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After a long search (a year), I have found a perfect property for myself and cat to rent. This was found via an estate agent who will soon put us in contact with the landlord. The two bed property is out of my price range to live there alone long term. The rent is £1400 pm, I earn 34k pa - so I am only approved to rent a property up to £1100 and realistically, I would not be able to pay this long term with the addition of bills. When I found the property, I posted an ad for a housemate that stated we would go into a joint tenancy together and I received a lot of interest. Unfortunately the person I have gone into this with can no longer move in, a risk of finding someone so quickly was always going to be are trustworthy and reliable - unfortunately they were not. The estate agent is just about to finish the reference checks for us both (mine has gone through ok) and has a holding deposit which I paid. They do not yet know of her decision to opt out. I would still love to move in and I am really worried about losing the property and also the holding deposit (although only £360 - so not the end of the world, more concerned about house). The property is unfurnished and I have everything ready to go in, I have been the primary contact throughout. What I would like to do, is speak to the estate agent/or landlord (if we have been put in contact), explain it is only me that can move in and that the other person will have to be removed from the tenancy. I am able to offer 3 months rent up front in an attempt to sweeten the deal and could also provide guarantors. I would then look to find a new housemate once moved in, and cannot see it being an issue finding someone as there are so many people in the area desperate to find somewhere. They could then be added to the 12 month tenancy with me. I was tempted to ask for a sublet contract, but after researching, this seems like a commonly refused request. I have 30k in savings which I am looking to use for a future house deposit, but I could use some of this to secure the house and then pay back into it. I also assume they will have incurred a cost of referencing checking the other person and would have to do this for someone new. We have not signed a contract yet. Do you have any advice on how to approach this to do everything possible for them to allow me to still move in?

Hi fellow forumers, I'm wondering if anyone has experienced a similar set up in the past and can advise me of their thoughts. This is our first development of this type and although we have a good accountant they are not property specific so I'd be interested to hear some ideas. Here goes... We have a development company and are due to complete construction of a block containing 9 apartments next year. As part of the purchase deal, the seller is retaining 2 of the apartments effectively leaving us with 7 apartments. We may sell a couple of flats but at the moment let's say we are going to retain the 7 flats and rent them out. We would like to avoid estate agents fees so we would act as the agent ourselves - marketing, finding tenants, safety checks and certificates, dealing with rental payments and so on. We would also act as the Management Company so in rental terms that would mean dealing with tenants, maintenance and so on. We would also be the Management Company for sold flats (including the 2 sold off plan at land purchase) so would deal with maintenance, communal cleaning, service charges etc. We want to remortgage the 7 flats (currently unencumbered) to receive some funds to move forward with our next development. My question is what is the best set up for this? We have 1) a development company, 2) a rental company and 3) a management company. Should we keep all of these as separate companies or should we keep them all as one company (the development company that currently exists). Is it legal/possible to do this considering requirements of a rental and management company? If we are looking to remortgage to fund the development company would lenders want everything under one company? I'm sure there are other questions that I could raise but at the moment I'd just like to get my ahead around this. There may be someone that has a really simple answer for me, or I may be completely off track with my thinking so would really appreciate any guidance! Thanks in advance.

Hi readers, I need some advice on UK estate agents. Moderator note: You might want a "Estate Agents" category under "I need advice". I am looking to sell my property and have the following questions. Do all estates agents now ask you to sign Terms of Business? Do they all ask for ID and household bill proof? Are they suppose to include all marketing + EPC costs? The entire process of finding a good estate agent has been nightmare for me. Biggest problem is there's no consistency, and no one know if estate agents are pulling the fast one on you. I approached a agency 6 months ago, and they tooks the photo's, put the the house on the internet and put the for sale board up. They never asked for any of the things I've listed. We had to withdraw for unforeseen reasons and now we approached the same agent and they are asking for the first two in the list. If we're going to be going through the entire ID process with the solicitor on successful sale, why do the estate agent need sensitive information, just seems like overkill and duplication. I can understand vetting the prospective buyers because they'd be coming into other people's homes for viewing. If I have to go with a Terms of Business (contract) what's the best one sole agent? If I must, I just want one without any sort of attachment to the estate agent if deciding to withdraw. Thanks J.

Hi All, I've relocated out of UK and want to sell up a few of my BTLs sourced from Property Hub Invest. First one I am looking to sell is in Bradford...does anyone have any good Estate Agents they have used. Thanks, Dan

Looking to be more hands on with property and am expanding into our no2 and 3 BTLs. Previous agent we liked but was very arms length in terms of management, the trades people instructed were not great and it often took a long time for call outs etc. off the back of a refurb we have some good contacts now for trades and handymen. Does anyone on here use open rent or used open rent previously?? thanks

Hi, We are looking for recommended estate agents who manage HMO properties in Failsworth or Oldham area. We are looking for agents to manage our two 6 bed HMO properties in the M35 area. Our current agents are not delivering a service to our standards and covid has highlighted a lot of inefficiencies in their service which is costing us time and money. Our search and interactions with a few agents has not resulted in much success. Any recommendations of agents used by people in the area would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance, stay safe. Best regards, Manju https://luminaryproperties.co.uk/

So on the recent ask Rob & Rob episode 246, Chris asked how to get local knowledge without having to look into every single street to work out the best streets to invest in, or to visit every estate agent asking them which streets are better than others. Of course streets can vary massively even within a few hundred yards as one Rob said, and they suggested speaking to other investors in the area etc. The question I have is how does one actually go about developing this local knowledge from your desktop, so that when you go to speak to estate agents and other investors in your chosen city, their tips serve to reinforce the knowledge you've already discovered, rather than going in blind and having to trust everything they're telling you without doing your own research? Is it just a case of jumping on Google maps street view to get a sense of where the best types of properties are that suit your strategy? Are there other ways that you've developed this knowledge online before you started exploring your investment city in person? Thanks so much for any ideas!

Good Evening everyone, I just wanted to share my experience as a tennant living in west London for the last two years. Property number 1 we rented for 12 months. We had issues from day 1. We were informed the contract was incorrect as the address was in fact wrong. The estate agent said this was the only change so we immediately signed the new contact, only to discover the landlord had added that we had to use their choice of energy supplier and we could not change it and that we were not allowed bicycles on the premises. Quite crucial as we owned 4 bikes! We had an inspection after 3 months. We had sold a lot of our furniture as we were thinking about moving out and we also left a lot of our boxes still packed. This was deemed unacceptable living by the landlord and she insisted we change how were living in the flat. She suggested we buy a sofa and a dining table. We had issues with the locks on the main entrance and often came home to the door to the property open and the building was eventually broken into and two of the three flats had possessions stolen. As a result the landlord installed fake cameras and added extra locks to the all doors on the property. All three flats requested actual security cameras. All tenants of the three flats stayed the 12 months of their contract and moved out with the common belief that we had a bad landlord. 2 months prior to the end of our lease we began our property. We had a rental offer accepted and began going through referencing which was successful. A week went by with no word of a contract only to find out the landlord had made the decision to go with a private tenant. We searched again and found a new build property. Our offer was accepted, references passed and we signed a contract within 3 days, but the landlord did not sign. For two weeks we phoned the estate agent to ask if everything was ok we even re viewed the property and were told everything is fine and informed the landlord would sign once back off holiday, but even after daily phone calls, many of which were dodged by the critcal people were unavalaible. less than 48 hours before we were supposed to get the keys we were informed by the estate agent that the properties were not going to be ready and they did not know when they would be. As we had already moved out of our previous property and had our belongings in storage we were now homeless! Not that this seemed a concern to the estate agent. The estate agent insists the landlord was impossible to get hold of and there was nothing they could do. Regardless of this I still believe they had a duty of care to ensure a tenant is not be put in a position to become homeless. 13 months of renting in London and I've experienced 2 terrible estate agents and 3 landlords who's actions I believe to be unacceptable. I just wanted to share my experience as a tenant and remind my fellow landlords to just think how your actions might affect the lives of your tenants. Thanks for reading, Sim. P.S. My wife and I are currently going through referencing for a third time for a property which is available 18/12. Wish us luck.

Hello to All, My name is Joanna and I live in York, UK. I have recently been given a great opportunity in a field relatively new to me, namely selling overseas properties. I have never worked in the properties sector before, but over the last few months I have been working with great people who know a lot so I am learning from them. I am a UK agent for an established overseas estate agency and offer luxury properties abroad. At the moment I am working on properties located in just one country (Mauritius) however in the future I am hoping to actually secure exclusivity with estate agencies from more countries in order to offer luxury overseas properties located also in other countries. I have created a website, I advertise on facebook and instagram at the moment. I am hoping that this forum will enable me to learn more about my potential customers - I am still learning on what exactly my future clients expect. I have a lot of questions about the "end user" - e.g. how do investors choose their property - especially overseas? What are the biggest obstacles that they have in finding the property? What are the main factors they take into consideration when choosing the property, etc. I am hoping that I will learn from you guys and will then become successful in this field. Thank you for taking the time to read my post! All the best, Joanna

I am wanting to work out when (if) is now the optimum time for terminating my contract with my agents? Their performance has consistently disappointed me and other than costing me, I have not really felt any benefits as I still coordinate or prompt repairs/services for my property. As I've only talked this through to myself, I imagine I've missed valuable information out, so happy to expand. Facts Despite me feeling like they have breached the terms of the contract on several occasions, I have a feeling they won't feel that way, so I assume I have to use the full notice period of three months. The tenants which are there now started 15th March 2017 and they wish to stay on, so renewal contract required. I had been charged at 10%+VAT up until last year when they changed it to 8% +VAT as a "goodwill gesture"? I feel that much as 8% +VAT for full management is a good rate down South for agents, it does not make sense to stay with these agents. I am reading through their Terms of Business from this year which they have just sent me. They didn't send me a full copy last year when I signed a new contract. Was sent after online and was reading everything on my phone so missed reading keypoints like Right to cancel etc and additional charges. I am finding their additional charges sheet about renewal and terminating contract confusing to know which are the over all figures or which figures will be added together. I am still waiting for my deposit claim from last year to come through since last tenants left in Dec 2016 and despite repeated requests by phone and emails since I put my claim in March 2017. Only now have they committed to giving me the full deposit which only covers about half of my claim and 25% of the actual costs to make the place fit for renting out again. I know I should probably have used insurance for some things but didn't seek advice at the time or get any from agent. A huge learning curve and never imagined I'd still be waiting now for the money. The agents proposed this week that I slam another £25 a month on current tenant to compensate for getting less back in tax returns. Much as I'd like the money, I think I prefer to keep the tenants and delay charging more. Am hating the fact that they too will have to pay the agents for the pleasure of staying on as well as me because I haven't pushed myself to give notice before the end of their tenancy agreement. Extra questions Do I ask them to proceed with a tenancy renewal service for a 12 months period? Or should I just request a periodic tenancy arrangement until the end of the three month notice period then set up a new tenancy agreement with the tenant then? Will that be cheaper or too risky? Do I serve them the three month notice period at the same time, or do I wait until the 15th of March or later before serving the notice?

Hi folks, Again I'm hoping for some help in getting started with my BTL property portfolio which I hope to kickstart before the end of this year in Edinburgh. I have done a LOT of reading/ online researching but feel I need to now get out & start discussing my goals/ strategy (all now documented) & more specifically the numbers with the professionals, so I can start to get a real feel as to how realistic my plans are - but where do I start? I have used Mov8 Estate Agents & Sols in the past (in buying & selling my home properties) - so I know they also have in house mortgage advisors & they seemed pretty good at the time. But I would really appreciate any personal recommendations on estate agents, mortgage advisors & accountants in & around the Edinburgh area. Also, would it be sensible to start with a mortgage broker & then move from that point? Any support much appreciated & I will be sure to share my feedback for others! Thanks, Fox.

Hello everyone!! I am James Ryan, working as a property specialist for landlords in UK who want to get their properties managed and invest in rental properties to increase their capital income. I am here to discuss and gather information regarding various property investment aspects. Best, James

Hello , Please can anyone recommend a good investor experienced buyer's estate agent in the London area?

Hi everyone, I am selling a flat in north London - I'd be interested in a quick straw poll of estate agent fees. I know online agents are very cheap, but I'd be interested in hearing people's experience of local agent commissions. I will speak with a few agents, but would be good to get some general feedback from hubbers first. Thanks

Hi all, Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on becoming a lettings agency. I currently self manage one of my own properties and am considering doing this through a ltd company to reduce the income I receive from it. However it got me thinking as to whether I could do this for other local properties. My family have got a couple of local properties they also rent out via day to day estate agents @ eye watering rates (14%+VAT) and a neighbour rents out the house next to me. Am pretty sure he might consider using me as he's not pleased with his current agent and their fees. Admittedly not a passive income which is what I'm aiming for, but might mean I can afford to cut back work to 4 days a week and give me an extra day to concentrate on property investing. Am sure there are legalities I need to look into, but my initial thoughts were how to get access to portals like Rightmove, Zoopla etc (Hear RM alone is £640 odd pounds). Obviously there is uPad, but from what I can tell, if I used them it would be advertised under their own banner and I can't see any partner program where I could be to use them for portal listing, but still have the property advertised as though it was my company doing the listing. Just wondered if anyone else out there is a part time freelance lettings agent and how they work. Any others tips in general terms of being your own lettings agency gratefully received! Thanks all, Nick

HI, I am an Independent Property Consultant in Scarborough working in Association with Keller Williams. I have been a Freelance IT Consultant for a lot of years ( far too many that I care to mention !) moving into the property business with my husband Jos, 7 months ago. We currently operate a bespoke estate agency service in Scarborough working with the Keller Williams Yorkshire team based in Leeds. I am keen to lean more about investment opportunities and understanding how investments work to offer any future clients a good service. I am a keen networker and would like to build a strong property hub in Scarborough to bring all like minded people and businesses together who have a connection with the property world, whether that be investment, financial, lettings or sales. I am also interested in talking to anyone who may have an interest in starting their own property business with the help and support of Keller WIlliams. Thanks for reading. Julie

Hello, Many thanks for looking at this post. A brief introduction. I'm Mark Jones and have been an estate agent for a number of years. I have recently set up a property auction company that will cover London, Kent and Sussex and hope to be able to discuss and perhaps do some business together in the future. Thanks again, Mark