Does anyone use OpenRent?

mlz1413

Hi all,
I've been thinking about using OpenRent, but would be interested to know if anyone has used it and what their experiences have been?

I would use the tenant referencing service, so any comments on that would be appreciated 

crow22

I've only used it when looking for short term rental between selling and buying a house. TBH I found it mostly a very frustrating and anoying experience. Rents seemed higher than for a similar property on Rightmove. While there were a few decent landlords a lot seemed unwilling to answer questions about the property and simply sent a form to fill in without answering my questions which would obviously determin if the property was suitable. One refused to provide any outside view of the property and expected me to drive 5 hours up the country to view it. Uh..no thank you! As I say some were decent but most seemed to have attitude!

anselld

mlz1413 said:

Hi all,
I've been thinking about using OpenRent, but would be interested to know if anyone has used it and what their experiences have been?

I would use the tenant referencing service, so any comments on that would be appreciated 

Yes, it works fine assuming you want to do all the viewing and organising yourself.

Referencing is fine, it is outsourced to one of the big referencing agencies, RentGuard I think.

saajan_12

Use it regularly as a Landlord, just for advertising though. I do my own referencing, contract drafting, deposit protection, etc. 
Reason is I like to speak directly to the tenant, make the decision myself not lead by an agent which has their own motives. 

I don't like some of the "features" where it tries to take over, eg takes down the advert when someone places an offer even if unwanted or after a certain number of enquiries even if half of them never respond again. 

mlz1413

saajan_12 said:

Use it regularly as a Landlord, just for advertising though. I do my own referencing, contract drafting, deposit protection, etc. 
Reason is I like to speak directly to the tenant, make the decision myself not lead by an agent which has their own motives. 

I don't like some of the "features" where it tries to take over, eg takes down the advert when someone places an offer even if unwanted or after a certain number of enquiries even if half of them never respond again. 

Thanks so much. Good to know it has those 'features ' as I would not want those either.

I used OpenRent once as a short term tenant and was going to use them as a landlord early last year but found a lovely lady who was an independent letting agent. Sadly lovely lady is now merging with a small letting company so I am rethinking what to do.

I like to meet the tenant/s and want to do repairs myself as I keep my flat to a high standard.

mlz1413

crow22 said:

I've only used it when looking for short term rental between selling and buying a house. TBH I found it mostly a very frustrating and anoying experience. Rents seemed higher than for a similar property on Rightmove. While there were a few decent landlords a lot seemed unwilling to answer questions about the property and simply sent a form to fill in without answering my questions which would obviously determin if the property was suitable. One refused to provide any outside view of the property and expected me to drive 5 hours up the country to view it. Uh..no thank you! As I say some were decent but most seemed to have attitude!

Thanks for this, I guess the site is open to anyone good and bad so something to bear in mind.

I tried to view through a high street letting agents once and they wanted the deposit first, apparently the video provided should have been enough!!

I guess the high demand means agents and LL can be unreasonable. 

mlz1413

anselld said:

mlz1413 said:

Hi all,
I've been thinking about using OpenRent, but would be interested to know if anyone has used it and what their experiences have been?

I would use the tenant referencing service, so any comments on that would be appreciated 

Yes, it works fine assuming you want to do all the viewing and organising yourself.

Referencing is fine, it is outsourced to one of the big referencing agencies, RentGuard I think.

Thanks. I would prefer to meet the tenants. 

Good to know referencing is through a good company too.

Bluebell1000

Yes, we use them after being unhappy with the full management service offered by a high street agency. We've found everything works well - we used them for intial tenant finding and referencing, but there are lots of potential add-ons depending on how much you want to manage yourself. 

BungalowBel

I used it as a Landlord,  for tenant finding,  referencing and for rent collection.  I found it a good service and good value for money.  Much better than the High Street agents we had previously. You can do your own referencing if you wish.  We always met all prospective tenants and sent them a questionnaire with the questions we wanted answered.

mlz1413

Thanks all.
I might go this way after this lot of tenants leave.