UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi

My property is currently with an agent on a tenant find  only basis. It's been four weeks, and no one has yet rented it.

I was wondering what other landlords do when they use agents on a tenant find basis. Do you trust the agent or do you insist on meeting the prospective tenant before they sign the contract?

The property is about 45 mins away from my home.

Any tips or pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Max

If this is your first time with this agent I would ask to meet serious applicants yourself,and trust your gut instinct.You can find good agents who have a bit of savvy,but many will happily gloss over things to get their commission.I also set a time limit,depending on the time of year.If somewhere has not been let after say 6 weeks,I would change agents and/ or lower the rent (cheaper than longterm voids)

Remember this...

Your Agent does not care about your success... your Agent only cares about the fee you will pay them (or have paid them) for Tenant Find. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the Agent would be happy to get anyone in there to allow them to get you off their books and the money in the pockets. Do you trust the Agent? Never. I would always - always - always - do the viewings and Tenant selection myself. I used to use traditional Agents for Tenant Find, I now use UPad's Basic Package (it has worked well around 3 times for me now).

If your property has not let after 4 weeks, it is entirely possible the Agent is doing absolutely nothing to help you out... or you've made it less attractive in rent terms. Who can know?

45 minutes is nothing. Get involved...

I can only agree with the everything that's been said above.
I've had agents who have tried to avoid letting me meet serious prospective tenants which of course is unacceptable. I have also seen some of the people they were showing round and I could have told them not to bother had I known beforehand.
They really cannot care as much as you do.

Assuming you did use an Agent's Tenant find service, unless you were able to have a say in the process they used to vet the candidates I would always, carry out my own vetting in addition.

Life's biggest dangers: Fire, Water, Electricity, Agents.

Hi

Many thanks for your responses and great advice. I have now decided to take things into my own hands and try and get a tenant myself. I have advertised on Gumtree as my agent's ad is still on Rightmove. I have had many enquires and I emailed out a list to prospective tenants and also tried my best to filter/qualify them on the phone. So I had some viewings yesterday and even though my ad clearly states I need copies 3 months' payslips/bank statements, and I will carry out credit checks I was getting people who apparently thought they would get a viewing and be able to convince me that they would be a good bet, even though they had CCJ etc. I had one chap who openly admitted that if I were interested in a deal, he would give me three times the rent as long as I allowed him to grow his PLANTS lol, even admitting that he gets eastern Europeans to apply and pass the referencing to get a tenancy.

I am currently losing the will to live and my sanity. I need a better pre-qualification system before I waste my time on these wasted viewings with people who are just chancers.

Please HELP!

Many thanks

UPad? You still have to make the first contact, though, and do a bit of vetting over the phone... doing Viewings is fun. Enjoy it. You get to make judgements about people you don't even know... what's more fun than that? The Tenant will pay UPad £75 for their own referencing... and UPad just tells you what to do (you can ignore that, of course) but it means a prospective Tenant has put something in the game at that point.

I'd never think of Gumtree... unless it was a hovel, maybe? Is it a hovel? It all sounds very Coronation Street to me... it'll be a hand-written card in the local Newagent's next.

Quote from: maxim123 on January 16, 2019, 11:11:34 AM
Hi

Many thanks for your responses and great advice. I have now decided to take things into my own hands and try and get a tenant myself. I have advertised on Gumtree as my agent's ad is still on Rightmove. I have had many enquires and I emailed out a list to prospective tenants and also tried my best to filter/qualify them on the phone. So I had some viewings yesterday and even though my ad clearly states I need copies 3 months' payslips/bank statements, and I will carry out credit checks I was getting people who apparently thought they would get a viewing and be able to convince me that they would be a good bet, even though they had CCJ etc. I had one chap who openly admitted that if I were interested in a deal, he would give me three times the rent as long as I allowed him to grow his PLANTS lol, even admitting that he gets eastern Europeans to apply and pass the referencing to get a tenancy.

I am currently losing the will to live and my sanity. I need a better pre-qualification system before I waste my time on these wasted viewings with people who are just chancers.

Please HELP!

Many thanks

Dont underestimate the effectiveness of asking for bank statements.  I have managed to filter people with this.  One of which seemed nice but later turned out to be in over their head with gambling debts.

The rationale for requesting bank statements is not to be nosy into general financial affairs, it is simply looking for evidence that a) they have a regular income and b) they have been paying their previous rent/mortgage in a timely fashion.

By the way I think 6 months evidence is preferable.

Erm.... Gumtree is not the best outlet as you have found out.

I have to look into Upad myself! What appeals to me most is that I can see what the prospective tenants have put in themselves rather than relying on second hand (mis)information from agents...

Just to clarify, you may still use agents, but with a lot of cynicism and mostly using your own judgement and instincts. In my own experience, I always use multiple agents sometimes with a slight overlap so that the ads will last over a longer period. I recently spoke to a few agents and they tell me January is slow but expect it to pick up soon. So talk to other agents in your area.
Once there are some contenders, insist on meeting them yourself - they will mostly want a second viewing so I would take the time to do this part myself and can quickly tell if they're serious or not before any referencing starts. Honestly, you have to know how they take to dealing with a landlord rather than an agent so they must communicate with you directly in any event and of course best to actually meet them first.
It sounds like an agent would have at the very least filtered out the people you've had to meet so far via Gumtree.
You may want to look at similar properties to check the rent you're asking is about right.
I would also resist the temptation to quickly agree to the first suitable tenant that comes your way. Take your time because it's worth it in the long run.

I used Gumtree for the first time last week to sell an old-clapped out caravan (not mine I hasten to add,I would not be found dead in one) It was a mistake using my phone number,you would not believe the things people want to use an old caravan for.I started out in BTL meaning to get my own tenants through private ads in the local paper.I quickly dropped that idea-no shows,chancers,loonies-and started using an agent.This Upad sounds interesting,Gumtree no way!