Recommend A Letting Agent in Edinburgh?

Horasio

Dove Davis and D J Alexanders were good as agents when we rented.

Bargains_Galore

I would recommend Dove Davies. Their office is near the west End at Atholl Place. You can look up their properties for rent at www.dovedavies.com Good luck

P_O_P

Just wanted to thank everyone again, it really is great to have real recommendations (and know who to avoid!)

Still looking, going to see somewhere with DJ Alexander this week so good to know they were good to you, CCStar.

caroline2960

Have you had a look at ARLA or RICS web sites? They will have a list of letting agents in the area you are looking for who are member firms. Letting agents are unregulated, ARLA and RICS are the only organisations who make sure their member firms operate within the law, are fully insured etc.

Lots of franchises and one office agencies have gone bust in Glasgow recently, taking the tenants deposits with them.

Iv had dealings with Rydens in Edinburgh previously, always very positive and professional

kerrydrobertson

i have previously used click-let and they were really good. not too sure how many properties they have though or even if they are still running

competitionscafe

No matter how nice the property is avoid Grant Management like the plague, have heard too many horror stories about them. Heard a few complaints about the Flat company too. DJ Alex is okay but they try and squeeze as much rent out of the property as possible so prices tend to be a bit higher than the same property might be with another agency. Good for the owner but not so much for the tenant.

On the plus side, other agencies I have heard people have been happy with are:
Littlejohns
Charles White
Craigflower

Of course in reality you probably will choose the property first and then worry about the agency so unless it's one that people have said "avoid at all costs" you have to hope that they will be okay.

If at all possible go for a private landlord rather than an agency - it's usually cheaper and quicker to get things fixed (although obviously there are terrible private landlords too). Best place for private lettings is Gumtree. There are a few private landlord ads in the List, Scotsman and Evening News too. For agency lets citylets is useful - however when they first list a property they often put a certain price and then if it does not let after a certain time they drop the rent. So the really nice properties which go quickly often have quite high rents. If something has been listed for a while it's always worth offering a bit less than the asking rate - easier with private landlords as they can say yes or no straight away, but worth a try with agencies too.

HockeyDuo8083

Steyn Lettings
Braemore Property
Grant Management
D.J. Alexander

Have 9 years in letting experience and this lot are right money grabbing barstewards!!

Good luck and have a look on Citylets an Gumtree

paraic15

Currently looking at renting a property in Edinburgh provided by a letting agency called Lettingweb and also known as Lettingref. Just wandering if anyone has any feedback or has had an dealings with this agency? It was difficult to find somewhere suitable with a private landlord whuch would have been preferable.
Also can't agree enough with what people are saying about Grant Management, never again. Took over half of our deposit. The worst thing about this agency is that most of the tenants that they are robbing are students with limited fiscal means.

trisormum

:(I'm slightly uneasy about reccomending this company. My daughter is just about to rent a house in london, sharing with 4 others. In addition to paying 1 months rent in advance, they have also been asked to pay a 5 weeks deposit, a holding fee of £600 and an admin fee of £650. Its been a few years sionce I have rented, but I thought these sort of fees were illegal. Sadly the housing market in London is such that if they don't pay, someone else will. I hope you have better luck in Edinburgh.

jjonesy

A few years back Lettingweb was the search engine I used to find me a flat.

back then you couldn't let the users rate the letting agent after you have taken the flat.
ie was the desciption accurate, etc. Did the letting agent try anything that was a bit underhand or exceptional.
Is that still the same? It would be good feedback to users and help the agencies police their service.