Renting and finding tenants without agents

lukeh23

Hi,

Due to rent my place out and would like to ask the wisdom of the board on the best way of going about this minus the use of letting agents..i.e. I will work directly with the tenants myself without losing a chunk from both sides to the agents.

Main advice would be the best ways to advertise the flat. Any further tips direct to market landlords have would be much appreciated.

Thanks MSE's!

jimjames

Local paper, word of mouth, notice boards at work, might also be worth trying Twitter or Facebook as someone who knows you or a friend of someone may be looking for a place. After the first tenants we have always gone directly. The current ones are people I knew of through work.

theartfullodger

It's an Internet world now ...


Visum advertises your place on Rightmove etc etc etc for £29:38
http://www.visum.co.uk/

Unless you've been a letting agent or a landlord before, join a landlord's association.. (NLA or RLA os SaL in Scotland..)

Go on a course
http://www.rla.org.uk/landlord/courses/course1.shtml

Then you might just have an idea of some of the problems - that could cost you thousands...

lukeh23

theartfullodger wrote: »

Then you might just have an idea of some of the problems - that could cost you thousands...

That's surely the same for any Business though?

Thanks for the visum tip, very handy.

BitterAndTwisted

Finding tenants is the easy part. The hard part is finding reliable tenants whose credit-records and references you can check.

prudryden

lukeh23 wrote: »

That's surely the same for any Business though?

Thanks for the visum tip, very handy.

Well, not all businesses. Many don't have the threat of drug factories being installed in their property.:beer:

mchale

gumtree.com, don't rent with out a guarantor in place & take copies of NI num & passport/driving lic

lukeh23

prudryden wrote: »

Well, not all businesses. Many don't have the threat of drug factories being installed in their property.:beer:

Why the scaremongering?..I mean seriously what percentage of prospective tenants are potential hydroponic skunk harvesters? 0.5% would be quite generous to say the least.

Seems like this forum loves hand-wringing over risks and outlining all the ways you can fail.

abby1234519

lukeh23 wrote: »

Why the scaremongering?..I mean seriously what percentage of prospective tenants are potential hydroponic skunk harvesters? 0.5% would be quite generous to say the least.

Seems like this forum loves hand-wringing over risks and outlining all the ways you can fail.

I would go on a course like mentioned, make sure you have a good tenancy agreement that is checked over by a solicitor that protects you

And when you DO find a tenant, get the various insurances, ie rent guarantee insurance etc. You'd want copies of their ids (multiple ie drivers licence and passport) and I think a guarantor is a good idea. Cover all your bases

Also....have savings for when things DO go wrong

cluons

abby1234519 wrote: »

... that protects you

... and I think a guarantor is a good idea. Cover all your bases

But if you put too much burden on tenants, the good ones will probably just go somewhere else and you will likely have to compromise to find someone willing to accept all the conditions. Just my opinion...

skintandscared_2

I've been a tenant for 8 years now. Only moved twice, when landlords have sold up. We've decorated the flats we've been in and left them in a better condition than when we moved in. I'm on a DMP and would totally fail a credit check but we've never missed a penny of rent and it's always paid by direct debit a few days before its due. Never missed a bill payment either. I would NEVER agree to having a guarantor. Rent is my responsibility, not somebody else's (and parents are retired anyway). On paper I'm probably a risky tenant but in reality I'm the best tenant a landlord could wish for.