With high street estate agencies charging high rates of commission on letting services, it comes as no surprise that many of Britain’s landlords choose to go it alone. But in an effort to save hundreds - or even thousands - of pounds in fees, DIY landlords may struggle to find quality tenants.
Void periods and bad tenants both end up costing you money, but fear of the first can often lead to the second. The solution is to quickly generate a large number of good quality tenant enquiries, giving you the widest possible choice. Combined with proper referencing, this gives landlords the best chance of finding the right tenant.
GETTING ENQUIRIES THROUGH RIGHTMOVE AND ZOOPLA
High street agents talk about having lots of quality tenants ‘on their books’ - but the truth is 90% of people looking for a property do so online, and nowhere more often than through the UK’s leading property portals, Rightmove & Zoopla. These sites drive the vast majority of quality enquiries nowadays.
However, only registered agents can directly upload properties to these sites, making it tough for DIY landlords to gain access to the best tenant-find tools. Until recently, they had to choose between expensive agent fees or making do with leafleting, local press advertising, or classified ad sites to find tenants themselves.
However, this has now changed in a big way with the rise of online agents.
‘PICK-AND-CHOOSE’ LETTING AGENTS
Landlords can now buy all of the services they would expect from the high street – for a fraction of the cost. Not having branches, it turns out, saves a lot on overheads, and those cost-savings are passed onto customers in the form of lower prices.
For example, the standard letting pack from easyProperty.com offers industry-leading tenant referencing, an eye-catching ‘To Let’ board and, most crucially, an advert on Rightmove, Zoopla, and PrimeLocation to get those viewing requests flowing in.
Try it for the first week for free with no tie-ins, and then if you want to continue, pay just £9.99 a week. A package like this represents a saving of hundreds of pounds when compared to high street agents – whose commissions commonly run to over 10% of your monthly rent for a ‘let only’ tenant find service, more if you’d like them to manage the property as well.
DOING THE SUMS
Let’s imagine you’re a landlord with a 3-bedroom house in Harrow. After some research, you decide to rent out the property for £1,500 a month. If you choose to find tenants through a high street estate agent, you would be facing around 10% commission (often more) month in, month out, for as long as those tenants stay.
Over the first year, this works out to £1,800 – not including additional charges for tenancy agreements, inventories and other such admin, and before VAT is added on at 20%, so you’d be looking at agency fees of £2160 all-in.
For an online agent’s take on the traditional high street service, just consider easyProperty’s Complete lettings pack. For a simple one-off flat fee of £275 you’d receive:
• a professionally created advert (with photos, floor plan and descriptions)
• listings on Rightmove, Zoopla, and PrimeLocation
• an eye-catching ‘To Let’ board erected for you
• management of tenant enquiries
• an open house (or group viewing)
• tenant referencing at no cost to the landlord
• arrangement of deposit protection
• an ARLA-accredited tenancy agreement
There is no commission to be paid, and no mandatory extra fees. What’s more, the price includes VAT, so no need to factor in an extra 20% on top. There’s also a special summer offer giving you 6 months free property management when you choose this pack.
By going with easyProperty over a high street letting agent you will have saved at least £1,885 in the first year alone.
Once you do the sums, it’s easy to see why landlords are leaving the high street in droves.
To find out how you can profit from using an online estate agent, go to easyProperty.com
... LandlordZONE.