I’ve had an estate agent come to my house to value it for rental.
I also have all the terms and conditions as well as agency fees and to be honest, they are pretty good/reasonable compared to others I have read.
I’m having work done on my house before I rent it out. I tend to stick to the same guy, he knows the house etc.
He came by to collect a key to the house as I’m popping overseas for a couple of weeks. The work will be done in my absence.
He knows I’m putting it on the market to rent.
Anyway he has an old work colleague who is moving down here permanently and he’s looking for a house to rent long-term. His friend by the way will be working for him.
Has a wife and child.
Needless to say he’s very interested in my house, given the price of apartments in the area.
My question is…I suppose I could do this through the agency, but not as full management, cutting out the bits in between?
Or just do it myself? Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Stick to doing things properly or you will live to regret it.
I would not go away when work is being done on the house. Quite apart from checking the quality I would want to be on hand to make sure the right dfcisions are made when something comes up.
Unless you are an experienced and highly knowledgeable landlord, stick with the agent and let him lead on tenant find, (making sure you have a say). Tell your builders mate he’s welcome to apply through the agent but you want to do things properly.
The decorators I know them and they’ve done a number of jobs in the house.
Yes, I agree regarding new possibley tenant. I’ll discuss this with the estate agent tomorrow.
You have no friends in business, family are even worse no matter how tenuous the relationship. I’m dealing with numerous tenancy a breaches and rent arrears.
Yes, some do learn the hard way regarding renting to family.
However, I rented my house to my daughter and her partner. Full rent was paid every month without fail
Its not so much the concern that family members won’t pay the rent, its that other disagreements very often arise with tenants over the way they look after the place or the people they allow to stay there or careless breakages or the number of times they call you to deal with something trivial or any number of other issues that you can find on this forum. When its a member of your family it can destroy the relationship over time.
It’s vital that you choose the tenants yourself. If you get the wrong people in, they will trash your house. not pay rent and possibly worse, like growing drugs or subletting to all sorts. Your life will be hell and it could take a year to get rid of them via the slow court process. The odds are stacked against you as a landlord.
In my experience, High Street letting agents, who may mean well, have the option to walk away from all these problems once they have chosen the tenant. They often have a policy of picking the first people to apply who have the initial payments.
Interview all potentials carefully, use your instincts, and do credit references. It’s £29 to advertise on Open Right, use this to generate some interest from other potentials, you can always interview your builder’s friends too, and you can pick them if they are the best candidates.
