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The
Cheapest Letting Rental Agent May Not Be The Best For Value
by Philip Suter - EzineArticles.com
Article February 2006
For
the property owner who is letting out their home or investment
property the maximum return on investment is very important.
This applies on the amount of commission that you pay to your
letting agent.
Many
people carry out a fair bit of research before choosing their
letting agent covering the following criteria. How long have
they been established - do they belong to a professional organisation
– how do they market a rental property – do they have qualified
staff – what are their costs for letting?
Over
the past fifteen years in the UK there has been a tremendous
growth within the residential letting business. This is as
a result of improved rental laws, growth in the Buy to let
market, etc. This similar situation has happened in Ireland,
France and other European countries.
In
the UK at 2006 anyone can set up business as a “Letting Agent”.
This is quite a worrying situation whereby they can be collecting
rent and deposits, not setting up designated “client bank
” accounts to put these funds in and go off with the proceeds.
Although there are now numerous agents who are members of
ARLA (The Association of Residential Letting Agents), NALS
(National Approved Letting Scheme) NAEA (National Association
of Estate Agents) and RICS (The Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors) anyone can be in business without
belonging to such a professional organisation.
An
agent who joins one (or more) of those listed Professional
organisations must have staff working for them who have experience
in the letting industry, they must have Professional Indemnity
insurance, have audited client bank accounts and run their
business from proper offices, All of these standards cost
a lot of money and have to be taken into account with the
agents fees.
There
are of course many long established agents out there in the
UK who choose not to belong to such an organisation (Until
the Government brings in Licensing regulation they can still
continue like that) and run very successful business, holding
client bank accounts, having professional indemnity insurance
and getting their staff properly trained.
Do
choose your letting agent with care, remember many work on
a no let no fee basis and it can be very costly marketing
a property for an agent that you actually don’t let. The other
important consideration is to always let an agent you instruct
know if you are instructing more than one agent. There is
nothing more embarrassing for an agent or a new tenant when
suddenly the door of the rental property opens and in walks
another agent with prospective renters and the owner had never
notified the first agent that they let it via another agent.
There are of course many long established agents out there
in the UK who choose not to belong to such an organisation
(Until the Government brings in Licensing regulation they
can still continue like that) and run very successful business,
holding client bank accounts, having professional indemnity
insurance and getting their staff properly trained.
Do
choose your letting agent with care, remember many work on
a no let no fee basis and it can be very costly marketing
a property for an agent that you actually don’t let. The other
important consideration is to always let an agent you instruct
know if you are instructing more than one agent. There is
nothing more embarrassing for an agent or a new tenant when
suddenly the door of the rental property opens and in walks
another agent with prospective renters and the owner had never
notified the first agent that they let it via another agent.
If
you do instruct more than one agent, make sure you are not
breaking any sole agency agreements or having different rental
prices with different agents
Philip
Suter is a Director of JML Property Services http://www.jmlproperty.co.uk
a UK based company offering Insurance products on line at
http://www.jml-property-insurance.co.uk and a holiday
home advertising service http://www.jmlvillas.com
and management training within the uk. He is a very experienced
property consultant with over 30 years work in the Residential
letting business in the UK and served on the National Council
of ARLA. He is a Fellow of the National Association of Estate
Agents (NAEA) and a Member of The association of Residential
Letting Agents (ARLA) Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Philip_Suter
©Philip
Suter jml Property Services February 2006
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