Expat Advice - How do you rent your apartment without an estate agent?

[eamonHeggarty]

Hi, 

 

So I've purchased a property off plan nearly 2 years ago and its due for completion in July 2018. I have been contacted by 2/3 estate agencies and property management companies to offer their service however im not willing to pay the 12-13% (all in) fees as this is just eating away my profits. 

 

I do however have a friend that lives in the city, and he is happy to manage the property for a small fee each month (not that a new build should have much to manage).  As well as this he is asking a friend and i will try and use rightmove to advertise the property. 

 

Can anyone explain the process and what needs to be signed and contracts written up for me to rent to a tenant? Can this all be done through a solicitor? 

 

Has anyone done it solo before? 

 

Any feedback would be great

 

Thanks,

Eamon

[Kingsley]

Yes  I have done exactly what you've described except that 'm resident in the city I was letting out.

 

Try https://www.openrent.co.uk for a small fee your property can be listed on Rightmove, gumtree and other websites and they send you details of prospective tenants who will be forwarded to your friend. 

 

or https://www.theonlinelettingagents.co.uk/ will prepare the contracts as well.

 

All the best!

[PatrickWrayWray]

I honestly think the fact you are asking these questions means you should seriously think about whether you can do without the services of a good agent. However I might have a lower risk tolerance than you.

The fees you have been quoted though do seem very high. Have you tried to negotiate those fees down?

[eamonHeggarty]

@patrick wray exactly. Hence why I'm asking the question to do exactly that. Yes, the fees are high and are the developers preferred agents so maybe some negotiation can be made. 

 

@kingsley thanks for the info. Will look into it. 

[Holly Edge]

I highly recommend Open Rent, I rented two properties via them last summer and they will organise the tenancy agreement, deposit protection, referencing etc for a small fee.  

 

If you are going to go down the self managing route, I would also recommend joining the NLA. They have an advice line that I have used on several occasions - well worth the membership fee!

 

Good Luck!

 

[Paul Chapman]

The agent i use offer 3 levels of service;

 

1. Let Only which includes advertising, finding tenant, reference checks etc 80% of a months rent plus vat

2. let and collect rent, as above but collect rent plus other 50% first months rent plus 8% month plus vat

3. Full let which includes arranging maintenance and doing visits/checks 50% first months rent plus 12.5% month plus vat

 

i think a good letting agent comes into their own when problems arise such as non payment, they are there to help, sounds like you've been offered full let so might be worth considering something like option 2.

[PatrickWrayWray]

Chappers ,

My back of fag calculation suggests option 3 [which sounds to me like “normal” management] = 20% which seems very high to me. I hope you have negotiated those fees down somewhat!

Just out of interest, what area are you in? Perhaps an area where there are not many agents or they don’t want to operate in that area?

 

 

[Tom Charrier]

I second Holly’s advice. Use openrent (thu post your ad to all major portals- Rightmove etc) and pay for their additional services- preparing contract, collecting deposit etc. Well worth it. To be honest you only need to do it once as you can learn the ropes that time, and just use them for advertising later. 

Also, yes think about joining the NLA to keep abreast of regulations etc. 

If you do organise your own contract, Signable is a great app for digitally signing documents (no paper or face to face needed). 

The only thing I would NOT do is hand over choosing tenants. Do viewings yourself (bunched into an open house viewing is a great way to save you time and also create some urgency and competition amongst potential tenants which is a double bonus). Why do viewings yourself? Your gut instinct/reaction to a person is usually right. It’s not a fail safe, but you can be sure that if someone feels a bit odd/like trouble, they probably are, and you’d be better off avoiding them. 

I manage my own apartment in Manchester and live 1.5 hours away. It’s fine. Go for it! 

[eamonHeggarty]

Thanks for the Information. @holly edge @tom charrier thanks, big time for the open rent information as I've never seen that website before but it looks amazing and the service they offer seems to be unbeatable. Ill reference you @holly edge when i join up so you get a free listing. 

 

The NLA also seems to be a low cost, high-quality information site so ill have a look into that too. 

 

Unfortunately, i'm 10.5hours away tom, but my friend is willing to do the groundwork and as its a new build there shouldn't be much to manage except collect rent. 

 

Thanks again 

[Tom Charrier]

1 hour ago, Eamon H said:

Thanks for the Information. @holly edge @tom charrier thanks, big time for the open rent information as I've never seen that website before but it looks amazing and the service they offer seems to be unbeatable. Ill reference you @holly edge when i join up so you get a free listing. 

 

The NLA also seems to be a low cost, high-quality information site so ill have a look into that too. 

 

Unfortunately, i'm 10.5hours away tom, but my friend is willing to do the groundwork and as its a new build there shouldn't be much to manage except collect rent. 

 

Thanks again 

Sorry Eamon, just appreciated the title of the post is ‘expat advice’! My bad! OK so you’re not going to be there, but if you have a friend you trust, and you can make it worth their while to avoid them resenting it/not putting in the effort, then most of it still applies. No offence to any agents on here, but a friend is probably going to be more motivated to look after you than an agent (in my jaded opinion!!). Good luck! 

[Darren McNeill]

On 3/12/2018 at 11:51 AM, Eamon H said:

Thanks for the Information. @holly edge @tom charrier thanks, big time for the open rent information as I've never seen that website before but it looks amazing and the service they offer seems to be unbeatable. Ill reference you @holly edge when i join up so you get a free listing. 

 

The NLA also seems to be a low cost, high-quality information site so ill have a look into that too. 

 

Unfortunately, i'm 10.5hours away tom, but my friend is willing to do the groundwork and as its a new build there shouldn't be much to manage except collect rent. 

 

Thanks again 

 

Hi Eamon,

 

I have a documented journal where I have used OpenRent.  Have a read to see if it helps in any way for you.  I found the process really straight forward:
 

Darren

 

www.fmp-investments.com

www.f-m-p.uk

property@f-m-p.uk

 

 

[eamonHeggarty]

@darren mcneill  Thanks.

 

[Kiril M]

Looking for a Project Manager Manchester & Liverpool

 

Hi all,

 

Can anyone recommend project managers, with experience in small-scale residential refurbishment projects ? (1-2, 3 bed bed) working in Manchester or Liverpool.

 

Never employed project managers in the UK before, if anyone had experience with this - would you please share your opinion ?

 

Thanks!

Kiril

[Darren McNeill]

On 19/03/2018 at 11:57 AM, richard brown said:

Darren's journal on how to set up self-management tenant find using OpenRent is awesome! I highly recommend a read of that. @darren mcneill - let me know if you would be up for writing a guest blog post summarizing the same on our website (see below)?

 

Best

Richard

 

Hi Richard,

 

Yes not a problem - Just ping me an email with the requirements.

 

Darren

 

www.fmp-investments.com

www.f-m-p.uk

property@f-m-p.uk

[Nick Parkin]

If you are going to use your friend have them do an Accreditation course. A property is the most valuable thing you will ever buy, and there are 101 ways of losing it. It's never a matter of just collecting the rent.

[Chase Dobbie]

On 06/03/2018 at 8:58 PM, Eamon H said:

Hi, 

 

So I've purchased a property off plan nearly 2 years ago and its due for completion in July 2018. I have been contacted by 2/3 estate agencies and property management companies to offer their service however im not willing to pay the 12-13% (all in) fees as this is just eating away my profits. 

 

I do however have a friend that lives in the city, and he is happy to manage the property for a small fee each month (not that a new build should have much to manage).  As well as this he is asking a friend and i will try and use rightmove to advertise the property. 

 

Can anyone explain the process and what needs to be signed and contracts written up for me to rent to a tenant? Can this all be done through a solicitor? 

 

Has anyone done it solo before? 

 

Any feedback would be great

 

Thanks,

Eamon

Hi Eamon,

 

Where try Urban Bubble. Their management fees amount to 8%. If you mention I recommended them that may help as I send them a lot of business. (Chase Dobbie from Property Alliance Group)