As a landlord, it can often seem tempting to forego the need for a local estate agent when letting your property. If your rental property is local to where you live, it might appear easy to find suitable tenants and take care of all the management needs yourself.
But the reality is it’s never that simple.
Advertising your property can be difficult enough, let alone finding the perfect tenant who you can trust to look after your house or flat and pay rent on time. With the legal obligations becoming increasingly complex, doing it yourself can create a significant risk to you personally.
There are also a number of other benefits you miss out on when you don’t use an estate agent; these are just nine of them.
Finding a tenant
1. Marketing your property
Perhaps the hardest part about renting your property without an estate agent is the most important aspect; showcasing your property and attracting interest.
When you work with an estate agent like Chancellors, we ensure your property receives maximum exposure, with detailed floorplans, professional photographs and high quality brochures.
Alongside a visible ‘To Let’ board, we also give your property a strong online presence, featuring it on all three major property portals, OnTheMarket, Rightmove and Zoopla, and over 40 other property portals and major websites too.
Our dedicated lettings team spend significant time every day ringing potential tenants to focus them on your property and getting them excited about the prospect of a viewing and, more importantly, offering.
2. Achieving a higher rent price
Whilst you can look at other rental properties in your area and decide a price for yourself, you still have to get someone motivated to pay this price. Our agents are expert at reviewing property in the context of others available in the marketplace and ensuring that potential tenants know they are in a competition to get the best property.
Our free market appraisals ensure you have an opportunity to discuss the marketing strategy and team scripting we will use to help you achieve a higher rent price for your property, and in timescales to suit your specific needs.
A good estate agent will also have a large database of prospective tenants on hand. So not only can you find a tenant quickly, you can also afford to be more selective about who you would like to occupy your property.
Specialist marketplaces can also be targeted. Chancellors has a specialist department to attract and work with the corporate market to ensure that your property is seen by relocation agents and corporate tenants swiftly and easily.
We also ensure that all tenants are prepped to put their best foot forward when it comes to making an offer. This means you can select the tenant making the best offer but also the one with the best personal circumstances, which all goes to increasing the chances of a very successful let.
3. Holding viewings
Having a number of tenants interested in your property poses another problem; finding the time to hold viewings. We have many reports from landlords trying to rent privately who find themselves turning up to viewings only to be let down by prospective tenants not showing up.
With our help, we can help you secure concrete viewings, often on the same day or day after you instruct us, and save you time by organising them on your behalf.
4. Conducting references
Even in person, a seemingly good tenant can have hidden problems. When you’re letting privately, you might not know about these until it’s too late.
However, when you use an estate agent like Chancellors, we conduct thorough references of potential tenants, so you know you’re making the right decision. With the additional benefit of our tenant monitoring service throughout the tenancy there is the additional benefit of getting early information if there is any change in the tenants’ credit rating as the tenancy progresses.
Organising the paperwork
5. Drafting a tenancy agreement
You should always ensure that your tenancy agreement is as watertight as possible, to prevent any future problems down the line. Writing a complicated legal agreement like this can be almost impossible on your own, and with changing and onerous regulations coming in with reasonable regularity, taking responsibility for the document on your own comes with increasing personal risk.
In contrast, we have a dedicated team who can draft an agreement on your behalf, covering every eventuality and adapting this based on any specific circumstances you might have.
Our highly qualified experts will also be on hand to advise you on any potential disagreements that might arise, resolving manageable disputes and breaches of terms in a timely, effective manner.
6. Guidance on legislation
Alongside the tenancy agreement, there are dozens of other pieces of legislation which landlords must adhere to. If you’re not aware of them and how to follow them correctly, you could face personal legal consequences which include significant fines and potential jail time.
A qualified and competent estate agent like Chancellors can guide you through all of these and provide you with access to our professional specialist suppliers for additional services where needed. We’re also able to assist with holding tenants’ deposits in escrow, on your behalf, in line with current regulations.
Peace of mind
7. Rent guarantee scheme
As well as handling all tenant accounting on your behalf, when you let through an established, reputable estate agent, you also benefit from peace of mind with regards to rental income.
At Chancellors we offer a rent guarantee scheme as opposed to an insured guarantee option. This means that, if your tenant doesn’t pay their rent, we cover the costs directly to you within 10 days – with no insurers, and no excess to pay.
8. Performing inventory and safety checks
One of the most time consuming parts of any letting process is the preparation for a tenant moving in. This includes making a detailed inventory and performing necessary checks like gas safety requirements and portable appliance testing.
Forgetting these, or not doing them properly or in a timely way, could pose big problems in the future with the potential for fines being levied by local councils or legal claims by the tenant. That’s why we offer to arrange them on your behalf via our specialist contractors.
9. Repairs and responses
If you live some distance from your rental property, or if you have a number of properties and very little time to commit to each of them, when something goes wrong, you need someone on hand quickly to resolve the problem. Your tenants will expect an excellent service in this area given the rent they are paying to you. Where you may put up with a problem in your own home, tenants rarely will in their rented property.
Chancellors property management service takes care of that for you; giving you full peace of mind that all repairs will be handled in a timely manner, or all emergency responses will be dealt with without worry. They will liaise directly with you and your tenant to ensure information flow about the progress of any works is efficient and effective.
So, if you want the extra help and assurance that comes from using a trusted estate agent and a member of ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) to let your property, book a free market appraisal with Chancellors today.
Correct at time of publication. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual contributor and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chancellors Group of Estate Agents Ltd or its subsidiaries. References to legislation, best practice and other matters with legal implications such as fees, rules and processes are included for information and editorial purposes only and are not authoritative, nor should they be interpreted as advice. When in doubt you should only take advice from an industry professional or solicitor where appropriate. E&OE.
