Mashroom Online Agent- The Updated Review No One Wanted!

LOL, brilliant!

I'm not due to find new tenants yet but I might give them a try when the time comes. Thanks for the info as always x

I'm not even a landlord or interested in property, I read because it makes me laugh. I can't even remember how or why I found this blog. Thank you :)

Love and appreciate the honest and humourous review!! Keep it up.

Thanks again for the introduction and info. I’m surprised, should I be, that the added extra option for both online companies don’t include the new ish electrical improvement report?

Youre right, never heard of them. Why has no one else even mentioned them?

Thankyou for the information!!!

I love these gems, thank you. Like you, all I care about is Rightmove and getting leads. I'll let you know how I get on.

if you click on 'start listing' on thgeir homepage it takes you to a sign up form instead of details/prices about their service. Is that one of the UX issues haunting you? I wonder who would blindly start listing without knowing any of the details? Its the simple things...

Nice post. 100% agree about not allowing tenants to take viewings, "recipe for disaster" comes to mind!

Thanks Landlord for the heads-up. I'm deffo not too good for a freebie.

There's something very strange about paying tenants to take viewings, seems backwards, or is it just me that feels that way?

I used OpenRent last time I needed tenants. I booked and paid for an EICR through them only to be told the day before, when I had contacted them, that they couldn’t offer one in my area (London!). They did refund my payment but it was a bit of a dud service allowing me to book a specific time that they couldn’t deliver .

@Landlord - Great article, almost missed the fungi joke!

I don't think I'd rush to move from OpenRent for our next tenancy, their whole approach is too good.
Something for nothing for a while is fine, but if their UX is naff I don't have immediate faith in
their service being all there YET.

Have you tried a naked portafilter with your VST yet, coffee is fractionally hotter and they are easy to clean.

The thing to remember about the puck generation is... which are you making; coffee or pucks?

I have survived lockdown roasting my own from a 'selection pack' gift from xmas 2019, and am now on a couple of kilos of green Colombian Excelso RFA beans that we've kept chilled since the beginning of lockdown #1.

From 'On the Grind' coffee roasters.

It is awesome, really rich. Makes a great latte too.

That's a quid for one cup (10g) of green beans (£25 for 250g). That is insane, for roasting in a popcorn machine that has to be a waste.

I already have tenants lined up and just want a middle man to keep things a little more official between us in case of any hassles. I've decided to give Mashroom a go and it's all been easy to use, they've responded really well to my queries. My tenants have requested to use their deposit replacement option as they have deposits tied up in their current rental agreements and no other spare cash to pay new deposits. Does anyone have experience of this? I'm not worried for myself, it offers me good protection if it works as it stands. I'm more worried the tenants only really get the advantage of not coughing up a massive deposit they don't have to hand! They could get caught in a position later where they need to cover costs they can't meet. I also wonder if it could be challenged legally down the line as the tenant pays for it. Any thoughts on this?

I've just used Mashroom to find a new tenant. The overall experience was OK, and pretty much what you might expect when you're not paying anything.

The process of adding the listing was straight forward enough, upload photos, write some words. I did this late on a Friday evening, and mid-morning on Monday nothing had happened so I contacted their support team. Half an hour later the advert was on RightMove and Zoopla. An hour later I had three viewings booked for the next day. Within a few hours I had 11 booked.

One gripe about the booking system is that the slots are 30 minutes long, and can't be double booked. This meant I was booked for the whole day, and most viewing didn't last more than 10 or 15 minutes. Luckily I have a laptop and decent mobile wifi so could make the most of the time. Mashroom support say they have a new UI coming *soon!* which will improve this.

Sat through a day of viewings - only 2 no-shows - and shortlisted my preferred people. Had a couple of offers through the Mashroom site immediately after the viewings, and a couple more in the evening. Mashroom's messaging system is decent enough on a laptop, but is just unusable on a mobile. Maybe the new UI will improve it? One point though, if you leave the website open on a laptop and walk away, then you will not receive text/email notifications when there are new messages.

I picked a tenant, went and had a chat with them at their current home, then accepted their offer in Mashroom. I did pay for Mashroom's (outsourced) reference checks - £15 per tenant. I avoided all the other upsells.

That's when things went from this-is-free-and-pretty-damn-good to I'm-glad-I'm-not-paying-for-this. Every step from that point on required me to contact the support channel to ask for updates, or push things forwards. The support team were great and responsive, but everything was held up until for some reason or other.

One of the tenant's employers refused to approve the annual salary (the tenant had put down a figure including overtime) and there was no way for the tenant to amend it without... contacting support.

The other tenant had mistyped their email and didn't even receive the reference check links. They had no way to fix it without... contacting support.

When the reference were finally complete they didn't appear on my Mashroom dashboard. I had to contact support and have them emailed to me.

The tenancy agreement was decent enough, but clearly generated based upon questions asked earlier in the process - include phrases such as "the tenants false will maintain the cleanliness...". Of course, I can't change the wording. No, I have to contact support.

By now enough time had passed that the original move-in date had flown by. But of course we couldn't change that without... (everyone together)

All in all it took seven days from accepting a tenant to everyone having signed the contract. I guess that's really five days as Mashroom support doesn't work at the weekend.

I got the overwhelming impression that every step was manually done by a real life person, rather than being automated.

However, I did have a lot of viewings, many decent applications, and have a new tenant lined up, all for the pricely sum of £30 for two reference checks.

In summary - it was a pretty good experience considering it basically cost nothing.

@Ben
Thank you for that detailed report, 30 quid for new tenants is not bad.

This is pretty much my experience having just let through the platform. It's free so it's hard to complain but it was time intensive having to nudge them on constantly and I felt like a pain in the backside having to ask for so much support. Basically they need to sort the mechanics of the platform out and then it will be fantastic!

Had a great experience with them. Seems they improved a lot since the start of the year and have to say it was super pleasant to wizz through the whole process. Found a great tenant within days. Referencing was easy to purchase and was done within 3hrs (a responsive tenant helped!).
Move in is happening this weekend.

I am thinking about it but too early yet as my Tennant just given notice to leave on January 25 2022.shame as fantastic bloke but moving in with new love.will put card in Coop as norm before Xmas.would like to hear that Mashrooms gremlins sorted first.my age and health conditions can't take any grief plus I run everything from my mobile phone no fancy computers here.many thanks Howard Moore.

I’ve just given Mashroom a shot. Too early to review. I’m very eager to hear how users rate their deposit replacement product? 🤔

Hello,

I put a property for rent on mushroom and would like to stop the listing. However, I don’t seem to be able to find the option on their website (when I logon into my account). Does anyone know how to do this?

Many thanks,
Helen

Used Mashroom to list my property, plenty of tenants were interested. I don't like the fact people can put offers in before they view your property as I like to grab a few more details and invite people to look round the property once pre-vetted prior to accepting a tenant. The Mashroom UI is very user friendly, however it is never updated correctly or on time, for example it still says the contract is pending after all parties have signed. I'm not sure if this is a new thing but I have logged in today and it seems rent collection is now a paid option; either essential or secured for 2 and 5% of the rent respectively.