Should A Landlord Opt For A Letting Only Service?

As a landlord in the UK, you can either rent out your property yourself, or use a letting agent. If you decide to rent out the property yourself, you may face some difficulties. First, you will need to advertise the property for rent in the newspapers. Then you will have to stay by the phone and tell potential clients about the property. Later, you will need to be available at the site to show your property to the clients. Once you reach an agreement, you will need to get a tenancy agreement drawn up. In the case of any repair work required, you will have to arrange to get it done.

You may save some money by not going through a letting agent. However, you are going to spend a lot of time looking for a suitable tenant. On the other hand, prospective tenants prefer going through a letting agent. They feel more secure with a letting agent rather than dealing directly with landlords.

Letting agencies inspect the property, and estimate the expected rent. If they are satisfied with the condition of the property and its rental value, they enter your property as ?to be rented out? in their records. After that, they advertise the property, handle all enquiries by the property seekers and show it to the prospective tenants. Once suitable tenants are called, the letting agency inform you about it. They draw up the tenancy agreement and do all the paperwork.

Letting agencies may even provide you with their maintenance crew, so that the property is properly taken care off once the tenancy start. They will also try and get you an extension on the tenancy contract before it expires or even get you new tenants. This suits busy landlords or those with more than one property as it saves them a lot of hassle.

Possible tenants now prefer directly going to different websites hosted by letting agencies. Here they search for properties suitable for them and then contact the agency for further arrangements. A landlord cannot host this kind of facility. Letting agencies also have the advantage of knowing more about tenants and landlords and if there is any dispute, they are capable of coming up with a better solution. These are huge advantages of hiring a letting agency.

This frees the landlord from all the work of finding tenants. He/she will also not have to worry about the dealing with tenants during the contract period and the property will also get proper maintenance. Then there will be no vacant period because the agency will find new tenants before the tenancy expires.

You can hire a big letting agency or even a small one working in one district only. The agency has to maintain a good reputation or they might lose their license and clientele. They will have information about all the relevant laws regarding tenancy. This is why they provide these services and are a better option than a solicitor is.

As a landlord, it would be advisable to use a letting service. They know their job; they know how to get clients. Therefore, it’s best to go for them. After all, a landlord looks for good tenants who will not damage his property and will pay the rent on time. So, allow the letting agency do all this for you; what you pay them, covers the costs and saves you from a lot of hassle you would go through otherwise.