My Experience Finding Tenants With OpenRent

In that case why do they push themselves as a LETTING AGENCY?

They are what you say - an advertising platform for rented properties who offer no competition to proper letting agents because they offer none of the services proper letting agencies offer.

I have used them. Amongst the myriad of useless and unvetted responses the platform generated I actually did select one who quickly turned into one of, if not THE, worst tenants I've had in 42 years of letting.

Can I also say that many of their adverts flout legislation. I believe in the past they've already been pulled up for failing to display EPCs on ads and currently are skating on very thin ice by failing to display landlord registration numbers on ads. And don't think the unregistered rogues (including some very unsavoury characters) aren't aware that these idiots will happily advertise the properties they are prohibited from letting. Of course, OpenRent couldn't care less who they're advertising for. After all they never so much as meet them, do they?

They're also getting a growing notoriety for suppressing negative criticism and bad reviews about themselves. Have a look at their Trustpilot site. That's a joke, mate.

Time they were stopped from calling themselves "letting agents". I mean, seriously - a letting agent who's never set foot in the properties they act as agents for??

Sidestepping the ad homs and other deflections, what you seem to be saying is that OpenRent are as useful acting as letting agents who don't manage property as online hairdressers are who don't actually cut any hair.

"it's letting agency, Jim, but not as we know it"

So OpenRent is a letting agency which doesn't actually physically visit the properties it acts as agent for. Or have any direct contact with the landlords for whom it manages. It doesn't inspect property, so it knows nothing about its condition, the condition of the buildings they are in, or the surrounding areas. And it's happy to send its tenant clients to properties and landlords it knows nothing about. Equally, it's happy to refer anyone to these landlords without a thought as to their suitability. I might be missing something here, but isn't all this opening the door to a vast amount of time wasting? Isn't one of the central arts of tenant/property finding to match suitable tenants to suitable properties? But of course how do you do that if you don't know anything about either the tenants or the properties?

It seems the rest of it is about being a letting agent for properties the landlords manage themselves. And (lol) in your opinion I'm just too silly to see that this is how 'online letting agency' works and to see how much better it is than the management service non-online letting agents offer!!

Like barbers cut hair, letting agents manage property. It's what they do. Online shmonline. Managing property - all aspects of property - is what letting agents do.

Like I said, "It's letting agency Jim, but not as we know it". (or what could be described as Scotch Mist).

What OpenRent does is tenant finding. Plus, of course, "upselling" a range of pretty poor ancillary services for those too lazy to be able to either research where/who supplies these services best in their local area or too stupid to ask google for suggestions too.

So let's focus on what appears to be the only aspect of letting that they actually don't get the owner to do themselves. Advertising property to let on internet letting portals.

This is their sole useful function to the professional landlord who can get every other aspect of letting done better and cheaper by a proper letting agent.

But when you look at their ads, as you avoided commenting on, many of them don't contain compliant data such as landlords' registration numbers.

Are you comfortable with that?

Y'see one of the most basic functions of landlord registration is to refuse registration to people deemed unfit to be landlords. That includes individuals who have been convicted of offences such as crimes of violence, drugs and fraud. So when your 18 year old daughter is off to uni in some far off town and is looking for a flat there she knows when she sees a landlord registration number that her potential landlord has passed some basic local authority "fit and proper" suitability checks.

Are you really happy to be flying a flag for clowns whose ads don't comply with that basic legal requirement?

And do you think the scum who have been refused or removed from registration aren't aware that certain clowns don't care about the legal requirement to post the landlord registration number in all or any adverts for residential lets??

For fucks sake. They don't inspect properties. They don't inspect tenancies. They don't maintain properties. They haven't a clue who their landlords are. And in fact they don't manage properties AT ALL. All they do is advertise properties and they don't even do that compliantly!!!

O but forgive me. I just don't understaaaaand! This is the new and improved version of letting agency business!! Better than that old highstreet version!!

Y'know I get the feeling you've not been a landlord very long, and certainly not of a portfolio of any size. And with some certainty you've never owned or operated a letting agency either. Because you'd be something of a jackass to have a lengthy property experience and still see OpenRent as anything much more than a game.

Will it last? Hmmmm. A look at its filing history seems to show that the only cash it has is from investors (whose judgement re. online 'wonders' is notoriously poor) and that's after several years of operation. I wouldn't hold out much hope for it.

And if I were you I'd get hold of a copy of an old story to read and think about. It's called "The Emperor's New Clothes".

Abdul - We get that you don't like OpenRent but your arguments against them show you don't understand their service offering at all.

I've used OpenRent for 3 years now on my two properties. They are a fantastic service for those of us that don't want to throw away 10-15% of our rent with a managed letting agent. The reviews of them here and on TrustPilot show that lots of people agree (unless you believe we're all stooges being paid to review!)

@ The Landlord. Do I detect through the increasingly angry ad homs and deflections some acceptance that OpenRent really aren't letting agents and really are merely a property advertising portal? Or do you think that Rightmove and Zoopla are letting agents too?

Where's your reply re. the omission of landlord registration numbers?

Or your opinion of this? https://www.landlordreferencing.co.uk/forum/discuss/community-forum/open-rent-tenant-referencing-opening-your-property-up-to-bad-tenants/

Or your comment on this? https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/online-agent-defends-failure-to-display-epc-ratings-on-rightmove-listings/

Or your answer to this? https://www.allagents.co.uk/review/255373/

Okay, I get it. You're an OpenRent affiliate or partner or whatever and you've naively jumped into an Emperor's New Clothes scenario and when it's exposed for the scotch mist it is then you're naturally a bit upset.

There's a massive housing shortage in the uk. Yet the only "letting service" your 'partners' provide - albeit neither particularly well nor even in compliance with regulation - is the easiest one for landlords to do themselves, ie find a tenant in the middle of a crisis level housing shortage.

Mate, man up, and give your head a wobble. And if you're going to go the self-managed route then just learn to do the marketing bit yourself too.

Had you any insight into where the letting industry is headed you would realise that - exactly like the financial services industry - it won't be long before it is impossible to self manage like a one man band.

Up the road in Jockland a vast amount of legislation is already in place which before long you can be certain will also be in England and Wales.

As relates to letting agents, it's already been made clear that so-called 'online letting agents' will be obliged to adhere to the same regulations and rules and laws as on street agents. That includes adherence to stuff that is impossible for 'online agents' such as complying with The Repairing Standard.

Trying the old "O we're ONLINE letting agents we don't DO maintenance you don't understaaaaand" rubbish isn't going to work. You wanna be an agent? Then you'll damn well adhere to the requirements and obligations on maintenance or you'll be de-registered and barred. The interests of both tenants and landlords will be obligatory for letting agents to prioritise and yes, it'll be goodbye to all rogues and cowboys and smoke-and-mirror charlatans too.

Once upon a time there used to be a myriad of one-man band financial advisors. However the weight of regulation and compliance administration made it impossible for them to continue. In exactly the same way the one man band self-managing landlord will be gone. Because regulation is soon going to require enforcement. And it is not going to be as feasible to regulate and inspect and enforce millions of individual landlords as it will be to regulate a far far smaller number of managing agents acting for those millions of individuals. So that is where it's being guided to go.

The net effect in Jockland is already being felt. Slumlording is virtually eliminated and now rogue and cowboy agencies are being forced out too. And whilst this certainly does come at a price, it's a cost that most people believe
is well worth it.

So mate, look up north and look at your future. No more poorly maintained dungeons operated by tyrants or cowboy ripoff managers. And regulation-with-teeth to enforce decent standards. And yes it might impact on profitability. But - as many have found out with OpenRent - buy cheap and you'll buy twice.

@Mike. I don't 'like' or 'dislike' OpenRent, but I do kind of dislike a business pretending to be some kind of letting agent which doesn't actually manage property at all.

I certainly do understand their "service offering". They offer online property advertising for self-managing landlords including enabling access to far bigger property advertisers who are "trade only" which is far and away their biggest selling point.

However one thing I definitely don't like is the suppression of negative comment. That Trustpilot site you refer to has become a bit of a joke. Surely you know that. Trustpilot's "core service" is to provide a promotional tool to businesses prepared to pay for the service. That "service" includes manufactured ways to block, suppress and remove poor and negative 'reviews'. This is in answer to the people - the many people - who will only look at the negative reviews to get an accurate picture of what's really on offer.

Funnily enough I recently had a conversation with the owner of a letting agency who had been the victim of a 'revenge-negative'. He contacted Google to complain about it, accompanying the complaint with proof that the revenge-negative was nonsense. He was advised that it could not be removed and that the best thing he could do would be to swamp the review section with positives!! He further discovered that there are companies who offer a set charge for 50 positive reviews!!

As even our OpenRent fanboy host here concedes, it is far less common for people to post unsolicited positive comments than negative comments. And the strangest thing is that Trustpilot's negatives are not only almost always challenged and blocked/removed but then coincidentally followed by a flood of very very similar sounding positives, none of which anyone finds "useful".

If you drill into online opinions on OpenRent as a matter of diligence you can come across quite a bit of comment which hasn't been suppressed. And an interesting picture emerges. Try it.

And of course ask yourself this - is OpenRent or is OpenRent not trying to portray itself as some kind of improved alternative to the traditional property managing letting agent? But if they're not actually doing any tenancy or property management (and that ranges far far beyond just mere maintenance management) how is that providing an alternative?

Have to say it all gets a bit too Matthew 15:14 on this particular site. But at least our host hasn't started suppressing negative commentary which doesn't agree with his. Yet.

Yes I did use them. In 2014. I told a co-director of my letting agency that I was going to try them to see if they could be useful to us to market for tenants. He wasn't keen, reminding me of our LettingWeb and CityLets experiences. So I decided I'd use one of my own properties as a 'guinea pig'....

From memory there was no direct contact, all communication being via email. But plenty of that. Bit time consuming and content-lite but communication nonetheless. And so the process began.

Reasonably quickly, tenant responses started coming in. (in fact, I think I've still got them stored in an email inbox).
Good start! But.....as I began to process them it emerged that they were of the most hopeless quality or wholly inappropriate. Then there were the ones who ceased communications after their initial approach. In fact, as the volume increased it began to become a bit surprising that these responses/enquiries were so unilaterally and comprehensively useless.

Surely the law of averages meant that at least ONE of these responses would be sensibly appropriate as a viewer?

Eventually one did turn up and was given the tenancy.

It is often difficult to detect mental problems, especially problems involving personality disorder (as many a divorcee will confirm). And whilst it would be incredibly useful, there is no realistic way to take reference on a prospective tenant's mental health even although it can and frequently does severely impact on how a tenancy is conducted.

Dislodging this tenant with sensitivity and consideration took immense effort on the part of our agency. Suffice it to say that whilst it was not really the poor creature's "fault", it was a nightmare tenancy even though it lasted for a relatively short time. It ran normally for a month. Semi-normally for a second month. And thereafter collapsed into chaos for a few weeks until it was ended.

My co-director merely said "told you" and I said "yes you did, so that's another waste of time tried tested and binned" and I was glad I'd used one of my properties rather than a client's for this woeful and lesson-learning experience.

OpenRent were approached during the chaotic period, but did nothing to assist other than distance themselves from any responsibility for the tenant and referring to their "partner" Legal for Landlords which appears to be a legal firm dealing with the letting industry but (as I knew from their previous disastrous efforts in my area from which they subsequently withdrew years ago) is actually a firm OpenRent act as paid introducers for and whose business is to give IANAL advice and also to further refer people to proper solicitors from whom they no doubt receive further referral fees. With a loon ball embedded in my flat with all the consequent impact on the property, the neighbours and the local authorities, offering me into a referral mug-chain of 3rd rate advice wasn't really over helpful.

OpenRent seemed keen that I give their service a further go. But there didn't seem any reason why any subsequent trial wouldn't turn out the same. So it was politely declined.

Beginning in 1976, I have owned up to 200 properties over the years. At the time I tried OpenRent I owned about 100 and owned a letting agency that managed about 1000. Now I'm retired and operate two portfolios totalling 75. I have not managed them hands-on for years and they are fully managed and managed very well by an agent. Once - not that long ago - there were very few letting agents. Now they are everywhere. Many of them are poor and many more are mediocre. Far away the best ones are the ones which have grown from the management of an individual's portfolio. But most of these aren't interested in managing for anyone other than other property professionals.

The other agencies are really just business plans put into effect. Sometimes they work very well for some properties and some owners and some tenants. But more often they don't. However as 3rd party letting agency businesses they are often more profitable than the big-portfolio based agencies, often because they are planned to profit from income streams far beyond their rent-based letting commission.

To me, OpenRent are not a proper professional letting agency. If the letting agency which manages my properties ever packed up or booted me out I would sell my properties rather than use OpenRent as my agent.

If I was to write that review on TrustPilot it would be immediately suppressed blocked and removed.

And of course when the ad homs give way to the old "He's a trooooolll" gambit, it's really game over, isn't it?

Pity. I was looking forward to your justification of the lack of landlord registration numbers on the ads, and the suppression of negative reviews.......

......not to mention an explanation of how an online property advertising agency is some kind of superior alternative to a full management letting agency service for landlords?

Your replies spout forth lots of unpleasant and abusive invective, but fall a bit short of answers. Bit of an empty box, really.

Not surprising the site's a bit of a dead zone.

Hey kids, stop bickering or Santa won't come!

As an update, I posted in June with a query and did choose to go with Openrent. Some aspects were a bit confusing but I figured them out in the end.

Most applicants were genuine and I decided on some excellent tenants.

All I wanted was a tenant find service so advertising on Rightmove was essential.

I saved a lot of money by not going with my previous high street letting agent so very happy with the service.

By the way, I found the thread on Openrent's Referencing interesting and a bit concerning. Thanks to those who posted. If I need referencing in the future I'll look into it further.

Just out of interest, do either you or the tenant consider OpenRent to be "our letting agent", or do you think of them as a tenant/property finding service with no responsibility for anything beyond the successful marketing of the property?

And if I could ask one other thing....given you're presumably self-managing all the other aspects of your letting concern, why do you need to use a 3rd party to market it when you need to find a tenant?

Admittedly some properties are tricky to get let (and I'm told OpenRent marketing doesn't make them especially easier) but most aren't and can be marketed for next to nothing particularly to the local market which is where most tenants come from.

I have used Openrent, Upad and Easy property and they have all generated enquiries for me that led to tenants. They saved me a fortune. They are all pretty much the same and they are all online letting agents which offer tenant finding services plus various other services so I'm not sure what the issue is here. Openrent isn't the only online letting agent that offers tenant-find services, there are dozens of them these days.

I used open rent as a tenant. Everything went through good. We liked the property, we paid £200.0 deposit money. My husband and myself passed our referencing. Landlord asked to put guarantors detail. We told him that we can not provide any.And he insisted we kept denying he put us in position to withdraw our application from openrent as our moving out date from current property was very near. That is the way we lost our deposit as it is open rent policy that if tenant withdraw application deposit money will go to landlord. That landlord was well aware of this policy so he did not deny upon our inability to provide guarantor and he waited for us to withdraw.
people please be aware of paying deposit.

Suggestion for OpenRent: make it possible for landlord to transfer tenants from high street letting agent to OpenRent in middle of tenancy.

OpenRent can only create a tenancy from start. If landlord is already using high street letting agent with good tenants, landlord cannot move to OpenRent without releasing tenant's deposit and then asking tenant to put deposit back into OpenRent.

What are your thoughts on OpenRent's tenant referencing services? Are they thorough enough?

Just used Openrent for the first time. Fantastic service from start to finish. I will definitely be using them again. Worth every penny of the £49 I chose to pay.

Agents in London have always charged me a % of the rent, so I had good reason to try Openrent. I started with them in 2016, with the same skepticism that many on here have had. In the first tenancy, I saved myself £4680 in letting fees in that first year alone. I used it again for the relet, and once I got savvy about weeding out 'wannabe airbnb hosts', its continued to provide a significant cost saving. Whilst I still use agents up North, who charge a one off reasonable fee, and do the viewings on my behalf,I've used openrent for a couple of flats that are in my village where viewings are more easy to arrange (including at evenings and weekends, when agencies aren't open, which is appreciated by tenants who can't take the time off work) There have been occassions when Ive found a tenant through word of mouth, and I still paid their £49 fee just for Openrent's online, ease of use services. Referencing, contract provision and signing, rent collect, and issuing the prescribed information. Yes I had to upload my insurance documents to enable them to list on rightmove, but that's just a digitial doc. on my pc. I've also used their gas safety check services, which was cheaper and more reliable, than chasing various engineers directly. For a hands on landlord, with a professional understanding of letting, and a set of photos that illustrates a quality property, I highly recommend Openrent.

I used them for the first time this month.
Some aspects of the service were really good and one not so good and one awful.

I started with the FREE offer and I found a tenant quickly enough. Maybe my fault but it was only after signing up that I realised the free offer was restricted to 5 days of advertising on the bigger websites
I decided to pay £49.

There was a problem with the referencing (Rent Guard) and they failed the tenant for lack of sufficient income. That was a mistake and it was quickly rectified. Stressful, nevertheless.

My real and ongoing problem has been with their ADD ON service and the use of Gas-Elec.
I paid £178 for PAT and EIC in 1 bed flat.
Underfloor heating has been in flat since new. Never had a problem. It was working the day before the EIC and has not worked since.
I paid OPEN RENT but they insist I deal with Gas-Elec who want to charge me £78 to attend. Their employee removed heater switch covers to test circuit.
I refuse to accept that is a coincidence the heaters have not worked since.
Beyond annoyed.

...that it is...

The engineer went to the property and because he found it difficult to park (there was parking there, but obviously did not look hard enough), he abandoned the appointment and I got charged £30.
I tried to contact Openrent and could not get through. I left a message and got no phone calls back. Instead, they charged me £30, without entering into any communication.
I have had this property for 14 years, and had different engineers go each year, and NEVER had this problem.
Steer clear - very poor customer service!
I'd never use them again.

Hi,

I am moving country (within UK) and i am keeping a property i used to live in. I have an in-law closeby to manage the property if there are any issues etc. Would OpenRent be perfect of this, or is there anywhere else you recommend anyone else for my situation?

Thanks,
David.

Hi David, yes I think it would be perfect if you have someone close or manage the property yourself. Open rent is very useful in finding tenants and have used them exclusively for my last 8 properties.

I have used open rent for a few years and been successful in getting new tenants this way. Due to the recent changes in fees, I have now used Open rent to reference potential tenants and guarantors. This has resulted in extra fee of £60 and Open rent stop advertising the house, while the references are being carried out. Think this is a bit steep and not great to stop advertising as if there is a problem with the references then we are back to square one. Does anyone know of a company that would do references any cheaper? What are other landlords experiences of this?

Recieved about 20 enquiries within 10 days. Found suitable tenants. Communication was excellent with tenants , guarantors and my self. Decided on £49 package and got the contracts signed electronically. I paid extra £20 per person for references but worth it for peace of mind. Rent is also paid through Open rent and straight away into my account.Perfect!! Everything completed within 2 weeks.

Have recommended Openrent to family and friends who have now used it successfully.

Thank you Openrent for saving tenants and landlords from being ripped off by agents.

agree with all, used openrent free trial and actually found a brilliant tenant. I'm just baout to use openrent again for another property and the £29 is good value IMO. You can get a lot of rubbish enquiries but that's the way it is.

There is only one way this stacks up financially ...The portals must be discounting their costs to openrent to quite a considerable degree.

Forget upselling and a techi founder, their operational costs still rise...just look what they spend with Google for starters.

The private rented sector is about to change dramatically and the portals know it, growth in large property companies, subsidised build to rent, housing associations.

Longer tenancies means less let only business , no section 21, and a raft of new tenant rights, taxation on second homes and buy to lets means less small owner landlords..

Investors are not that stupid, this in my opinion is a business set up with the portals support, for the future which will not include small letting agents and sorry will not include small private owner landlords...we are all turkeys waiting for Christmas and paying for the privilege.

I have found OpenRent to be excellent. The platform is very easy to use, step by step guides and helpful information is just a click away. My property generated 52 leads in 48 hours and many were good quality. The option to pause the advert due to the volume of enquiries was great. The add ins for GS certs, EPCs etc make everything all in one place and simplifies the processes required to meet landlord obligations. I’m impressed and will certainly use OpenRent again

I ran a letting and sales office for 18 plus years and hard to please. OpenRent ticked all the boxes

Can't fault OpenRent but has anyone noticed the new charging, £10 a month for rent collection on new tenancies? This is on the £49 package. Be careful it's one of the checkbox items as you create the contract. For the privilege of holding all those payments £10 imho is a lot for sending out a few SMS messages based off of a schedule.

Yes Martin, I have used the rent now option on a couple of properties and just came across this. The first ones no charge for collecting the rent (and still no charge) however the last one has just gone onto the £10 per month and agree it is a bit steep. I hadn't realised that Open Rent now charge for this service when I did the Rent now option so it is something that I will bear in mind for my next tenancies. Its a bit unclear in the wording on the website, which is a bit annoying.

OpenRent have been brilliant.

I had 2 traumatic years with a High Street Letting agent who made mistakes galore on the process of tenant find and endless paperwork errors.

OpenRent was clear and simple, giving me control and responsibility and saving me from the stress and expense of the High Street agent.

I can’t fault OpenRent in anyway. I wish I’d used them earlier. The dashboard organisation is straightforward and they email you with updates every step of the way.
What more can I say - top class service.

This all sounds nice and lovely for landlords but as usually the tenant gets no support and isn't taken into account if there is a dispute.

The platform should really do more checks about the landlords they allow to advertise. I had to deal with a scam landlord and after research I am not the only one.

Anyway, for tenants, I would say avoid it as they are shady and will make it very hard to get help in case of dispute.

First time landlord letting out a flat we used to live in in London.

We used open rent to let it out and found it easy and pretty painless - and actually quite fun (though I imagine that wears off).

We had around 30-40 interested people and arranged about 10 viewings. In the end we had 2 interested parties, both of which would have been fine. The system for setting up viewings is quite manual - we used calendly to manage this so that people could arrange their own time, but something could be built in.

The system for referencing and communicating with the tenant, doing the contract etc was all very smooth. Slightly regret the 6 month break clause in the contract that they strongly encourage but other than that it was all good.

Would definitely use again.

The hardest bit of the whole process was tidying up to take the photos - that took days!

I can’t rate Openrent highly enough. Having been a poor experience with an agent when I let the property previously it was a breath of fresh air to move to DIY mode. I had lots of enquiries within a 48hr period and found lovely tenants. The referencing service initially failed one of the tenants but they rectified that when the tenant queried it. Other than that it was smooth sailing.

Hi,
If I use Openrents Ultimate advertising package - is it possible I can still pay for them to do referencing?
I noted it is free to register the deposit and I want to amend some of the clauses in the AST and am not bothered about them collecting the first rent payment (noting they hold it for some time) so it makes sense to go for the £29 package and pay £20 per reference after the free trial.

Dear landlord,

Recently I find tenants in Openrent, there are so many South Africa people claimed that they rent this house for a friend who will arrive next week.
So so so many.
I am wondering is it a scam as they usually happy to pay for 6months upfront rent.

Dear landlord,

Can you share your experience on this kind of scam? One of my friend is going to rent his apartment to the “friend” coming next week.

I really curious on it.

Many thanks and I wish you can reach more good tenants.

Used OpenRent about 18months ago after both our properties became vacant around the same time. We suffered a deluge of applicants before they even got on Rightmove and also used them for contracts etc. Definitely would use again. Always do your own viewings and read the references carefully, even if they 'pass',for inconsistencies and omissions.

Does anyone have any tips on how to filter 'bad' tenants/time-wasters, from legitimate applicants?

Thank you @The Landlord.

I was wondering why Abdul was being so bloody weird then he exposed himself by revealing he is a letting agent! Now makes total sense. Don't blame him as I would be life-threatened by this ridiculously good company.

OpenRent is the most amazing service I've ever come across in these times of appalling customer service and downright profiteering.I don't know how they do it.

I've used their £49 service including rent collection for years. I'm now in the process of setting up a new tenancy and I can see I now will have to pay £10 a month for the rent collection facility. I think it might be worth the money and even if it's not, tbh it's probably worth it just to support them!

Over the years I have used OpenRent's EPC, gas safety, rent guarantee insurance and inventory services. All exceptionally good value and seamlessly handled. I can't sing their praises enough.

I’ve just used open rent for the first time to find new tenants. I’ve saved myself an absolute fortune compared to using an estate agent. I used the £49 option mainly because it included the drawing up of the contract. It took me a while to get used to navigating the system but overall it was quite easy. I particularly like the fact that open rent ask potential tenants a range of questions that sort out the serious candidates. I paid for a credit check for an applicant who them failed to complete the paperwork. He then withdrew his interest in the property. Open rent informed me straight away and quickly refunded my money.
My new tenant was equally impressed with the amount of information that open rent provided to them. Ie The how to rent guide and copies of the EPC, gas cert etc. They ended up with two lots as I provided the information to them as well. I would definitely use them again.

Hi everyone,

I have some questions,

Is using open rent stressful at all?
Do you do the viewings for tenants yourselves? If not then who chooses the agents to view the property?
For those who have used open rent before - would you use open rent again?

Absolutely I would recommend OpenRent. I used a useless High St agent for a few lettings, who only piled on more stress. With OpenRent you ‘take control’. Maybe not for every landlord who doesn’t want to do some of the physical work of showing prospective tenants round, but OpenRent are spot on with the paperwork and legislation and I’ve been very happy with them for the last few years.

I have just started my third marketing with Open rent going for their £69 package. Once you understand how it all works, it is much easier and certainly less stress than using high street agents. When I approach high street agents wanting a letting only package, they get a gleam in their eye seeing which of their crappy tenants they can dump on you. In central London many will not even engage /negotiate finder only deals. I have experienced good admin with Open Rent - they get back to you quickly and efficiently, communication is key, and you can put pre-viewing filters on your advert etc. I will use their accompanied viewing package this time as I have broken an ankle and cannot do my own, unfortunately. I also use the NRLA documents and referencing. They are excellent.