Why Landlords Need to Use Letting Agents to Find Tenants
When renting out a property, there are a number of considerations to make. One of the major decisions a new landlord must take is whether or not to use a letting agent. Of course the temptation might be to go it alone and save money on the fees that go with using a third party to market and manage your property. However, there are a number of reasons that landlords need to use letting agents to find tenants that make these expenses more than worthwhile.
If you are a landlord, take notice of these compelling reasons to work with a letting agent. Alternatively, if you are a letting agent, send this link to any wavering landlords to give them a second opinion on why they need to use your services.
Marketing Power
One of the major advantages of using letting agents to find tenants is that they have much more marketing clout than a landlord advertising a single property. Letting agents have mailing lists full of people looking for properties, many of them searching for homes exactly like the one the landlord has to offer. They also place properties on a range of property websites and in local newspapers as a matter of course.
In addition, letting agents’ premises are a marketing tool in their own right and one which prospective tenants actively seek out to visit. This advertising power goes far beyond what is affordable or even possible for an independent landlord and makes it much more likely that they will be matched with the ideal tenants.
Letting agents know the local area and the housing market in the region so they can play up the positives of your property to viewers. In addition, they know how to pitch the level of the rent to keep it in line and competitive with the local expectations.
Vetting Tenants
As well as enticing the tenants, a letting agent takes care of the hugely important task of vetting new renters. In fact, a recent study found that 1 in 3 landlords thought the vetting procedure was the most important task for a letting agent.
Getting references and performing all the necessary checks on tenants is time consuming and costly if you don’t know what you are doing. However, if you are going to allow these people to stay in your property, you need to know that you can trust them and that they are reliable.
There are often stories reported of so-called ‘Gumtree Landlords’ (those who advertise their properties on free internet sites rather than using a letting agent) and the trouble they get into with nightmare tenants. Whether it is someone using a fake identity who then leaves owing rent, a renter with a long criminal record or someone who has a history of leaving rental property in disarray, using a letting agent can make it easier to avoid these pitfalls.
Administration
There is an awful lot of admin that goes with renting out a property. It is a letting agent’s job to deal with all of this, freeing up the landlord’s time. This could relate to contracts, tenancy agreements or anything else relating to the property. They also ensure that the landlord is compliant with the secure deposit protection scheme.
Another aspect of administration that letting agents deal with as a matter of course is staying up to date with the latest legislation in the property industry. For someone like a landlord who might have a separate job away from their lettings, using a letting agent prevents them from falling foul of the shifting legal landscape.
Tenant Relations and Interaction
Landlords need to use letting agents to find tenants, but also to keep them happy. A letting agent is a buffer between the two parties and can diffuse potentially volatile situations. The letting agent has experience of working with both landlords and tenants to find amicable solutions to common issues. Without that mediation, particularly inexperienced landlords could find themselves falling deeper into dispute with tenants. The agent is impartial and objective, meaning they are best placed to engineer a satisfactory solution.
Letting agents follow up late rent payments and deal with issues caused by tenant neglect in the property. If a landlord has to evict a tenant, the letting agent knows the exact procedure they need to follow for a successful outcome.
Save Money and Time
Insurance company Endsleigh conducted a survey of landlords recently and found that the majority believed using an agent saved them both time and money. In terms of cash, the average saving provided by using a letting agent was £159 per month. They also reported that they saved six hours of their time by letting agents deal with the day to day running of their rental property.
Why Letting Agents Need Executive Property Management Solutions
With all the hard work that letting agents put in to renting properties and dealing with landlords and tenants, there are certain tasks that can be outsourced to help them concentrate on the public facing aspects of their job. We can deal with maintenance, rent collection, tenancy renewals and much more as part of our property management packages.
Contact us today to talk about how we can help your business prosper.
Meta Descriptio
