Any websites to recommend, landlords more hands on not too much rely on Estate Agency?

ileven1225

Dear everyone,

This year the Estate Agency fees increased plus our living costs, my wife and I have decided to be more hands on the renting out properties, including meeting and finding potential tenants, managing the property by ourselves. The deposits are still saved with DPS but the whole process would be done by ourselves. We would spend much more efforts on managing the properties compared with before (let EA doing most of the work), however, it would save us good amount of costs which seems a right decision based on our current situation.

The property is in Birmingham.

We have found a website called OpenRent, anyone got any feedbacks on this website?

Are there any other websites to use to market our property? Rightmove/Zoopla would be too expensive for us to use just for one property.

Any tips/helps would be very welcome!

Much appreciated.

luvchocolate

My son has a small portfolio of 5 houses he rents out via openrent. 
He manages them also. 

He is on a landlords forum and listens to a pod cast and magazines etc. 
We are lucky to have many landlords on this forum who are very knowledgeable. 

Megaross

Gumtree, Facebook marketplace, local free ads, ask your mates if they might know anyone looking to rent.

saajan_12

I use Openrent which works quite well - note some of the below can be extra services you pay for Openrent to do, 
- they publish your ad to Rightmove / Zoopla (I wouldn't cheap out on this, as you'll likely get less interest and hence less rent if you're not on RM)
- deal with tenant enquiries via Openrent's messaging system
- hold your own viewings / referencing / draft your own contract / take photos for your own inventory 
- register with a deposit scheme and secure deposit directly 
- each month, tenants pay rent directly to you, you check and chase if late
- tenants contact you directly if any repair issues, and you respond in a timely way (make arrangements if you're on holiday) 

ileven1225

luvchocolate said:

My son has a small portfolio of 5 houses he rents out via openrent. 
He manages them also. 

He is on a landlords forum and listens to a pod cast and magazines etc. 
We are lucky to have many landlords on this forum who are very knowledgeable. 

thanks, it's helpful. Do you mind telling me which landlords forum your son has been using? what podcase and magazines?

ileven1225

saajan_12 said:

I use Openrent which works quite well - note some of the below can be extra services you pay for Openrent to do, 
- they publish your ad to Rightmove / Zoopla (I wouldn't cheap out on this, as you'll likely get less interest and hence less rent if you're not on RM)
- deal with tenant enquiries via Openrent's messaging system
- hold your own viewings / referencing / draft your own contract / take photos for your own inventory 
- register with a deposit scheme and secure deposit directly 
- each month, tenants pay rent directly to you, you check and chase if late
- tenants contact you directly if any repair issues, and you respond in a timely way (make arrangements if you're on holiday) 

yes, all the above were dealt with Estate Agency before but we have to deal with them from now on. Thanks for the list of things

ileven1225

any further other tips/recommendation would be really appreciated, thanks.

thegentleway

I can't help with website for advertising as I just use FB and specific websites for student accommodation but I would recommend getting a landlord subscription; I use Guild of residential Landlords which has been really helpful as I didn't have a clue when I started managing my own property. It's cheap, got loads of templates, forms, guides, advice, etc...

diystarter7

Don't forget if you want rent and or legal insurance, you can take out your own for a piece of mind. To get cheaper insurance get working people in and low rent cover as its often the legal side that needs good cover IMHO.

tom9980

My local town has no listings on rightmove for rentals but if you go to the very active local town facebook group and ask there is usually a few options when the question comes up which is usually weekly. Local word of mouth is probably the best route to a long lasting rental.

theartfullodger

Do some formal training in being a landlord & landlord/tenant law:  

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance...