Best Estate Agents for Renting house in Bristol

Pixie5740

clidbury wrote: »

Ah yes, heard nasty stuff about CJ Hole. Northwood were on my radar as they make a deal about saying that they can guarantee rent even when it's not occupied (though I'm sure you pay a premium for this).

Avoid any guaranteed rent schemes. These work by the letting agent becoming your tenant and them subletting the property to whomever they can. This means that you will have a commercial tenancy agreement with the letting agent which is probably against the terms of your Consent to Let and will affect the type of insurance your require. You will have no say in who lives in the property and the commercial tenancy can be tricky to end.

clidbury wrote: »

All a bit new to this. I did get a quote from Smart Move of £200 tenant setup and 10% of rental for the full package, which seems real steep to me. Got Purple Bricks coming around this weekend so will see what they say, but it looks like a no-go if 10% is the going rate.

If you are looking at getting a fully managed service then look at all the costs the letting agent will charge not just how much they will cream off the rent on a monthly basis. For example, if a repair needs carried out in the property how much will they charge you for that? How much will they charge for protecting the deposit on your behalf, arranging an inventory, issuing Section 8 or 21 notices, tenant referencing, etc? Those with cheap monthly fees will be making the money up elsewhere.

Pixie5740

Take a look at G_M's guides for:

New Landlords: advice, information and links

Letting Agents: how should a landlord select or sack

clidbury

Gotcha! Figured there was some kind of catch with those.

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Avoid any guaranteed rent schemes. These work by the letting agent becoming your tenant and them subletting the property to whomever they can. This means that you will have a commercial tenancy agreement with the letting agent which is probably against the terms of your Consent to Let and will affect the type of insurance your require. You will have no say in who lives in the property and the commercial tenancy can be tricky to end.

Yeah I did see what the costs covered, and it did say about including deposit protection and inventory. It said about managing repairs but obviously nothing to do with costs associated with that as it will differ, sure they will exaggerate that though.

Maybe it's worth considering looking into managing this on my own for the time I will still be here, and seeing if I can get a family member to manage it whilst I am gone. More upfront costs with solicitors but sure it would cost less in the long run.

Pixie5740 wrote: »

If you are looking at getting a fully managed service then look at all the costs the letting agent will charge not just how much they will cream off the rent on a monthly basis. For example, if a repair needs carried out in the property how much will they charge you for that? How much will they charge for protecting the deposit on your behalf, arranging an inventory, issuing Section 8 or 21 notices, tenant referencing, etc? Those with cheap monthly fees will be making the money up elsewhere.

Fuzion

We rent with Abode, no complaints as a renter, and they seem to have good reviews on allAgents.co.uk.

ST1991

Going private is one way of doing it. As a tenant, i certainly had a much better experience of renting from a private landlord for 5 years compared to through an agency for 5 months...

However, do some serious reading on being a private landlord, as it can be difficult. Plus, you'll need to trust whomever you leave to manage the property and tenants efficiently. And that probably won't be free...!

You also have to think about what is fair to the tenant. If something goes wrong and they need to contact you are you freely able to help?
Will you be able to relax on your trip or will you be constantly worrying without someone dealing with it for you?

Put your feelers out to see if you have any trusted friends or family that need somewhere to stay!

seashore22

Fuzion wrote: »

We rent with Abode, no complaints as a renter, and they seem to have good reviews on allAgents.co.uk.

I was going to recommend Abode too, so was happy to see this post.