In a few months I may be in the position to rent a 2 bed house in bristol. We would probably end up using a letting agent but wouldn't know where to start in deciding who to use. I only ever hear horror stories about lazy letting agents so would like to know if anyone has had any good experiences or could recommend an agent in bristol. I'm interested in input from both landlords and tenants. I understand it'll probably cost between 10 and 20% which is a fair amount, but I'll be happy to pay it if the service is excellent.

Thanks in advance.

depends where you are. I used Dembo in Picton St for about 10 years when I rented a flat in Montpelier out – he was always pretty good. I assume he's still there…

westbury on trym. I assume agents would cover the whole of bristol though?

Most of the 'big boys' have a local set of agents for each patch. As an example, for the love of god do not use the Andrews letting office that covers Emersons Green – they would be only marginally less useless if they didn't have a pulse. On the other hand the Westbury office may be fine……

Bristol is pretty placed for DIY letting with gumtree and the free-ads for finding tenants. Depends if you need an agent too look after the place. Has anybody ever had a good word to say about letting agents?

Unless your leaving town why on earth would you use a letting agent to manage your proprerty? Lazy good for nothing money grabbing scum. I have 3 houses that I let out and I used to look after lots of properties for a pal. I can email you a great contract. I would suggest joining the RLA and getting advice from their forums.

Thanks for the replies. It'll be me and my brother who'll be letting it out and we both live in bristol so in theory between us we could sort out any problems. However we have never done it before and we are both busy with full time jobs and riding our bicycles. Not bothered about getting the agency to find tenants, I can do that but I can see a lot of benefit in having an agent sort out issues like rent, emergencies, contracts etc. as what would we do if there was an emergency and we were both out of town?

How much time/effort etc is involved when it comes to being a landlord?

All advice appreciated!

How much time/effort etc is involved when it comes to being a landlord?

It does not have to be much.

I can send you a contract email in profile.
1) Get them to give you post dated cheques for the rent, or arrange a standing order.
2) If there are any arrears its all done by post. Standard letter, give them 3 chances then go for small claims/eviction. But this really is unlikely, anyway a letting agent wont be able to handle much past writing to them after that they will want to employ a solicitor at your expense.
3) Give them your no and give them standard hours when you will deal with non emergency calls.
4) Give instructions on how to use elec distribution board. A pain is tenants overloading sockets with extension cables and tripping the switches and not even knowing what a fuse-board is. They call me and say the electricity is bust, I tell them that if I come out and track the fault to a faulty appliance (theirs) or an overloaded socket then its a standard call out fee.

5) Do monthly house inspections to make sure the tenants are up to cleanliness standard.

6) If they are young get parental guarantors (I can send you a form)

7) I always work on the positive side, as in I give my tenants pretty much everything they ask for – it pays off in the long run.

In 10 years of doing this I have only lost £300 in unpaid rent on my own properties. Lost a bit more than that on my mates stuff but that was because he insisted on some tenants who I knew would turn out bad.

Hey thanks, some great advice. I'll probably email when I get home.

I expect if I get some recommendations for agents I'll still look into it to see what we would get for our money and then weigh up whether its worth doing it ourselves. Would we be tied into a fixed term contract with an agent or would we be able to sack them off whenever we wanted if they were crap?

Probably fixed term contract, I don't really know as I've never used them, but lots of my mates have, none do now..

Most agents charge 12-15% so if you rent out a flat for £600 a month that's £72 – 90 a month – a grand a year. Hmm that's a whole new bike for not much work.. no thanks.

I have four properties. There is a lot to learn, but nothing difficult. Pretty much all of it is in this book. I really recommend it. If you can look after it yourself, do it. the most important things are honesty, insurance and reliable tradesmen.

The Landlord's Survival Guide

Good advice from Toys.

I have rented and both thru agents and organising things myself. I'd never use an agent again. I'd rather pay a pal if I wasn't going to be around. One agent cost me many thousands

You need a pro to sort out leases ( or get really good advice) but I would always advise getting tenants yourself. I have had no issues with tenants I have got – I have had issues with tenets the agents got

So general consensus is stay clear of agents! We're having the house valued this week so will find out what the deal is for letting management through the estate agents. I'm probably willing to give it a go ourselves, I just don't want to be hassled night and day by tenants and then have to chase rent!

Another question going slightly off tangent…

House is currently 2 big bedrooms, one en suite. Apparently there are good prospects for opening up the big loft into a third bedroom at the expense of some room for stairs in the big front bedroom. Considering the outlay, is it worth doing for extra rent and possible increase in house value?

Phototim – the answer to that is IMO
1) let it slightly cheap – then you get plenty of potential tenants and can chose the best.
2) – treat the tenants well
3) – don't let things slide – as soon as they are latet with the rnt get on top of the situation.

The agents around here want a flat fee and a % so its £200 each time they do a new lease + 10- 15 % of the rent + anything else they can think of such as advertising for tenants.

For the £1000+ an agent could cost you over the year you can deal with a fair amount of crap. Every time I have used gumtree for a tenant I have got a good one within 3 days – so no slack time with no tenants

5) Do monthly house inspections to make sure the tenants are up to cleanliness standard.

From the tennants POV these are a PITA, the landlord gives a time and date to suit them, you waste holliday time from work to let them in (saying that isn't the case just makes you sound like a panty sniffing wierdo, would you let a stranger into your home unsupervised?)

By all means make friends with the tennants and pop in for a cup of tea once in a while. But as tennants the number 1 reson we moved out was overbearing landlords (and we were never messy).

We stayed with the same landlord at university for the following reasons:
– let us fix stuff (wiring in new light sockets, minor plumbing etc that would take days to wait for a tradesman and we didnt want showers in the dark/no shower)
– made us cake (very important)
– fixed stuff that broke, and kept the same tradesmen each time so we knew who was coming.
– flexible, we were students, we were paid 3x a year, we asked if we could pay the rent in the same intervals i.e. it worked out 1 month in arrears and 2 month in credit when loans came in, then monthly over the summer as we were working.

We left 2 other houses because the landlords were overbearing c***s.

Sarah Kenny were good when I moved to Bristol.

phototim, not much point in making the attic a third bedroom if the only way you can get in is via the main bedroom – the appeal of it would be limited to families…

Am looking to rent at the moment – Sarah Kenny charge a 35% (of a months rent) fee to the tenant (+£20 quid each for a credit check!), so they'd better be good…

from a renters POV

i try to avoid agents when renting … scumbags !

tend to find that folk who look after their own rental properties are nice folk to deal with and want to keep you happy – agents are scum generally who just want to line their own pockets …

I have moved next door to my landlord – as my mate said its only a problem if your a **** !

i also avoid agents who charge fees for applications adn credit checks to the tennent …. they can get **** – i just refuse .

Ouch, Sarah kenny looked good but those prices are taking the piss.

As for the loft, it could quite easily be done to continue the stairs separately from the existing bedroom, it would just eat into the bedroom space by the width of the stairs. All 3 bedrooms would be separate and accessed from the landing. It's just an idea though but worth a thought if it significantly increases the property value.

Thanks for all the replies so far, very helpful.

Aah, so that's why they were friendly, helpful, efficient and competent then! It's kind of odd that you have to pay so much just to get the standard of service that should be well… standard.

@ thisisnotaspoon. TBH I only do them monthly if the tenant doesn't keep it clean, once I know a tenant is good I back off, I can't say I want to spend my time doing it either.

But I would counter some of your points.

1) I have never had a tenant refuse me access to inspect when they are not there, no one seems to mind. (apart from one but I didnt pick her as a tenant in the firstplace). Although generally my inspections are the smae as your popping in for a cup of tea.

2)

We stayed with the same landlord at university for the following reasons:
– let us fix stuff (wiring in new light sockets, minor plumbing etc that would take days to wait for a tradesman and we didnt want showers in the dark/no shower)
– made us cake (very important)
– fixed stuff that broke, and kept the same tradesmen each time so we knew who was coming.
– flexible, we were students, we were paid 3x a year, we asked if we could pay the rent in the same intervals i.e. it worked out 1 month in arrears and 2 month in credit when loans came in, then monthly over the summer as we were working.

Never ever let tenants fix electric/plumbing the potential for bad stuff is too great here. (althoguh if you did fix it in advance of telling me there was a problem and it didnt eff up who's to know?)

Agree about the fixing stuff, I try and get the trades round pronto when stuff goes wrong.

I am also flexible exactly about the rent in the way you describe..

Rented many houses in Bristol years ago.

AVOID Property Concept like the plague.

Sarah Kenny are average at best.

Best rental we had was via a big farming cooperative (a nice place nr Abbots Leigh/Pill) – super cheap rent, fantastic ruralish house and they were utterly brilliant.

IMO all agents are pretty dodgy.

toys, any chance I could get a copy of those contracts if I email you ?
cheers 🙂

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/renting_and_leasehold/rights_and_responsibilities/landlords_responsibilities

Good info on the Shelter website.

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