Techniques Tenants Can Use To Avoid Letting Agent Fees
Written by The Landlord on 07 May 2010The other day I ranted about how I think it’s unfair that high-street letting agents Charge Tenants An Admin Fee for simply being a consumer. It’s those kinds of fees that will probably be the fall of letting agents because these days it’s so easy for landlords and tenants to make a connection without the use of letting agents, hence avoiding the fees altogether. Regardless, i’m going to take the issue one step further and discuss ways tenants can avoid these fees!
The obvious way to completely avoid tenant admin fees is by not using a letting agent at all. That’s a no-brainer. Avoiding the use of an agent would mean the tenant would have to communicate directly with the landlord, which isn’t a bad thing…
Advantages of dealing directly with landlords
A lot of people believe it’s a lot easier dealing with letting agents because they “take care of everything”. While that can be the case, there are also a lot of desirable aspects of dealing directly with a landlord:
- A letting agent acts as a middle man, so information has to go through him/her before it gets to the right person. That’s long, slow and boring. No one wants to wait for a message to travel across a chain of people.
- With one less person in the chain, there’s less chance of getting lost in translation.
- Agents want to get the most rent out of tenants because it reflects directly on their commission. So it’s quite likely that tenants can get a better rate if they deal directly with the landlord.
- Let’s face it, it’s difficult to trust an agent so you never know where you stand (rightly or wrongly so).
Why tenants (and landlords) don’t need letting agents anymore…
- Before social media and classified websites really took off, letting agents had the upper hand of being able to reach a large network of local people through their various marketing tactics. But now we can all update our Facebook, Twitter and Myspace statuses and inform a network of local people that we have a property for let, or we’re looking for a property to rent. It’s free, affective and extremely powerful.
- The growth of online classified websites have rocketed, and the best one’s are free and receive terrifying levels of traffic e.g. Gumtree.
- Letting agents aren’t a necessity for landlords/tenants anymore, they’re a luxury. Money is tight, so everyone wants to save where they can. Avoiding the use of letting agents can be a big saver for both tenants and landlords, so it’s a no-brainier that they’ll be sacrificed.
How To Avoid Tenant Admin Fees
Here is a small list of techniques tenants can use to find rental accommodation without having to pay an high-street letting agent admin fee…
Find a letting agent that doesn’t charge a tenant admin fee
First and foremost, let me clarify, it is possible to find agents that don’t charge tenant admin fees, although they’re probably not all that common. But it’s worth asking/looking around.
Some agents have embraced quirky little policies that ultimately means the tenant initially pays an admin fee, but has the opportunity to get it returned. For example, Property Genius said they do the following:
Each tenant pays £75 but instead of paying for a fee, it gets added to their tenancy deposit. If they move-in, they get it back with the rest of the deposit. If they fail to take the property on move-in day, or fail the references, then the £75 is non refundable and they lose out. We feel this gives the landlord security, while essentially being free for tenants.
So, as long as you don’t waste the agent’s time, they will return your initial fee, which is pretty fair.
Negotiate with letting agent
Some times you can catch an agent on a desperate good day and they may be willing to waive the fee. It’s always worth haggling. Remember, agents make their money from the landlords, so they’re often willing to let the tenant’s fee slide.
Classified websites
This is by far the most affective way of finding rental accommodation without the helping hand of a letting agent. There are an abundance of landlords who themselves are avoiding letting agent fees by marketing their properties for free on classified websites. Those websites are the best places for prospective tenants to find properties and communicate directly with the landlords.
Here’s a list of websites that have properties available for rent:
Gumtree
Free Letting
Craigs List
Loot
Letmatch
Let a life
House Find UK
House Ladder
Net rent
House Refer
Vitual Letz
EZ Let
Spare Room
Flat Mate Rooms
Local Papers
I had a look in my local paper just before writing this post, and it had 3 full pages of local rental accommodation listed by private landlords.
Clearly landlords are still utilizing the good old local paper. Tradition still rocks.
Ask friends and family
Word of mouth will never stop being useful. Ask friends and family if they know of anyone who has a property available for rent.
Embrace Social Media
Update your Twitter, Facebook and MySpace statuses. Inform your local world that you’re looking for rental accommodation. You maybe surprised to find out how small this world really is.
Market yourself
I recently posted an example of how a lady, looking for accommodation, successfully marketed herself on Gumtree as an extremely appealing tenant. Her advert received thousands of hits.
It was an affective way of grabbing the attention of landlords. You can see the article here, Landlords And Tenants Shouldn’t Neglect The “Wanted” Section.
I’m not entirely sure of the success off her campaign, but I’m confident it was a success.
Letting agents aren’t completely useless
I know it may seem like I’m crafting a witch hunt against letting agents, but that’s genuinely not the case. Letting agents have their uses, which can’t be replaced. For example, if a landlord doesn’t want the hassle of managing their property, letting agents are perfect (if you don’t mind paying the premium). That’s actually the core revenue stream of letting agents, and they’ll never lose that because it can’t be replaced in a digital/virtual form.
However, for tenants, I think agents are starting to lose their usefulness. Unless letting agents eradicate the tenant admin fee, I actually can’t think of enough reasons why a tenant would want to embrace the services of a letting agency, especially when it’s so easy to find accommodation without one.
What agents need to understand is that if they have prospective tenants on their side, landlords will have no choice but to use agents. But with pricing structures which include silly tenant fees, I see little hope.
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7 Comments - join the conversation...
Here at www.VirtualLetz.com we actively encourage tenants to post about themselves and their property wants to help them connect with landlords. We then broadcast that across many different mediums
Here is a current example of a professional tenant looking for a accomodation in North London. Now - any tenants who describe themselves as "very well house trained" have to be worth contacting!
http://www.virtualletz.com/properties/wanted_property_details/518
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In my opinion going direct to a landlord to rent a property is a very bad idea. The second time i rented i went through an agent, paid a small admin fee but the whole process has been a lot better!
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Sorry to hear about your problems. But truth be told, if you couldn't get hold of your landlord, then the odds are an agent wouldn't have been able to either. And you'd be struck in a chain, as I discussed, where you have to call the agent, and they'll have to try and contact the landlord, and then you'll have to wait for the agent to let you know that the landlord couldn't be contacted. I imagine that would be even more frustrating.
If you've got a bad landlord, you've got a bad landlord, and agents won't always be able to make it easier.
Regarding the security deposit, you could have always taken legal action against your landlord, as by law he should have secured it.
All the best.
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In central London where there is a bewildering choice of property available to let and time-poor tenants, the agent is only worth his/her salt IF they can quickly recognise their tenants' specific requirements and take the time and care to show properties in the right locations that meet these requirements.
many agents don't - and if we don't I fully agree with you. nothing makes my blood boil more than overhearing a lettings negotiator (hopefully never with us!) ask for no more info from a prospective tenant than "how many beds and how much have you got to spend?".
You get what you pay for - or as you rightly say - you go elsewhere.
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