Avoiding Letting Agents

danhar707

Hi,
We have recently sold our 2 bed and are now looking for somewhere to rent. I've not tried to rent a place for a while, so I've forgotten the ropes. What I do remember is letting agents ripping me off at every turn so that they can fuel their Range Rovers (and minis for their minions.)

Well, fuel prices have shot up and you can see the effect. Agents seem to be inventing new charges by the day.

I generally don't like paying something for nothing and I would like to try cutting out the middle man and renting direct. Here's what I've tried so far:
* Checked advert boards at work. Found a couple of places for let at good prices on there, but they'd gone.
* Checked local adtrader - no private to-let ads in there (I'm sure there used to be.)
* Checked local paper - a few ads, crap / not what we're looking for
* Searched online - found a website that seems to be for landlords wanting to let direct, but no hits in Cambs. Doh.

Has anyone got any ideas what else I might try? Come on, together we can defeat

olly300

http://cambridge.gumtree.com/cambridge/property-rentals_1297_1.html

You can also post an ad in the wanted section.

ruggedtoast

Yes, you can see my thread over on the house price crash board for my own letting agent delight. TBH its really hard to avoid them now, and being able to see a photo and the exact location on a map on rightmove does have its advantages. IME private rentals tend to be far different from what theyre descirbed as, in a different place, and overpriced as often landlords have no idea about realistic market values.

eco-friendly_2

We have recently sold our 2 bed and are now looking for somewhere to rent. I've not tried to rent a place for a while, so I've forgotten the ropes.

If there's a lot of property to rent in your given area, offer the LA less, a small reduction over the lease period should help cover their rip off fees.

ruggedtoast

landlords have no idea about realistic market values.

SOME landlords have no idea about realistic market values.

tbs624

Some of these may be useful:

http://www.brettward.co.uk/canb/ (free site maintained by local software engineer - accomm to let + you can also put “house wanted” one up)
http://www.vivastreet.co.uk/Cambridge
http://www.accommodationforstudents.com/Cambridge.asp ( LLs listed on here also let to young professionals)
http://www.loot.com/
Contact the local LL Association - they’ll be listed in yellow pages (their members will also be signed up to a Code of Conduct, approved of by the local Council).