The
Cheapest Letting Rental Agent May Not Be The Best For Value
By Philip
Suter
For
the property owner who is letting out their home or investment property the maximum
return on investment is very important. This applies on the amount of commission
that you pay to your letting agent.
Many
people carry out a fair bit of research before choosing their letting agent covering
the following criteria. How long have they been established - do they belong to
a professional organisation – how do they market a rental property – do they have
qualified staff – what are their costs for letting?
Over
the past fifteen years in the UK there has been a tremendous growth within the
residential letting business. This is as a result of improved rental laws, growth
in the Buy to let market, etc. This similar situation has happened in Ireland,
France and other European countries.
In
the UK at 2006 anyone can set up business as a “Letting Agent”. This is quite
a worrying situation whereby they can be collecting rent and deposits, not setting
up designated “client bank ” accounts to put these funds in and go off with the
proceeds. Although there are now numerous agents who are members ofARLA (The
Association of Residential Letting Agents), NALS (National Approved Letting Scheme)
NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) andRICS (The Royal Institution
of Chartered Surveyors) anyone can be in business without belonging to such
a professional organisation.
An
agent who joins one (or more) of those listed Professional organisations must
have staff working for them who have experience in the letting industry, they
must have Professional Indemnity insurance, have audited client bank accounts
and run their business from proper offices, All of these standards cost a lot
of money and have to be taken into account with the agents fees.
There
are of course many long established agents out there in the UK who choose not
to belong to such an organisation (Until the Government brings in Licensing regulation
they can still continue like that) and run very successful business, holding client
bank accounts, having professional indemnity insurance and getting their staff
properly trained.
Do
choose your letting agent with care, remember many work on a no let no fee basis
and it can be very costly marketing a property for an agent that you actually
don’t let. The other important consideration is to always let an agent you instruct
know if you are instructing more than one agent. There is nothing more embarrassing
for an agent or a new tenant when suddenly the door of the rental property opens
and in walks another agent with prospective renters and the owner had never notified
the first agent that they let it via another agent. There are of course many long
established agents out there in the UK who choose not to belong to such an organisation
(Until the Government brings in Licensing regulation they can still continue like
that) and run very successful business, holding client bank accounts, having professional
indemnity insurance and getting their staff properly trained.
Do
choose your letting agent with care, remember many work on a no let no fee basis
and it can be very costly marketing a property for an agent that you actually
don’t let. The other important consideration is to always let an agent you instruct
know if you are instructing more than one agent. There is nothing more embarrassing
for an agent or a new tenant when suddenly the door of the rental property opens
and in walks another agent with prospective renters and the owner had never notified
the first agent that they let it via another agent.
If
you do instruct more than one agent, make sure you are not breaking any sole agency
agreements or having different rental prices with different agents
Philip
Suter is a Director of JML Property Services http://www.jmlproperty.co.uk
a UK based company offering Insurance products on line at http://www.jml-property-insurance.co.uk
and a holiday home advertising service http://www.jmlvillas.com
and management training within the uk. He is a very experienced property consultant
with over 30 years work in the Residential letting business in the UK and served
on the National Council of ARLA. He is a Fellow of the National Association of
Estate Agents (NAEA) and a Member of The association of Residential Letting Agents
(ARLA)
Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Philip_Suter
The
information supplied on this page is by a third party and jml Property Services
do not take any responsibility to its accuracy ©jmlpropertyservices02/06
