letting agents fees

lexi

dunno if this helps but:
our agency charges a landlord
£250 +VAT for lettings only (finding a tenant, advertising etc, doing referencing.)
£280 + VAT for full management. This includes the above plus a whole shed load of stuff too long to post here!
Those are the initial costs. Every month after its basically a 10% + VAT charge of rental value. (If rent is £500 - its £50 + VAT)
When letting your property you must bear in mind whether you have the necessary trades people on standby & whether you will want your tenants contacting you directly if anything goes wrong plus if you live far away are you able to sort things out. It comes down to choice & obviously if you want the extra money really.

Fred1_2

lexi wrote: »

When letting your property you must bear in mind whether you have the necessary trades people on standby & whether you will want your tenants contacting you directly if anything goes wrong

I would say that if the answer to either of those is "no", don't go into letting. If you don't want to get your hands dirty, maybe letting isn't for you. It's not as if it's a great money-spinner at the moment.

plus if you live far away are you able to sort things out.

If you are living far away a good letting agent can be worth the fees they charge. The problem is finding a good one. out of the ones I've dealt with, I can only say that I'd consider buying a used car from one of them, and he is a landlord who got into it cos he was p***ed with the shabby service and extortionate fees that he was being subjected to.

It comes down to choice & obviously if you want the extra money really.

Exactly.

clutton_2

""Why do you think a letting agent would have protected you from this tenant? If you let someone else choose your tenants, you have no control over who you are getting.""

i found this tenant !!!! and she was veeeeery clever with her "presentation" and ticked all the boxes - i do have a guarantor - and will be taking him to court - we all get conned somewhere in this life !

Fred1_2

clutton wrote: »

""Why do you think a letting agent would have protected you from this tenant? If you let someone else choose your tenants, you have no control over who you are getting.""

i found this tenant !!!! and she was veeeeery clever with her "presentation" and ticked all the boxes - i do have a guarantor - and will be taking him to court - we all get conned somewhere in this life !

I agree, we all get conned at some time. I wish you luck in getting your money out of the guarantor. My question is, why do you think that a letting agent wouldn't have been conned? If you were, they could have been too.

downshifted

Thanks to you all for your helpful input

We will definitely have an agent - the reason for renting is that we plan to go travelling and although we have family locally they would not want the potential hassle.

Had a smaller independent agent round today - they want more to set the contract up, but are offering only 7% full management fees.

So - the house is up with both.

Amazingly, we have already had a viewing and they are coming back this weekend!


downshifted