To use a letting agent or not?

blt

Pretty straigtforward really - looking at renting my house out and am trying to decide whether to locate a tenant myself via local adverts etc and basically do it all myself, get a letting agent to find someone for me, or hand it all over to a letting agent...

I'd appreciate your experience!

G_M

Impossible to advise. It depends how much time you have, how much experience, how much self-confidence.

An agent costs money, whether for tenant-find or full letting management. In return for your money you get (hopefully - if you select wisely) a service which removes some of the time, stress and bungles involved in DIY.

So, you pays your money and takes your choice.

All the info you need about letting here....

flora48

Fully agree with G_M. Depends on your circumstances. I have a full management service on my rental properties as I am some distance away and not in a position to do the the running repairs or to attend to the queries in person. So far it has worked well and they have found good tenants, but as G_M says, it does cost me a percentage, but for me it is worth it.

blt

Thanks for your help guys. I was thinking about a letting service just to remove the hassle, but to be honest they are are all linked to EAs where I live and they have done sod all with regards to selling my house that I am loathed to had over anything to them.

I'm not especially confident but my husband is and he certainly comes across as a no nonsense kind of guy! Whereas me....yep maybe a bit more of a pushover. We're not too far away- about 30 miles and he works just a few miles from the house so we can always get there if needs be.

I might look at using them to locate a tenant and then see how they go with that before anything else. I did think that most people would go to a letting agent rather than a local newspaper for their property.

Thanks again for your advice

Careful_with_that_Axe

blt wrote: »

Thanks for your help guys. I was thinking about a letting service just to remove the hassle, but to be honest they are are all linked to EAs where I live and they have done sod all with regards to selling my house that I am loathed to had over anything to them.

I'm not especially confident but my husband is and he certainly comes across as a no nonsense kind of guy! Whereas me....yep maybe a bit more of a pushover. We're not too far away- about 30 miles and he works just a few miles from the house so we can always get there if needs be.

I might look at using them to locate a tenant and then see how they go with that before anything else. I did think that most people would go to a letting agent rather than a local newspaper for their property.

Thanks again for your advice

Having been a tenant in many properties in the past, I would always look at private lets before resorting to looking for places let through a LA.
I've always been more confident in getting any problems with the property fixed when dealing direct with LL and absolutely detest the high fees charged by LA at every possible opportunity.

That being said, I was an excellent tenant and always got my deposit returned in full. In fact a lot of my previous LLs have become and stayed friends.

poppysarah

Someone I know who is a letting agent says a cheapy ad in the paper "3 bed to rent £500 a month ring dave 68*****" gets more than enough responses to allow him to pick someone nice.

As long as you can vet someone by taking up references etc then I see no reason to use a LA to find a tenant.

blt

Thanks people! I supposed it wouldn't hurt to put an advert in the paper.....I could always go to a LA if I don't get any 'bites'. I've never actually rented myself and just kin of assumed that people would prefer to using a LA as they have an office address etc.

My husband is going to advertise the house via internal email at work today - it would be good if we could arrange something that way.