Letting agents and fees Post Reply

[littlebalckbear]

Hello

We are thinking about renting out our family house on the Northside and are looking for an agent to use.

Would anyone be happy to recommend an agency that either they have used to let a property with or have rented from?

To would also be great to get a sense of agency fees. I have heard that letting and rental collect only fees are around 10-12% + VAT. Is that right?!

Many thanks in advance

x

[nanny_kitty]

As renters we didn't like Douglas and Gordon - they made promises to us without first talking to the landlord (causing them expense and a rather bad start to our landlord/tenant relationship). Everything now rectified after a sit down and a chat without D&G interfering!

Past employers have used Rampton Baseley with success when they rented their house whilst on an assignment abroad.

[balhamite]

Hi

We have just rented out our family home in Balham and we are using Hamptons who I thoroughly recommend. I spoke to a number of agents initially and was attracted to Hamptons as they seemed the most confident of being able to secure a family/couple for our house rather than a group of younger sharers. They certainly delivered as we had 2 offers on the first day of viewing both from corporate relocations and it ended up going for above asking. If you think your place would appeal to corporate tennants I think Hamptons would be a good choice as they seem to have lots of contacts in this area.

We used the Balham branch where Rachel the lettings manager and her team have been lovely to deal with (not at all like stereotypical estate agents).

In terms of fees I can't really remember as we are going for a managed service but I think a finders fee/rent collection was a bit less than you mention.

Good luck

[mmb]

I would NOT recommend Lauristons. We are currently renting with them on the Northside and of course they are not good for tenants (but who as a tenant has a nice relationship with a letting agent?), but if I were the landlord, I would be gutted with the way they are NOT taking care of the property.
I as the tenant advised them of some leaks and humidity problems back in January; they took no less than 2 months to send a contractor to prepare an estimate for repairs, it is now end of June and nothing has been done. The property is now in a very bad condition, external and internal, just because it is not dealt with. If they had done it immediately it would have been very minor repairs. I don't know if the landlord is aware of that but if it was my property I would be outraged.

[NYE31]

We rented our house out through James Pendleton & later sold it through them.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, I would not however, recommend or use Realm Estates ever again!!!!

Good luck

[windmill26]

I would also stay away from Jacksons,KFH and Maalems.

[Muddlemoo]

I recently used a brilliant company called www.clarkking.co.uk

They basically advertise on Gumtree or other local websites & charge MUCH less than an estate agent. The lady that runs it - Lisa King has years of experience as an Estate Agent so she really knows her stuff. She was a godsend - doing everything from drawing up contracts, to showing tenants around, helping me set up the flat so i had everything in needed, sorted out inventory and even bought the tenants wine, flowers and a card when they moved in. Such a brilliant service & i can't recommend enough.

[littlebalckbear]

That's brilliant many thanks all - really useful information.
Muddlemoo - the company you mentioned sounds interesting but the link you give is through to a project management type company which doesn't look right. What's the name of the company you used?
Many thanks! x

[Muddlemoo]

Hi yes that's the right link! Go to the contact page and give Lisa a call and she can talk you through everything! Honestly she was brilliant x

[Chads21]

Be nice if it was easy to do it yourself.
I do know someone in the process of developing a smart new business proposition which will allow landlords to do just this.
Send me a note if you're interested, I could put you in touch!
ta

[Q&RHolidayLetMgnt]

Hi There

Just wanted to add that we are a new start up company managing holiday lets in London. Please visit our website www.qandrholidayletmanagement.com. We can also take on lettings management. We are a family run business based in Putney.

Thank you

Raga

[LuluDaffodil]

Hi there

We are considering renting out our two bedroom flat in Balham. We're not sure where to start!

Does anyone have recommendations on trustworthy letting agents to use and an idea of their fees? Is it worth trying to let it directly to avoid charges?

Any other costs we need to take into consideration?

Any help would be much appreciated!!!

Many thanks in advance xxx

[Tilly&Roo]

We rent out and manage our flats ourselves. There really isn't a lot to it. We used to just use gumtree but have more recently started using openrent which I highly recommend as it posts the listing on rightmove etc and does the referencing, contract etc for around £50 if I remember correctly. We've never had a day where it hasn't been rented out (in 10+ years!).

The management side can be slightly more time consuming depending on how recently the flat was refurbished. But again it's not that difficult once you have a few trustworthy handyman/electrician/plumbers up your sleeve. I'd recommend getting a Homecare agreement with British Gas (or similar) for £20 ish per month as there are good at getting engineers out quickly if needed so you don't need to use the likes of Pimlico plumbers who are incredibly expensive for emergency call outs.

Alternatively there are some independent companies who do the management side of things and charge an hourly rate rather than paying 15% to the estate agents (at the end of the day they still need to contact you when things go wrong to get authorisation so it's not that much time saved for A LOT of money).

Happy to help if you have more questions.

[Mum2two2012]

I have used Palace Gate over the last three years and have found the Manager Charlie fantastic. No heavy sales pitch. Just honesty. Palace Gate have been in the area for over 30 years and specialise only in Lettings so they know their stuff! Always worth trying to negotiate fees. No harm in asking! Touchwood no void periods so far!

[LuluDaffodil]

Thank you very much for the recommendations so far. Some very useful tips!!
Please keep it coming.

Thank you again xxx