lettings in london

[franki68]

I have a property in pimlico,tenants are leaving and the agents I used to let it have closed down.Local agents are outrageous , around £1500 let only fee minimum usually 8% of the total value of a tenancy agreement,or to fully manage around 20% .
(most of my business is in north west where I pay £300 let only fee or fully managed is 5%.)
Anyone know any agents who are reasonable ,or has anyone used one of those online companies like Residently ?

Any help appreciated.

[superlightr]

franki68 said:

I have a property in pimlico,tenants are leaving and the agents I used to let it have closed down.Local agents are outrageous , around £1500 let only fee minimum usually 8% of the total value of a tenancy agreement,or to fully manage around 20% .
(most of my business is in north west where I pay £300 let only fee or fully managed is 5%.)
Anyone know any agents who are reasonable ,or has anyone used one of those online companies like Residently ?

Any help appreciated.

so the cheap agents you used have gone bust and you want to find another cheap company who hasn't gone bust yet?

Do you care about the quality of the work they do or the tenants they find? or is Cheap the only criteria you have?

[selmahoose]

franki68 said:

Any help appreciated.

There's more letting agents in London than fleas on a mangy dog. Don't be so lazy and spend 10 minutes on google.

Here's one:

https://www.alexneil.com/Letting-With-Alex-Neil

Award winning, apparently.

O and if you seriously can't find a tenant for a Pimlico flat, either it's the vilest of dungeons or the rent is beyond stupid. In which case you need Openrent whose business speciality is marketing properties in areas where finding a tenant is easier than falling off a log.

[franki68]

superlightr said:

franki68 said:

I have a property in pimlico,tenants are leaving and the agents I used to let it have closed down.Local agents are outrageous , around £1500 let only fee minimum usually 8% of the total value of a tenancy agreement,or to fully manage around 20% .
(most of my business is in north west where I pay £300 let only fee or fully managed is 5%.)
Anyone know any agents who are reasonable ,or has anyone used one of those online companies like Residently ?

Any help appreciated.

so the cheap agents you used have gone bust and you want to find another cheap company who hasn't gone bust yet?

Do you care about the quality of the work they do or the tenants they find? or is Cheap the only criteria you have?


[/

The ‘cheap’ agents didn’t go bust ,they were part of the council who are also the freeholders and estate managers so it was very convenient as opposed to cheap and they were closed down in restructuring .

[franki68]

selmahoose said:

franki68 said:

Any help appreciated.

There's more letting agents in London than fleas on a mangy dog. Don't be so lazy and spend 10 minutes on google.

Here's one:

https://www.alexneil.com/Letting-With-Alex-Neil

Award winning, apparently.

O and if you seriously can't find a tenant for a Pimlico flat, either it's the vilest of dungeons or the rent is beyond stupid. In which case you need Openrent whose business speciality is marketing properties in areas where finding a tenant is easier than falling off a log.

Finding agents is not an issue ,finding agents who don’t rip you off is the issue .
I’m sorry that my dislike of being ripped off seems to offend people .

[superlightr]

franki68 said:

selmahoose said:

franki68 said:

Any help appreciated.

There's more letting agents in London than fleas on a mangy dog. Don't be so lazy and spend 10 minutes on google.

Here's one:

https://www.alexneil.com/Letting-With-Alex-Neil

Award winning, apparently.

O and if you seriously can't find a tenant for a Pimlico flat, either it's the vilest of dungeons or the rent is beyond stupid. In which case you need Openrent whose business speciality is marketing properties in areas where finding a tenant is easier than falling off a log.

Finding agents is not an issue ,finding agents who don’t rip you off is the issue .
I’m sorry that my dislike of being ripped off seems to offend people .

The issue is that you don't want to pay the fees and then say they are ripping you off - No they are not. You are approaching them. You just don't want to pay their fees. Find a cheaper agent who you will be happy with. My friend Selmahoose in the Motherland with the funny accent has already suggested 1 agent for you.

Have a look a Purplebricks they do some lettings and I hear lots of things about them. https://www.purplebricks.co.uk/landlords

Im sure they may offer the value for money and service you are looking for.

Edited by superlightr on Thursday 6th June 13:08

Edited by superlightr on Thursday 6th June 13:12

[superlightr]

franki68 said:

The ‘cheap’ agents didn’t go bust ,they were part of the council who are also the freeholders and estate managers so it was very convenient as opposed to cheap and they were closed down in restructuring .

there was an article about a Londidium council who fined themselves for breaching laws on lettings.

If they were making money or breaking even they would not be closing down and restructuring - its called going broke.

[Junior Bianno]

FFS - this thread is a disgrace. The OP has asked a totally legitimate question about a recommendation for a letting agent, and has received some really arsey replies. Not my area so can't help, but if I could I'd be glad to suggest someone.

[superlightr]

Junior Bianno said:

FFS - this thread is a disgrace. The OP has asked a totally legitimate question about a recommendation for a letting agent, and has received some really arsey replies. Not my area so can't help, but if I could I'd be glad to suggest someone.

chill


no he is not - he is moaning about being ripped off by agents as he doesn't think he should have to pay their fees.

Im simply saying to him he doenst have to use them and pay their fees he can find a cheap agent that he is happy with.

You will have noticed that he has just been given links to 2 different agents. How helpful is that. Perhaps Purplebricks is too cheap even for the OP?

Edited by superlightr on Thursday 6th June 15:32

[22s]

superlightr said:

chill


no he is not - he is moaning about being ripped off by agents as he doesn't think he should have to pay their fees.

Im simply saying to him he doenst have to use them and pay their fees he can find a cheap agent that he is happy with.

You will have noticed that he has just been given links to 2 different agents. How helpful is that. Perhaps Purplebricks is too cheap even for the OP?

Edited by superlightr on Thursday 6th June 15:32

Afraid I'm with Junior on this.

The OP is clearly asking for recommendations - not for you to (try to) make him look like a cheap idiot.

I work in the industry (in London) - lots of letting agents are rip-off merchants and make money for doing nothing upfront (which is why there are so many of them). There are also lots of good ones who charge a reasonable price and work really hard on the management. Finding them is the challenge.

Afraid I also can't help directly as not from the area - slightly laborious but worth having a ring around with a few key questions and see if they'll give you some customer references. Ignore Trustpilot / Google Reviews as it can be gamed. Maybe post on Property118 or Property Tribes to see if there are any local landlords who can advise.

Good luck!

[springfan62]

20% seems a pretty steep level of fees.

Given that rents are going to be high too, I think its pretty reasonable to ask what others charge.

Having said that it's no surprise the other agent ceased trading having charged just 5 %.

[Jiebo]

Find an agent in a part of London that's not very popular, and where prices have remained low. A by-product of the property bubble are morons from every part of the world claiming they know what they're doing, because its easy money.

[franki68]

springfan62 said:

20% seems a pretty steep level of fees.

Given that rents are going to be high too, I think its pretty reasonable to ask what others charge.

Having said that it's no surprise the other agent ceased trading having charged just 5 %.

That is not what I said ,the agents I use in the northwest charge 5% ,the agents who shut down didn’t charge 5% unfortunately .

[franki68]

superlightr said:

Junior Bianno said:

FFS - this thread is a disgrace. The OP has asked a totally legitimate question about a recommendation for a letting agent, and has received some really arsey replies. Not my area so can't help, but if I could I'd be glad to suggest someone.

chill


no he is not - he is moaning about being ripped off by agents as he doesn't think he should have to pay their fees.

Im simply saying to him he doenst have to use them and pay their fees he can find a cheap agent that he is happy with.

You will have noticed that he has just been given links to 2 different agents. How helpful is that. Perhaps Purplebricks is too cheap even for the OP?

Edited by superlightr on Thursday 6th June 15:32

If you actually read a post you would see I am aware of the likes of purple bricks and others and asked if anyone had any experience of them .


But do me a favour and take your obnoxiousness elsewhere .

[superlightr]

I'm not being obnoxious. I think your wrong with calling agents fees a rip off when you don't have to use them.

Find an agent you are happy to use at the fee you want. You talk about paying 5 percent for a full management in the North East. That's pretty cheep and unsustainable I would suggest.

10 to 15 percent plus vat is about the right level to pay for a decent agent and service but you don't want that do you - you want cheap and then you say you are being ripped off.


Pay peanuts and all that.

Edited by superlightr on Friday 7th June 11:15

Edited by superlightr on Friday 7th June 11:19

Edited by superlightr on Friday 7th June 12:18

[franki68]

superlightr said:

I'm not being obnoxious. I think your wrong with calling agents fees a rip off when you don't have to use them.

Find an agent you are happy to use at the fee you want. You talk about paying 5 percent for a full management in the North East. That's pretty cheep and unsustainable I would suggest.

10 to 15 percent plus vat is about the right level to pay for a decent agent and service but you don't want that do you - you want cheap and then you say you are being ripped off.


Pay peanuts and all that.

Edited by superlightr on Friday 7th June 11:15

Edited by superlightr on Friday 7th June 11:19

Edited by superlightr on Friday 7th June 12:18

North west Manchester which is probably the hottest property spot in the U.K. at the moment ,not the north east .
The fees charged for the work done by these agents is a rip off,you may disagree but that is my observation from several years in the industry.
What work is an estate agent doing in London that is 4x more than the work done elsewhere ? Granted they gave higher expenses but they receive per let a much higher rent (say 2k/month in London vs 500/month in Manchester ) so a letting agent in Manchester gets 5% of 500 but a London agent gets 20% of 2000.
What extra work is the London agent doing that justifies this ?

[superlightr]

franki68 said:

North west Manchester which is probably the hottest property spot in the U.K. at the moment ,not the north east .
The fees charged for the work done by these agents is a rip off,you may disagree but that is my observation from several years in the industry.
What work is an estate agent doing in London that is 4x more than the work done elsewhere ? Granted they gave higher expenses but they receive per let a much higher rent (say 2k/month in London vs 500/month in Manchester ) so a letting agent in Manchester gets 5% of 500 but a London agent gets 20% of 2000.
What extra work is the London agent doing that justifies this ?

that's better. If you don't agree or like their fees there is no compulsion to go with them is there?

If its a rip off or not is only your opinion - my views is as stated 10-15% +vat is reasonable. Do you actually know how much it costs to run a letting agents business and do it correctly, compliantly and well? No? - why would you.

Several years in the industry? what like as a landlord? Im not into top trumps as decades don't count.

5% of £500 is fek all and not economic unless you are a micky mouse agent to run a business on and comply with all the regulations and do a decent job.

Its fine if that's all you want to pay - find the agents that will charge you this but its unfair to slam other agents who have higher fees - just because you don't understand the economics of running a letting business does not mean their higher fees are rip offs.

is that 20% including vat?

Manchester hotspot of the UK? I have no experience there.

So what rate do you want to pay for letting your London property? have you found anyone yet?

Edited by superlightr on Friday 7th June 14:40

[selmahoose]

franki68 said:

Finding agents is not an issue ,finding agents who don’t rip you off is the issue .
I’m sorry that my dislike of being ripped off seems to offend people .

You don't offend me. I don't like being ripped off either. And, as a landlord myself, I understand exactly what you need even if it isn't what you want. You need the 'best bottom line'. You need that little dungeon producing as much income as possible.

Most agents and agencies are - one way or another - just full of nonsense. Not dissimilar to 'financial advisers'. And whilst there are many of them, they are all different one way or another. Different understandings, different management styles and, of course, different results.

The agent you want most definitely exists. And I could give you many tips on how to select one. But, in the end, you're the one who'll have to do the footwork, including actually visiting them and watching them in action.

By the way, remember that the monthly commission - 5%, 10%, 20% etc is only part of the charge picture at many agencies. But once you drill down to the ones who are basing their income solely on their full management commission (and yes, such agents definitely do exist) you won't find ANY at 5%. The first 5% (probably more likely 6% now) covers the agency's operating costs. Anyone competent will be looking at twice that (plus Vat of course other than the smallest firms) for full management.

[technodup]

22s said:

Afraid I also can't help directly as not from the area - slightly laborious but worth having a ring around with a few key questions and see if they'll give you some customer references. Ignore Trustpilot / Google Reviews as it can be gamed.

And customer references can't?

Online reviews are more reliable than references. References you can control completely. Online reviews you can usually only control the good ones.

[dazwalsh]

I think its worth mentioning since Jun 1st there has been a complete ban on agents charging fees to tenants, thats ZERO income via the tenant. The income that they used to receive from ingoing tenants and tenancy renewals has to be replaced, so i’d imagine the management fees for landlords has been hiked by 5% at least for some agents.