buy to let letting agents

Buy to Let letting agents guide

explained

Assuming you decide to enter the buy to let market one of the first things you will have to decide is which letting agent you will use, assuming you are not going to find your tenants by yourself. You may feel that you can save yourself some money and advertise in the local press to find your own pennants. While this tactic may work well you should also bear in mind the convenience that a letting agent can provide.

The main benefit of a letting agent is they nearly always tend to have large numbers of prospective tenants registered with them at any one time. Therefore assuming the property you are letting is in good condition and in a good location, a good letting agent should be able to find you a tenant in a very short space of time.

Fully managed v Tenant finding

Letting agents tend to offer two levels of service to landlords. Fully managed services do just what they say. The agent will deal with everything from finding a tenant, holding and reimbursing the tenant's deposits, move them in and out and also deal with any maintenance issues that arise. In such an event they'll arrange for any repairs to be carried out as and when required, usually through a handymen or tradesmen that works directly for the agency.

Fully managed lettings are very popular with landlords that do not live close the property in question or do not have the time to dedicate to managing the relationship with tenants and maintaining the property. The one drawback is cost. With a fully managed letting service you can typically expect the agent to charge an initial fee of around one month rent at the start tenants stay plus anything from 8% to 20% of your monthly rental income. In addition any bills for repairs or maintenance will be sent to you for payment.

The alternative to fully managed services are basic tenant finding services. Here you simply pay a one off fee (again often roughly the equivalent of one months rent) and the agent will advertise your property, find a suitable tenant, perform credit checks and references, ask for proof of income and deal with all aspects of the letting until the tenants move in. From that point you are pretty much on your own. If for example a water pipe bursts in the middle of the night the tenant will call you to sort it out, not the agent.

Assuming you have the time to dedicate to managing your property then using this kind of service can save you a lot of money in the long run as you'll not be losing a % of the monthly rental income to the letting agent every month.

With both of the above types of service the letting's agent will take the agreed deposit from you tenants and keep this separate. When the tenants move in they will perform an inventory of the property noting and making both parties aware of any damage. The same happens when the tenants move out and any damaged not deemed to be normal wear and tear will result in part of the tenants deposit being given back to you to cover the cost to make the damage good.