation, rather than ones all done and (partially) tenanted?

SELL WHOLE PORTFOLIO – sell all three properties in one lot. I'd probably take even more of a loss than selling them individually, but it'd be over and done with, and I'd be out of the business. If I could find a buyer, then this would be probably my favourite option right now. So how would I find a buyer? Where does one go looking?

So I'd like thoughts, advice and opinions please! What ideas have I not thought of? Are there any hidden dangers with things I've come up with?

SELL WHOLE PORTFOLIO - at auction, with a reserve... nothing to lose if you at least try that approach. Be prepared to be disappointed, of course, but at least you tried it and if your reserve is met then, by definition, it must have been a price that you are happy with.