UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi All

What would you do....

Imagine your property has been on rent for about 2 weeks. After some rif-raf you get a good potential tenant. He works in the hospital so long hours, wont be home much. Very tidy guy.

Now lets say for arguments sake, your property is up for £800. He makes you an offer of £600. Your ultimate low is £700, he considers accepting but wants to know if you can do the referencing privately as he wishes to keep costs down. Letting agent will charge him about £100 plus £50 for check in. You don't mind but would like to have kept the agent for management, and cannot do this if you do what the tenant wishes. You will then have to self manage the tenant.

Would you then take on the tenant and self manage, and go to your minimum rent for this guy as you hit it off straight away, and get a very good vibe from him?

...OR...

Do you say sorry I would want the agent to manage, so you will have to pay the full agent costs?

Or any other suggestions you would do

Has the agent actually introduced this tenant, or have you found him yourself?

If the agent has introduced the tenant to you then both you and the tenant may be obliged to use their "introduction only" service, this being of course the step down from full management.  Most agents do offer it, but a typical fee, at least around here, would be equal to the first month's rent.  The service would usually still include the tenant referencing/credit checks and sometimes inventory etc., but after that you self manage the tenant and your property.  That is the service we have normally used, though we are currently trying UPAD, via the internet (seeing how that one goes still), as they are so much cheaper.

Self-managing isn't too bad once you have built up a list of trusted workmen like handymen, electricians, plumbers etc. 

Hi Topseyt

Sorry I forgot to mention. Property is advertised through agent however I do my own viewings, so very easy for me to take the tenant and not go through agent (however not my intention).

Yes I was initially going to self-manage anyway, just that I found a really good agent I would trust to manage it, and offer very competitive fees also, so I thought why not.

wants you to do referencing privately...................alarm bells!!!

I'd advise caution. Sometimes you build a rapport with someone, think they are lovely and then it all goes wrong. This guy may be totally decent, honest, upfront etc but he could also be a bit shady and one of the things he needs to do is get on side with you - thats why he seems so nice.

You could potentially carry out a reference privately, not be 100% certain on how to assess it, let this guy move in for £100pm less than market rate and find a load of problems.

Have you ever referenced a tenant before? If not, make sure you get all the info you need, ask for a bank and employer reference, previous landlord reference, try checking him up on facebook etc.

Maybe I sound a little bit over the top but at the end of the day its a valuable asset, the law tends to side with tenants, why risk having it thrashed, no rent, etc just be cause he is a nice chap!!


Topseyt ever tried lovemypad for rental listings. They are completely free, worked for me as well

Hi Ciaraboo

Thanks for the reply. That is some very good advice and definitely not over the top, however I think I gave the wrong impression... Actually I DID give the wrong impression!

When I said reference privately, what I meant is doing the whole thing privately (not through the agent). Referencing would still be done through a company, Upad for example charge only £50. I would then prepare the tenancy, register deposit, etc. Its purely to keep costs down for tenant as he had a budget of £600 so is being squeezed.

Anyway, after a few more meets with him, I have actually decided to go with him. References being carried out as we speak.

Regarding market value, I believe it is around £700. This was initially my ideal rent, however its only the agent that advised we can maybe get £800. My eyes had pound signs!  This was then moved down to £775 and now 3rd week £750. Maybe I was too greedy to think I could get £800. Lesson learnt!

So £700 minus agent fees, and hopefully good tenant - I can live with that!

Sorry again for not making myself 100% clear but appreciate the advice anyway guys.