Why use and how to choose a letting agent?

Why use and how to choose a letting agent?

In a recent issue of Landlord Today reveals that only a quarter of landlords is using a letting agent to fully manage their rental homes. Another 15% uses an agent on an occasional basis – mainly to help them find a tenant. The Twitter survey was carried out for Landlord Today and Letting Agent Today and polled 2,000 landlords for their views on using an agent.

The main issue that landlords have with using property professionals to help them let their properties is cost. Since the tenant fees ban, agents are having to load their costs onto landlords instead of passing them to renters – and property owners are clearly not happy about it. However, as letting agents as well as property managers, we think there are other reasons why landlords should consider using an agent. Here are the key benefits as we see them:

Location – if you own a property that isn’t located near your home, employing an agent makes it much easier to find a tenant due to the letting agents’ local knowledge and advertising reach. Organising repairs and dealing with emergencies at a distance is also stressful and a lot of hassle!

Professional knowledge – letting agents not only know the local market but they also know the legal framework that governs renting inside out. Compliance is central to letting out a property – and not knowing the rules can be costly. The fees landlords pay to an agent are far less than the fines they are likely to get if they don’t play by the rules

The time factor – paying someone else to find you a suitable tenant, deal with referencing and take responsibility for right to rent checks and tenancy agreements saves time and makes the whole process far less painful - particularly for first-time landlords or people with just one property. Of course you can do all these things yourself but you have to be confident of getting it right first time, otherwise you could find yourself with an unsuitable tenant - or worse – on the wrong side of the law.

However, there are clearly lots of landlords out there who are prepared to go it alone. So for those who do prefer that route to renting, at Ringley we’ve designed a great automated lettings platform that allows landlords to do just that. Smart Lettings uses a simple dashboard and individual easy-to-use portals for landlords, tenants and agents. It has all the important issues around compliance covered and is really simple to get to grips with. It’s also pay-as-you-go so there are no contracts to sign or subscriptions to pay. So if you are one of the landlords that would rather not pay an agent to do something you can do yourself, why not try Smart Lettings today?