Letting Agents: Your GOOD and BAD points

[mattoo]

OK, just wondered what people's experiences have been with letting agents. Please post your good and bad points - hopefully the agent will take note and shape up!! :rolleyes:

Here is the experience I have had letting...

GOOD POINTS:
> excellent marketing
> fast response to adverts
> in local paper within a week
> kept me informed frequently
> carried out all the necessary checks
> dealt with the contracts etc

BAD POINTS:
> as soon as tenants in, they lost interest
> charge me every month for doing nothing
> charge me for renewing contract with tenant (money for old rope)
> take a long time to inform me of any tenant problems
> dont carry out regular checks as promised
> have set up a syphon from my bank account to theirs!

Sorry to have a go, my letting agent was great at the beginning and thoroughly deserved my money, but now they do nothing for my money, it just seems wrong.

Go on, join the bandwagon and post your views!!

[Jonboy]

Landlords You have Good and Bad Points too:

Good Points:

you have property which we can rent for you


Bad points:

You take forever to get documents/keys etc to us so we can start marketing
You expect us to do miracles with you crap properties
you make expectations on unrealitic rents
you consitently let down tenants with repairs etc, making us look like liars for saying good things about you!
you complain about our advertising fees, despite never have rang a paper to see exactly how much those swines are robbing us for, the only section in a paper more expensive to advertise in than property is jobs
you completely forget that it is us who take away all the time wasters who leaving you standing on doorsteps becaues they 'forgot' 'found somewhere else' 'car broke down' etc etc
you forget when complianing about our fees that very often we have acheived you a rent higher than expected, thus making our fees effectivley disapear
you seem to think that we are able to run a business with no expenses
depsite having been new to something once in your life and, whilst you were not very good - you did do things with the best of intentions, you forget this when shouting and balling down the phone at trainee staff, who have been inn the jobs 3 weeks and still have a lot to learn.
you think that you can shout and ball and treat the agency staff like crap one minute and a week later walk in with a new property and expect us to think your the greatest, try remebering that we will work with you as hard as we can but we do expect abit of apprecitation for all our hard work and if you develop a good relationship with us it will work far more in your favour than having a go about something minor which isn't rewally a propblem anyway
if given a chance you cosy up to tenants on viewings with the express intention of getting them to agree to bypass the agent and ensure the agent is done out his of fees
you bad mouth us on forums

[mattoo]

The whole point of having a discussion is to be fair with your views and offer justified opinions. You are basically saying that all landlords are like this. I for one have only had experience with one letting agent, which wasnt good BUT this does NOT mean I believe all letting agents are like this, far from it. Im sure there are plenty of letting agents who completely justify what the earn. The thing is, without landlords, you wouldnt have a job and by tarnishing every landlord with the same brush is a bit silly.

I mentioned my experience with 1 letting agent, whereas you make it out that every landlord is like what you say. Chip on your shoulder?

Im willing to accept that not all letting agents are the same - are you willing to accept that not all landlords are a pain in the neck?!:D

[great2rent.co.uk]

Well, whats going on here then?? Great2Rent.co.uk has the answer for Mattoo!

I'm a Letting Agent, Landlord and a Lawyer roled into one. Mattoo, check out www.great2rent.co.uk and click on the Bronze Service if you want best of both worlds!

Good luck ;)

[Tassotti]

Letting Agent

Good points

1 - You advertise our properties and get a tenant

Bad Points

1 - You charge a months rent for advertising

2 - You charge between 10-20% for 'managing' the property

3 - When there are problem tenants you have no interest whatsoever

4 - If a tenant turns out to be bad, there is no comeback on you and your referencing techniques

5 - You charge uo to £150 for a tenancy agreement which you get online for a fiver. And you charge to renew this (both to Landlord and tenant)

I could go on and on but cannot be bothered.

My advice, if you do use a letting agent, use them only to find tenants...check that their referencing is a okay, then lose them

[Jonboy]

of course mattoo, i am not suggesting that all landlords are like this, simply putting forward the other sides view.

the attitude of the last poster is a perfect example of the sort of rubbish landlords we get throught the door, on occasion! The vast majority of my landlords are great. and in response to some of those points, we take a great interest when a client has a bad tenant and do everything we can to help and we don't charge for it. we don't charge anywhere near as much as he is stating for our services and we often give things like ast's for free. we have just done all our management clients hmo applications for no charge! whereas some agents are charging £300+ per property

so NO, not all lanldords are bad, but neither are all agents!

[mattoo]

we have just done all our management clients hmo applications for no charge! whereas some agents are charging £300+ per property. So NO, not all landlords are bad, but neither are all agents!

Fair enough and good on you!:) Its nice to see that you a prepared to do that bit extra without charge. But Im sure it wont go un noticed, since word of mouth will probably get you more landlords anyhow. So although your going the extra mile for free, youre gaining more long term revenue from a new landlord. Thats how it should be, but there are too many people out there today only interested in those £££££ signs!!

[Jonboy]

thanks, and you are right we get all our new clients by word of mouth, which is just the way i like it and the way it should be. :)

it's amazing that people think that they can offer rip off service to people and stay in business! but then that's probably why a lot of my competitors spend so much time complaining about the cost of advertising! because they have to do so much of it to get a client through the door!

a word to agents if you are "interested in those £££££ signs" offer a decent service, you will spend less on advertising, get a better reputation and do more business!

[dhphoto]

Q: What do you call 100 Letting Agents at the bottom of the sea?

A: A good start :)


David

[Caburn5]

Having been on both sides of this debate (letting agent turned landlord & property manager) I can see both sides.

I agree that the lettings agents appear to do nothing for their money, but we were spending £800.00 per week on advertising, not to mention office rent & overheads. For a private landlord to place a 2 line ad in the accommodatio section would set them back a good £30.00 per week.

Yes sometimes management fees are money for old rope, but you can have 30properties giving no problems for 6 months, whilst at the same time you can get 1 or 2 that give you no end of problems. As a property manager I was always on call if the tenants needed me, 24 - 7 - 365days a year.

Agents do field a lot of timewasters, also be aware that many tenants will not even look at private ads, you tend only to attract the dodgy ones, who think that a private landlord will not credit check them.

Like all things in life, go by personal recommendation, I gained a lot of business that way. If you try to avoid the bad agents they will soon be out of business. Remember a good agent is well worth his fee, a bad agent will cost you a lot more than your fee.

I also find that professional landlords are easier to deal with in respect of the properties not being personal, although by the same token we do expect to see a return on our investments.

[Mogs]

I used to be a letting agent, and now I run an inventory service which covers Hampshire/Surrey and Berkshire. I find that most landlords are easy to deal with, until things go wrong and then when we have the task of sorting out the problem tenant or the problems within the property, this takes time and sometimes landlord/tenant make things take longer if they do not co-operate and do not respond to letters/phone calls etc. to sort out problem. If the agent is good, they will want things cleared up immediately, as a happy landlord/tenant situation makes life so much easier. Inventories are crucial for the landlord, however quite a few agents do not take the time to write a full and detailed one for their clients (so I have found) or the landlord thinks it is a waste of money. When the tenant wrecks the place, that is when agent/landlord realises what an important document this is, especially if attention to detail is important to the clerk and made sure they have the tenants signature of agreement. For details on my inventory service - 01252 656779/ 07722 652815

[Caburn5]

Like Mogs I also gave up being an agent to run an inventory company & it is true what he says about some landlords. Sometimes we will be shown the landlords own inventory, anything from one side of A4 to usually a maximum of 3 sides!

Properly carried out inventories do cost money, but in reality they also save money too. The need for an impartial inventory company is very important to, as tenants rarely trust an inventory made up by the landlord or agent.

I cover the West Berkshire area & am more than happy to provide a quote if required for any property type. www.tournoffproperty.co.uk

I proper, well presented inventory can speak volumes about an agent & or Landlord, it shows that they really care about the property, as well as proving their commitment to returning the deposit at the end of the tenancy.

[choices]

:D I am all woman. Never been a man in my life. Happy to stay that way.
So we sound like competitors, very healthy. All true what you say about inventories, so hopefully more landlords will now be clearer on why one is so important to them.

[choices]

just replied under my other name, used wrong computor, had a blonde moment........

[Paul_f]

Of course when the TDS comes in October ???? (it will be delayed until January I expect!) all inventories will be under much greater scrutiny. I've seen so called inventory companies who do a less than acceptable job and those that are excellent are likely to clear up after the TDS.

I would advise any agent who operates a "let only" service to steer well clear of being involved in any compilation of the inventory. Let a specialist company do it or let the landlord do their own (badly) if need be! Fun and games are not far off just wait and see!

[choices]

Trained with the AIIC. I do write up excellent inventories. Have also seen some rubbish inventories which missed off loads of things or nearly unreadable. Hear what you are saying but it is similar to everyone hating letting agents, some good some bad. Isn't life like that tho'..............;)