Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- Mission Accomplished (Part 5)
Written by The Landlord on 11 Sep 2008
Judging from the title of this blog entry, you can probably guess that I’ve managed to complete my objective of obtaining tenants, without the help of a Letting agent.
What does this ultimately mean? It means that you don’t need to waste 10-17% of your yearly rental income on a letting agent, when you’re more than capable of finding tenants yourself.
Here’s a brief outline of what I did
- Allowed myself 2 months to find tenants
- Set myself a budget of £100 for local advertising (but only used £40)
- advertised on gumtree.com, letmatch.com, a local paper and shop windows
- took approximately 8 viewings, and chose an appropriate tenant after 4 weeks
- Downloaded an shorthold assured tenancy agreement and got the contracts signed
It really wasn’t more difficult than that.
My advertising methods
I’ve already talked about the methods of advertising I used in depth in the following two articles:
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- A Live Experiment (Part 1)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- An Update (Part 2)
As already mentioned in the articles, I found Gumtree to be by far the best performing medium of advertisement. Best part is that it’s free.
Here are some of the inquiries I received:
I am starting my new job as a lecturer at chelmsford college on 1st sept and am moving from lincolnshire. I would be very intrested in viewing your property in the near future and would appreciate it if you could give me a call on either 01*****070 or 07*****99 or just email me back to arrange viewing. Thanks
Good dayI like to view this property urgently, if still available.Kindly contact me 079*****81 or my husband 079*****47
Regards
Hello, is this property still avaiable to rent? Would you be willing to rent to 3 people, thats including myself, who live and have full time employment in Old Harlow?We would all be able to provide references from employers and previous landlords. Thanks
If you can find anyone to rent the place i can offer you £700 pm and a year contract! Full time employment, references from the employer+references from the previous landlord as well….
Hi I would like to see the property. Can you give me a call on 0****626**0. Thanks
Hi there, We are very interested in you property. Can you advice which tube is closest to you property. You can contact me at [insert email address] I look forward to your response. Kind regards,
I have seen your property advertised on gumtree and would be very interested in viewing if the property is still available. Kind regards
Could you send me details of this property? is it still avaliable? where is it? Thanks
I am currently renting a one bedroom house in Coalport Close with my Fiance but we would like to move to a bigger house and are looking to rent a two bedroom unfurnished property. We do like Coalport close so would be ideal to move round the corner, the dates are ideal too, so could we please arrange a possible veiwing of the property?Many thanks
hi there Will i be able to view the house in this week some time please thanks
I thought that was pretty decent for a free service. What do you think?
Local Paper
I put an advert in the local paper for 3 weeks, which cost approximately £40. It looked like this:
While it didn’t outperform Gumtree, it certainly came in second place, by generating 3 leads in 7 days. I got a few viewings from it, which was pretty cool. Actually, it only went out for 1 week, it still has another 2 weeks remaining. I imagine I’ll get more inquiries in the next few weeks. The reason I committed to a 3 week advertising deal is because it was “Buy 2 weeks, get the 3rd week free“- so i thought why not?
Tenants move in on the 23rd, but I’m still taking viewings
Most experienced landlords will know that tenant/landlord deals can collapse just as easily as house sales, so it’s always good to keep options open. I’m still going to take viewings until the tenants actually move in, which is on the 23rd of September. Although I’ve taken a security deposit, it’s best to play it safe. I advise all Landlords to do the same- don’t stop looking, always have a backup until the tenant actually pays the security deposit, pays the first month’s rent, and moves in!
Final thoughts
In the current credit crunch climate- forget letting agents. More tips & advice on that here, Forget Using Letting Agents
All articles in this experiment
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- A Live Experiment (Part 1)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- An Update (Part 2)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- An Update – A Smelly Cat & A Slight Change Of Plan (Part 3)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- Just Received The Worst Tenant Application EVER (Part 4)
Finding Tenants Without A Letting Agent- Mission Accomplished (Part 5)
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How Landlords Can Advertise Rentals On RightmoveRelated Articles
2 Comments - join the conversation...
If you work in a company with a big workforce, it's definitely worth putting up notices!
2
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I initially started this website because I wanted to document my every step from property idiot to property landlord,
in hope that people would find my site and help me along the way. I literally didn't have a clue about being a landlord
when I started this website.
A: they are minted
B: they will probably only want to stay monday to friday but will pay a full weeks rent
worked for me anyhow :-)
it's definitely do-able without a letting agent being involved and has saved me around £60 quid a month
1