Letting a property yourself without an agent

Gorgeous_George

I guess it depends on the area. I let privately and never have a void for the want of a tenant. I pitch my rent at 10% below Rightmove.

You can have prospective tenants vetted.

I recommend Landlordzone for further advice.

GG

want2bmortgage3

I've just been reading the property paper and have seen an agent offering a guaranteed income whether there is a tenant or not. Anyone got any experience of this type of letting?

Jowo_2

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

I've just been reading the property paper and have seen an agent offering a guaranteed income whether there is a tenant or not. Anyone got any experience of this type of letting?

I'm sure there are many schemes of this type. Perhaps they offer their own private tenants and have some kind of rent guarantee insurance.

But there are other ones but I don't know if they are run through agents. For example, one of my friend's let her property to the local council on a 3 year contract with a guaranteed rent and they then sublet to HB tenants on their waiting list.

To date, the residents have smashed windows, broken the appliances and the neighbours and freeholder are frustrated with anti-social behaviour, holding them responsible for noise, drunken visitors, fly-tipping, poor rubbish disposal and rats. The freeholder claims the interior is now squalid and the garden is a state.

The administration and communication from the local authority is very poor - the inventory/schedule of condition isn't worth the paper its written on so there's no comeback if the property is returned in a trashed state and their record keeping is so poor they don't even seem to know when gas safety certificates are due.

I also looked into a scheme run by a local housing association. They offered well under market rent and wanted me to fully furnish it at the start and receive it empty at the end, remove all the glass furniture and shelves, remove the interior locks, empty the pond, fit an extra fire door because of their own H&S rules (not required by law for private tenants, BTW). They confirmed that it would be returned in whatever state the tenants left it in. Not very tempting.

Make sure you understand the risks, what you would be responsible for, the management of the property and so on.

00ec25

Nenen wrote: »

To the OP, if your property is in a university town/city some universities have special schemes which give some degree of proptection to landlords. I am not sure exactly how this works but it might be worth you checking this.

they are called headed tenancy schemes whereby the University becomes your legal tenant and guarantees to pay you the rent. The university then sublets the property to its own students and collects the rent from them itself. I have just finished a review of these for our local university so know this process rather well!

The University is effectively acting as a letting agent and, depending on the university, they will either charge commercial LA fees to the LL or slightly discounted fees depending on their policy towards their own students - obviously the rent the student pays is higher than the rent the LL receives from the uni.

Some Councils offer similar schemes or, if not the council itself, then they will probably work in partnership with a housing association. The rents you get from these sources tend to be much lower than a "market" rent and there are some strong pros and cons with such schemes, eg: guaranteed rent v you lose control of the type/quality of tenants placed in your property. I could go on.....

eg: one of my properties using 2003 rental values:
fully managed (market rent) via commercial agent (12% fee) £1,400 pcm
housing association (non repairing lease), 5 year rent guarantee, RPI +1%pa) £700pcm
housing assoc full repairing lease same terms as before £400 pcm

not a difficult decision!

Nenen

00ec25 wrote: »

they are called headed tenancy schemes whereby the University becomes your legal tenant and guarantees to pay you the rent. The university then sublets the property to its own students and collects the rent from them itself. I have just finished a review of these for our local university so know this process rather well!

The University is effectively acting as a letting agent and, depending on the university, they will either charge commercial LA fees to the LL or slightly discounted fees depending on their policy towards their own students - obviously the rent the student pays is higher than the rent the LL receives from the uni.

I am sure you are right for the universities you have researched but to my certain knowledge they are not all like that. Cambridge University for instance has a system whereby landlords can advertise their properties on a password protected website (only accessible to bone fide Cambridge university students) and then the student gets in contact with the landlord direct. As most undergraduates stay in halls of residence the majority of the students who use this service are older postgraduates, who are particularly dedicated to studying and far less likely to cause any sort of problem. I am not sure but I don't think the university charges landlords to advertise and there may even be some sort of mediation service if problems do occur. I have seen local letting agencies advertising for tenants on the uni website so I can only imagine they consider it profitable, and the rents are certainly not cheap!

As each university manages its own scheme it might be worth looking at in your area.

clutton_2

""
Originally Posted by clutton
drop the rent and stay with the agent

prospective tenants fail to turn up about 30% of the time .......
Very surprised at this coming from you clutton.

Rob""


which bit is the surprise Rob ?

00ec25

00ec25 wrote: »

I have just finished a review of these for our local university so know this process rather well!

Nenen wrote: »

I am sure you are right for the universities you have researched but to my certain knowledge they are not all like that. .

you are correct. There are approx 130 UK universities. I act as consultant to 10 and researched across 44 of them. I could go on about each individual scheme if you wish ...............:eek:

want2bmortgage3

well the agent has finally come up with the good and the price was obviously ok as the tenant has offered full price. this means i'm still getting a decent amount even after the agents 15% + vat. the first offer was £25 below asking price which i did accept at the time but would have only just covered the mortgage repayment.

want2bmortgage3

2 days before tenants moving in the agent called me and told me they had pulled out, i've since instructed the agent to take it off the market as i've had enough of dealing with them.

i've heard about renting your property out via the council... but not sure how to go about this, does anyone know who i need to contact? I've tried my council's website but cant find anything on there.

chiefgoobster

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

I've heard about renting your property out via the council... but not sure how to go about this, does anyone know who i need to contact? I've tried my council's website but cant find anything on there.

Speak to someone in housing options dept, sometimes they call themselves private sector leasing.Don't phone too late tomorrow 'cos you know what councils are like, knocking off early on Fridays etc.