If you are a landlord hoping to find a suitable tenant for your rental property, you must be well aware of how difficult the entire process is. Putting up ads, answering queries, showing property, negotiating contracts and closing deals can take a toll on the best of us. Hence, landlords often resort to hiring a property agent to deal with their rental properties.
If you are a landlord looking to hire a property agent, given below are four things you should be taking into consideration:
- Whether they give guaranteed rent
In the United Kingdom, certain property agents feature guaranteed rent agreements with their clients. Under a guaranteed rent uk agreement, when a landlord signs with a property agent and they mutually decide on an appropriate rent figure, the agent will give the landlord the decided rent irrespective of whether or not the agent can put the property on rent by the given time. Hence, once you sign the agreement, getting tenants is completely a headache for your agent.
- Ask for reviews and testimonials
Before finalising your property agent, be sure to check for testimonials and reviews from the agent’s previous clients. While going through the testimonials be sure to check for their sincerity and try to personally contact an ex or current client. It is also a good idea to ask your friends and family for recommendations as those agents would come from reliable sources and you could easily trust their credibility. You would get a first-hand experience of what it would be like to work with your chosen agent.
- Check their work experience
In addition to checking their testimonials and reviews, you should also be checking your chosen agent’s work experience and responsive professionalism in terms of guaranteed rent schemes. Your agent should be experienced in real property markets similar to the properties you own. For instance, if you own luxury properties, your agent should hold experience in renting and selling luxury estates. If you have properties in the suburbs that are good for big families, be sure that they hold experience in dealing with properties in the suburbs. In addition to good reviews, your agent needs to have relevant experience to be useful to you.
- Inquire about their fees and commissions
Finally, while choosing a property agent, be sure to inquire about their fees and pertaining commissions that they charge. Before entering into a contract, it is wise to ask them about all their terms and conditions and carefully read the contract that they draw for any hidden charges. Once you are aware of the charges, you should inquire about which services are covered within those charges and which services would require additional payment. This would help you ensure that there are no hidden fees and that they are well within your budget.
Conclusion
Hiring a property agent can often be a mentally taxing decision to make as there are multiple factors you need to weigh in before arriving at a decision. By using the above-mentioned factors while making a choice, you can be assured that all important factors are accounted for.
