Using letting agents

Making the best use of letting agents to let your property

Using a letting agent, although fairly expensive has certain advantages.
Unreliable tenants are more likely to avoid agents because of their stringent vetting and rferencing procedures.
If you live abroad it is effectively impossible to let your property without an agent.
Agents deal with all the paperwork associated with letting your property.
Agents handle the placing of the landlord's security deposit now that it is against the law for a landlord to personally hold the deposit unless it is insured and the correct protocol adhered to.

Most good agents are members of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) and it's a good idea to stick with one of these if you do wish to use an agent, particularly if you are opting for a full service agreement with rent collection.

I don't care about the problems, I'm going to save money by letting it myself...

Of course all those benefits you get by using a professional letting agent don't come cheap – anything between 5% and 15% of the gross annual rent, paid up front.

As long as you do it right you certainly can let your own property successfully. Before advertising, the first thing to decide is whether your property could be considered down-market, mid-market or up-market. This will affect WHERE you advertise. Let's say that you're marketing your rather smart two bedroom flat for £900.00 pcm in an area where usually most two bedroom flats go for around £700.00 pcm. This will mean that you will need to get to the more discerning tenants who can afford to pay for a better style of flat. So in this instance you would be best advised to advertise with one of the services which will place your private ad on to websites like Rightmove and Primelocation. Such companies tend to charge around £50.00 and upwards for this service. The main reason for needing to use this option is because slightly more up market tenants will usually look on these kind of sites rather than in their local paper.

If however you're marketing your two bedroom flat for £700.00 pcm in an area wheretwo bedroom flats tend to cost between £650.00 and £900.00 pcm then you can effectively use free ad sites like Gumtree and Letalife.

If your property is close to a university or hospital then get in touch with the accommodation officer and see if they'll be happy to list it for free – it can be a very effective way of marketing.

However you market your property make sure that it's READY to market. Tenants will be easily put off by dirty work surface, smell of pets, rubbish outside the property or in the communal areas etc. Remember that tenants are not like purchasers – it's no good telling them that the place has bags of potential even though it looks like a dump at the moment!

But what about the danger of dodgy tenants?