Any landlords used OpenRent?

[PhilboSE]

About to rent out (well, actually my daughter is) a flat for the first time.

Have looked at some agent's contracts for find a tenant only, am struck by how much money they want for how limited a service they provide, and of course provide absolutely no safety net at all. Basically they will put forward any old Joe as a prospect, and if it all goes wrong then you're on your own, but they absolutely get all their money of course.

I was thinking that surely there was a middle ground for a relatively automated service, put your property on the portals and provide the same basic credit checks & deposit management that the agent charges you for, and it turns out there is, called OpenRent.

Superficially looks appealing, anyone used them and/or got any opinions?

[dhutch]

When I had a pair of 'rent a room scheme' rooms in my graduate bachelor pad I used Spare Room which worked well for me at the time.

This was 2010 to 2018.

https://www.spareroom.co.uk/

[sasquar]

yep, used it for advertising only (its the only way of getting onto rightmove etc as a independant landlord) the rest we do (or do not do, as we rent to students) ourselves.

Works perfectly, cant recall the cost, but its minimal and inoffensive.

[Colossal_Squid]

I use them each time we need to re-let our flat in London. Would fully recommend them. Works seamlessly each time and you save a huge amount as long as you are willing to do the other bits yourself. Always had lots of enquiries and found good tenants.

[4Q]

Colossal_Squid said:

I use them each time we need to re-let our flat in London. Would fully recommend them. Works seamlessly each time and you save a huge amount as long as you are willing to do the other bits yourself. Always had lots of enquiries and found good tenants.

The same for me too.
I also have a survey monkey questionnaire I send out to prospective tenants to weed out the ones I'm not interested in before paying for referencing, etc.

[PhilboSE]

Thanks all - sounds like it's worth considering them as an option.

They provide services like credit checks, deposit lodging etc at costs which are on parity with most agents - do you chaps use the OpenRent services or something else?

Obviously we're keen to ensure the best possible credit checks/affordability/referencing that we can.

[nyt]

Have used Openrent advertising & referencing without any issue

I came across a similar service yesterday: https://www.hello-neighbour.com/. - Can't recommend as I haven't used.

[nikaiyo2]

Openrnet is ok, I am not trying to be rude but where do the tenants that every agent has had problems with go?

Personally I always paid an agent to manage its deductible, it means that I am never called at 2am because there is a problem and I genuinely think most agents do a better job than me of filtering bad tenants. On that note....

NEVER EVER use an agent to tenant find only. You will get the tenants they cant be bothered to deal with themselves.

[PhilboSE]

nikaiyo2 said:

Openrnet is ok, I am not trying to be rude but where do the tenants that every agent has had problems with go?

Personally I always paid an agent to manage its deductible, it means that I am never called at 2am because there is a problem and I genuinely think most agents do a better job than me of filtering bad tenants. On that note....

NEVER EVER use an agent to tenant find only. You will get the tenants they cant be bothered to deal with themselves.

Interesting.

I am managing the property myself because (a) it's around the corner from where I live (b) I just completed a back to brick renovation on it so I know it inside out (c) I have a list of decent trades I can contact if I can't do it myself (d) I don't want to pay the agent an extra 5% to do nothing more than make some phone calls. So that rules out the managed option.

I also don't want the rent collection service, because again you end up paying £2000+ in years 2 onwards for them to do nothing at all other than collect the rent and forward it on to you.

Which leaves the find a tenant option, and to go back to my OP, I find the "value add" from the agent in this process to be minimal. As you say, they don't have any skin in the game in finding a good tenant.

One of the agents was pimping their "premier service" for +3.5%+VAT where they provide rent protection guarantee, and in this they do "more diligent" checks on the tenants! So it's fine to do basic checks when I'm at risk, but when they're on the hook suddenly a whole new level of vetting and diligence kicks in! F**k that!

So, if your advice is to avoid agents for find a tenant only, that kind of pushes me towards the OpenRent option...I'll do the viewings myself and see the whites of their eyes. I suspect the OpenRent credit check service is at least as good as those that the agents use...

[untakenname]

Last time I used Openrent (as a renter) I had to use my retired father as a guarantor despite never needing one before and earning over £70k (rent was £1700 per month).

Had a perfect 999 score on Experian but their credit checker TransUnion had some debt on file from over twenty years back (when I was at uni there was utility that I had no idea about that was lodged against me and was for after I had left that student house so likely the next renter put my name down on the bill).

[Tisy]

It USED to be good, just like SPARE ROOM, when the ads were only by private landlords wanting to cut out the middleman and save costs. Then all the letting agencies discovered it and the entire platform is now of full of made-up name "private landlords" who are actually letting agents in disguise circumventing the platform rules. I've reported loads in the past, but the platforms simply don't care as they've now got too big and make hundreds of thousands in profit from all the subscription upgrades in order to allow you (as a prospective tenant) the ability the contact the "landlord" straight away rather than being locked behind a paywall for 7 days. And they sell their tenant vetting service to both the landlords AND the tenants which isn't worth the paper its written on, and they will basically shadow ban you from being visible if you don't pay for their "verification" service.

There's thousands of scam adverts to be found on there too, just like Facebook and Gumtree which are 1% genuine landlords vs 99% scams

[Buy2Let PJ]

I use Openrent for my whole portfolio.

Absolutely no issues I think its a good platform and use the credit check and tenancy contract sign up service.

You will get a lot of enquiries from people a letting agent wouldn't entertain, but just be clear on the advert the they will need to have a good credit score and a good rental history that can be checked or a guarantor and most won't bother you.

If you are going it alone have a look at my other thread there is some really valuable information on there from some really experienced Landlords

[dhutch]

Tisy said:

It USED to be good, just like SPARE ROOM, when the ads were only by private landlords wanting to cut out the middleman and save costs. Then all the letting agencies discovered it and the entire platform is now of full of made-up name "private landlords" who are actually letting agents in disguise circumventing the platform rules....

....subscription upgrades in order to allow you (as a prospective tenant) the ability the contact the "landlord" straight away rather than being locked behind a paywall for 7 days.

What a shame!

[PhilboSE]

Well, I'm giving it a go, impressed so far from the landlord's side.

Used an alternative account to test out the experience from the tenant's side, although OpenRent tries to push you into paying £10 to become a "verified" tenant for 60 days, it doesn't seem to restrict communications if you don't pay.

Had x7 enquiries for a viewing already within 24 hours, although only 1 has replied committing to a time when I offered this Saturday...

[Pit Pony]

I mentioned to you that i had created an application form. Which i gave to viewers.

Can't bloody find it.

You basically want them to confirm who they are, that they have a right to rent eg UK passport or legitimate paperwork.
That they have means to pay - where do they work, how long and how much monthly take home they have.
Anyone else who will live there. Kids granny etc.

All things that referencing will confirm, but saves you wasting money and time on liars and idiots.

Now you have one viewing I'd respond to every enquiry with a time and date of a viewing 15 mins after the first one.

So far with 3 sets of tenants, unmarried couples, over 10 years they've referenced on 2 incomes and within 2 years the bloke has left and the woman is left paying the bills.

It seems to me that there are alot of unreliable feckless blokes agreeing to rent.

[PhilboSE]

Thanks Pit Pony, I searched up "questions for landlords to ask potential tenants" and I got a good crib sheet and some links to articles from legal companies in the lettings field, and that gave me a good leg up as there was pretty good consensus on what to include.

I've created a Google form to capture the data, anyone attending a viewing can simply scan a QR code or enter a tinyurl to get to the Form, then it all gets collated into a Sheet with no effort from me.

As you say, some people will choose not to fill it in and self-select out of the process, and if they lie then hopefully they'll get caught out at referencing.

Already had the first sob story about a single mum on UC who can't meet the affordability tests but the flat looks so nice, would I consider her...!

[Pit Pony]

Buy2Let PJ said:

I use Openrent for my whole portfolio.

Absolutely no issues I think its a good platform and use the credit check and tenancy contract sign up service.

You will get a lot of enquiries from people a letting agent wouldn't entertain, but just be clear on the advert the they will need to have a good credit score and a good rental history that can be checked or a guarantor and most won't bother you.

If you are going it alone have a look at my other thread there is some really valuable information on there from some really experienced Landlords

I make it clear that anyone that requires a guarantor will not be considered.

Last time with a choice of 4 people that wanted it, (a 3 bed semi) I turned down a single bloke on agency nights at Halewood. The other 3 were hard to split.
Beware the charming ones.

[PhilboSE]

So...OpenRent. My spidey sense is tingling.

I had a steady stream of enquiries over the first 24 hours. Mostly they had some usually verbose and well written prose in common: "Hi I came across your property...(some platitudes and general guff)...(bit more chat)...can I arrange a viewing?"

So I respond pretty promptly suggesting this Saturday (after the rugby!) and...complete silence from all of the initial gambits such as the above.

Other ones "I'm Abdul when I see house" actually went on to book a viewing.

I'm beginning to wonder if OpenRent has some bots generating enquiries to make it look like their platform is more active than it really is? Or if it's some kind of probing of me as a landlord to make sure I'm genuine (this is my first time)?

Any experiences like this?

[dhutch]

Pit Pony said:

.... seems to me that there are alot of unreliable feckless blokes ....

Fixed that for you!