If you can afford it and don’t want to get involved in the day-to-day hassle of finding tenants, property maintenance and so on then a letting agent is a great choice. However, if you’re willing to put in the time and effort you could save money by finding tenants yourself.
Letting agents generally charge around 10% of the rental value for finding a tenant – so if you are charging £750 per month you could spend £600 a year on agent fees, not including extra charges for arranging paperwork such as EPCs, Gas Safety Certificates etc. Finding your own tenant also means you can vet your own candidates, so may find someone more suitable and reliable than an agent would. So how do you go about finding a tenant without an agent?
Where to market your property
There are various ways you can market your property without using a high street agent. The most basic is word of mouth – put an advert in the window of your property, ask friends and acquaintances in the area, or even talk to the neighbours of your property to see if they know of anyone looking for a place to live locally.
One step up from word of mouth is social media. Many landlords are now having great success using Facebook, Twitter and other platforms to find tenants. They key here is to choose a site that will give you the best chance of finding suitable candidates in the right area. For example, if your Friends List is mainly made up of people who live out of the area, they won’t be much help in directing you to the right market.
Whichever social media platform you use, tailor your approach accordingly. If using Facebook you can create a Page for your property with a description and high quality photographs and share it with your friends or post on local groups. If you’re choosier, you could create an album on your personal profile and share it with your friends and their friends only. If you’re using Twitter, create a catchy hashtag to include in your tweets, and regularly tweet photos of the property and local amenities. YouTube can be used to share videos of the property with your contact details displayed at the end of each video. Or if you’re looking for professionals, try LinkedIn – create a listing for your property on Gumtree, send it to your network of local contacts and ask if they know of anyone who would be interested.
A good ‘halfway house’ between going it alone and using a high street agent is an online letting agent – these will list your property on the major websites such as Zoopla and Rightmove for a fixed fee. The fee varies but is generally in the region of £50 excluding VAT for up to 3 months – a bargain compared to high street agency fees.
Creating the advert
As well as knowing where to market your property, you also need to think about how you do it. Research rental prices for similar properties and pitch your price at just below market value to reel in enquiries (remember, you’re saving agency fees so can afford to do this!). Make sure your advert is tailored to the market you’re aiming for and includes all the important information – number and size of bedrooms, gardens, parking, condition, any furnishings or white goods included, and details of local amenities, schools and public transport links. Use plenty of high quality photos. It may help to be relaxed about the kind of tenant you’re looking for – for instance, renters with pets struggle to find accommodating landlords, so if you’re happy to have a few furry tenants mention this in the advert.
What happens next?
Bear in mind that it might take a while to find the right tenant – this could be a few weeks, or longer for a larger property. Make sure you keep on marketing your property throughout this time, so the impetus isn’t lost. And once you’ve found a suitable candidate be sure to deal with all the paperwork, such as tenant checks, contracts, deposit protection and so on. This may be time-consuming but can be done at a fraction of the cost letting agents charge.
Finding your own tenants isn’t an easy option, but with some hard work and patience you could save yourself money and be able to cherry pick the tenant you feel is best for your property.
Write a Comment