Quiet Rental Market

Dummie_2

As some of you may know we've been planning a relocation for a couple of months. After a lot of research we've finally settled for Farnham, Surrey.

I've been keeping an eye on rightmove and findaproperty but have not gone further as we still didn't know when the sale of our business will go through.

On Friday I was told that we might be looking at end Dec/beg Jan so I'm knid of worried because the rental market seems a little quiet this time of year. There seemed to so much more choices available just a few weeks back!

I was thinking maybe I should hold my buyer off until end Jan.

Does the rental market usually pick up after the new year? So say it gives us about 3-4wks to find a property and go through all the referencing and contract stuff.

lynzpower

dummie
I thought the market ( east london) was quite quiet then we did 2 things

1. i posted a wanted ad on gumtree- got SHEDloads of emails from LLs offering property in our price range, & lots of it

2. hit the streets. had a day out regiatering with all the Las in the vicinity- well the aim was to, we saw the 2nd place & decided to take it then went saw another few letting agents.

Have you been speaking to the letting agents themselves? I say this as there was much more on the "market" than on rightmove. Although the house we are getting was on rightmove but in the next price bracket up, but we scored a reduction. we would have never found it I also find findaproperty a bit dated too- ie the ads were very old or there was some MAJOR voids (6m plus)

Our LA told us that many LLs expect to have voids over Xmas, so they dont bother to advertise them in papers/ RM etc as it costs money and then they start aggressively marketing again in jan. thats not to say those properties dont exist, its just that to save money on advertising costs they dont market.

Dummie_2

Thanks lynzpower.

We are planning on hitting the LAs in Farnham as soon as we sign the initial exchange contract with our buyer.

We have requested 4wks notice before they kick us out so that we can find someplace to go but I'm so worried about leaving it too late.

At this stage it's still quite easy for our buyer to pull out so we don't want to view anything just yet incase we really like a place but can't put in an offer as we've still got so many balls up in the air.

I've asked a few LAs. Their advice varied. Some said that LL's like to have their property rented out for Xmas so it'll be easier to neg. on the price. Others say that LL's will usually wait until after Xmas as they don't want to be dealing with it over this period. And that tenants don't usually arrange Xmas to move out of a property for obvious reasons!

lynzpower

i know about balls in the air- im in exactly that situation myself.

Put it this way, if people are going to be moving out in jan they should be giving thier notice ( 4 weeks) round about now.

HAve you registered with them all ? do they have your contact details?

Dummie_2

We've only registered with 2.

Was worried that if we registered with them all and they kept sending us details on properties but never received any feedback from us they would view us as time wasters.

lynzpower

not really.

I put a holding dep on a place last week, the LA is fully aware of our position. as long as you keep people informed they dont mind at all.

dougk_2

Rightmove is not really the place to look for rented accomodation as it is for Estate Agent properties only - Although some EA's deal in rented properties not all do and the specialist Letting agents cannot put their properties on there. Personally speaking I'd normally avoid the "general EA" when looking for a rental property anyhow as from personal experience I have found them to be less "professional" and "knowledgeable" in this area.

Alan_M_2

It pays to register with good LA's and become familiar with them, they will have applicants registered and will often turn around a property without the need for advertising it.

The quality and good value rentals (much in the same way as the quality/good value houses for sale) often go before the photo has even made the local papers.

There's plenty out there, it's just a case of getting in with the right people and making it clear you're ready to go, have the cash and are serious, as like many other aspects of this buisiness they really do get a lot of time wasters.

sm9ai

Rent privately if you can.

EA's rip off both you and the landlord and offer very little help if you have a problem with the landlord. So you don't really get much at all for the extra money you pay.

lynzpower

not strictly true SM9Ai if the letting agents are also managing agents.

In my experience when they are manageing agents you get the ( relitave) peace of mond that theres a company who does the maintainence & charges the LL. Ive directly letted from the LL before, and if they dont see the need to pay ut for repairs, tough luck.

With a letting/managing agent you have 2 lots of people to go after in the courts as well

Dummie_2

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll definitely get down to it and register with everyone tomorow. I've got a copy of the local paper which has 1 whole page dedicated to rentals. Does anyone know where I can get a list of all the letting agents in Farnham?

Many thanks.