Alternative to Letting Agent?

MockTurtle

A friend of mine currently rents through a letting agent and is coming to the end of her lease. She wants to find a new place anyway, but has decided not to go through a letting agent as the one she's with now is a paid in the backside.

Where does she look for a house to rent? She's tried Gumtree but it seems to be only student rents / shared houses. The local paper doesn't have much in either, and rightmove only seems to list the LA's. Is it a case of looking in the newsagents window or is there somewhere she's not aware of where LLs list their proerties for rent?

jjlandlord

She can still look at properties advertised by letting agents. She just needs to ask whether the agent will manage the property or is just hired to find a tenant.

casper_g

Letting agents are indeed a PITA, but not all properties that are advertised through LAs are managed by them. My last two homes have been rented from landlords who advertised through LAs but only used them for tenant-finding. They managed the properties themselves after this, and did so better than most agents judging by posts on here.

Edited to add: as jjlandlord says above!

MockTurtle

Thanks both! Much appreciated

Mrs_Z

She could also try searching for a property on 'On-line Letting Agents' where private landlords can have their properties advertised in Rightmove, etc. One that springs to mind is 'upad' - but there are many others. If she finds a property for example on their web-site, it would be advertised by a private landlord and she might have a better chance to do the deal directly. As previously pointed out, some landlord use agencies for tenant finding only and equally some use the on-line agent for full service (tenant finding and management).

discplayer

Those are good suggestions but don't give up on Gumtree, although do be careful of ads on there - they have an advice page.

I advertise on Gumtree and in the local paper - although I probably won't bother with the paper next time.