How to rent

whereschris

My friend who lives over seas own a few houses in my town and wants me to look after the rental for him. All the local agencies offer a fully managed service for a 10% of the rent fee. He thinks I should do this. I feel a little nervous about this.

What are the potential pitfalls? Is managing a property as difficult as the agents make it sound or am I be flannelled? It is likely that we would get an agent to find a tenant.

Many thanks

00ec25

there are hundreds of pitfalls and loads of posts on here bemoaning the fact that many agents have no idea what they are doing and do not know even the basics about LL and tenant law.
I suggest you have a lot more reading to do if you think you understand what fully managed means! Strikes me you haven't a clue what you are doing, so leave it to an ARLA registered agent and learn from them, so may be you can take over next year :cool:

whereschris

I would say I agree! my friend is adamant that it is easy..... He is very well read but even so. My girlfriend works in social housing so I am well aware of awful things that can happen.

00ec25

LOL, your choice, stand up to them or roll over and potentially get your self into deep trouble
Ok - your starter for 10, friend is overseas so do you know how to operate the Non Resident LL Scheme? HMRC expects the agent to do this

whereschris

No. What is it? roughly... Is it something our accountant deal with?

chappers

There are a lot of things to take into consideration, but I don't think it's beyond the grasp of your avaerage intelligent adult.
Join a LL association for a start, and maybe go on a course they provide, get a decent book on letting and read it cover to cover.
Never make promises/demands of your tenants without first finding out if what you are doing is legal, and you shouldn't go far wrong.

The main thing to take into account is will this be your only job, as depending upon how many houses he has, it could be a full time occupation.
Is he currently managing the properties himself/ does he have a knowlegde base you could fall back on .

whereschris

Thanks for the reassurance. I've met a few local, family business letting agents this weekend and they have been very encouraging that I should do it myself. They offer find and set up packages which is reassuring. There are two properties ready to go and a further 2 being renovated which I project manage. (I've also done the to be rented houses)

Given the number of houses and the likelihood that there will be more I would like to get a handle on it. Would you recommend a book in particular?

Many thanks

G_M

Tessa Shepperton - The Complete Guide to Residential Letting: The Smart Landlord's Guide to Renting Out Property

but there are lots of others too. Don't make a decision till you've learnt a lot more about what's involved, both in terms of time, hassle and legally too.