UK Landlord Forum / Life

The last time I tried Upad it didn't work out for me very well. I returned to my tame Letting Agent for a new Tenant Find only engagement and he charged me a couple of hundred quid for the pleasure of putting up some photos I'd taken, handling a few calls and passing me the leads... I did my viewings, haggling and Tenant selection.

I saw Upad now do a £45 Basic offering... basically just get your property on the portals and they try to up-sell you everything else along the way (photos, floor plan, EPC, GSC, you name it, they'll try to sell you it!) but if you're strong and have your racing blinkers on, you can dodge all that and get it up there. I have 3 viewings booked in and I always expect some attrition... but I wonder if I'll get 100% attrition this time?

This Basic offering also has something about Tenancy Compliance... a recorded and provable delivery of the necessaries. I'll probably give that a go if I get a Tenant from this endeavour.

What I do like is the Upad management portal, where I can see the properties I have listed (even the one from a long while ago), its photos and advert text... you can press a few buttons to list it, unlist it, you can see the Tenants making approaches... it's not bad. I feel in control... kinda. Well, as much as a Landlord can be, I expect.

3 viewings booked-in, 2 bothered to turn-up, 1 made an offer of the asking price and we're going through referencing. The way that Upad sends emails each day of the referencing process (using their £75 per Tenant facility this time) is quite nice, even though you can go in and check yourself through the Landlord console.

Good to know as I may use this service in the near future. You're going through referencing for one of the people who turned up I assume :-)

Sure...

Even the one that offered. I'm not referencing the one who didn't offer. Seems kinda pointless and I'm not sure they'd agree to pay the fee. The prospective Tenants pay the £75, you see?

Referencing passed. Going ahead... going to try the Upad option of serving documents on them... and retaining proof on my behalf (could be risky - I suffer from a complete lack of trust regarding other people and organisations).

I'm going to prepare to give it a go as well in the next quarter. The only thing is not sure if my 'catchment' is really into looking online, guess only one way to find out ... I would worry about not have copies myself personally.

Everything went swimmingly with Upad. £45 all-in and I even have a record of all the necessary documents being served, and signed, electronically. I liked that. Yes, I still printed out the deposit stuff on the day of Check-In and asked them to sign those again... why wouldn't I?

I liked the on-line portal. I liked the price. I liked how I was just left to get on with it. I liked how I could even decide to not follow-up on someone's initial enquiry based on their email address - is that discrimination? I don't care. I was in control, you see? And, if anyone complained, I can just say I had a lot of interest and couldn't follow-up on every enquiry, even though the truth is that I cherry-picked. The only downside, I guess, is that I negotiate a no-let-no-fee with a real Agent, but Upad gets their money up-front... however, I've never not managed to let a property, so the payment is always made... I guess it's just when. And £45 vs. £250 to £300 is not small beer in these tough times.

I will do this again, the next time I should need to will be Sep. this year.

That's what I call a great result!
I think it's fair to cherry pick. Why not? You're looking after your interests afterall.