UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi all,

Thought I'd share my recent experiences with you.  I'm a long time lurker on this site, though I occasionally post in the blog comments.  Great site by the way, it's really helped!

So, we've had a bit of a nightmare getting our first tenants in, we've had a few people agree, sign an application form, then pull out at the last minute, or withhold information meaning we had to cancel (like, they're claiming HB).  We've even been threatened with legal action after refusing to return someone's holding deposit after they pulled out, despite both us and them having a receipt signed by both parties which clearly states that the deposit isn't refundable if they pull out!

Anyway, so it's getting a bit tricky now and we really had to get someone in, so we decided to pull out all the stops...and hire an agent as well.  We went with quite a reputable one, and they were charging one month's rent + VAT for finding us a tenant.  One bonus was that there'd be no re-let fee, so it was just a one off payment.  It's still pretty expensive for simply placing an ad and finding us a tenant.  So we went for it, and gave them a set of keys and some pictures of the property (I don't trust agents to take their own pictures any more!!).

Meanwhile, we set about trying our own luck.  We decided not to simply stick with the free sites (Gumtree, houseladder, etc), and we went through Let Match (as recommended on this site) and they put an ad on Rightmove for us for around £30.

It appeared both us and the agents were getting a bit of interest so I thought it might be a dead heat, but I wasn't convinced that the agent really did have all the interest he said he did.  He knew we were trying to do it ourselves at the same time, so I couldn't help but wonder whether he was telling us he had loads of interest to try and get us to slow down.

Anyway, so we had quite a bit of interest ourselves and hosted several viewings and eventually took a healthy holding deposit after confirming interest with a tenant.  Just as we did, the agency rang up to say that he had someone who might be interested (if we lower the rent).  Obviously we said no.

Anyway, I'm sorry I'm not a more interesting writer, but I did want to share with you all my experiences of trying to get a tenant in before the agent could, thus avoiding having to pay any agency fees.  It's a nice story, and I got a lot of help from this site, so thanks!

Gillsman, that's a GREAT story. Loved it. Really pleased that you managed to avoid letting agent fees. One months rent is extremely excessive for a tenant-only package.

Thanks a lot for sharing. It's great that you used some of the tips from this site.

How did Letmatch and Gumtree perform for you? Did any perform better than the other?

Hi,

I did generate quite a lot of interest from Gumtree, but it was from Gumtree that I got the ones who messed me about a bit (one girl massively overdeclared her earnings, then didn't disclose the fact she was also on HB).  Nevertheless, I'd definitely use Gumtree again.

Letmatch was brilliant, really glad you mentioned that.  I paid the £30 and advertised on their site.  The only problem was the photos that they let you put up have to be quite small and a really low file size which was frustrating.  But Letmatch, in turn, have an arrangement with another agency called Visum and it's through Visum that the ad goes up on Rightmove.  We contacted Visum directly and they were brilliant and offered to put up better quality pictures if we supplied them.  I was really impressed and we got a few enquiries - not as many as I'd have liked to be honest, but enough.  Out tenant eventually came from there.

So all in all, a really positive experience.  One of the biggest selling points I hear often from agents is that they can get someone moved in within a couple of weeks - it's all about the speed.  So I was really surprised that I was able to move someone in faster than they could, and at a fraction of the cost!

I used letmatch's Rightmove service only a few weeks ago. I experienced exactly the same problem as you with the images. I emailed Mark from Visum and he said I could send him better images to him direct, and he'll take care of it.

£30 vs One month's rent!

We can't complain!