Is anyone here a lettings agent?

franco_22 · 23 Sep 2010 at 12:30

I may be offered an employment opportunity to become one and would like to have some inside insight on what it's like to be one? What are the pros and cons of the job? How hard is it to get NFOPP/ARLA qualified?

yer_averagejoe · 23 Sep 2010 at 12:32

I am not a shop.

Ivan Drago · 23 Sep 2010 at 12:45

Sales people are generally vermin. Letting / estate agents are a particularly parasitic type of vermin.

Find a different career path.

[FnG]magnolia · 23 Sep 2010 at 12:46

Ivan Drago said:
Sales people are generally vermin. Letting / estate agents are a particularly parasitic type of vermin.

Find a different career path.

If you do nothing else at all with your day, OP, believe this.

Edrof · 23 Sep 2010 at 12:49

Ivan Drago said:
Sales people are generally vermin. Letting / estate agents are a particularly parasitic type of vermin.

Find a different career path.

Doughnut007 · 23 Sep 2010 at 12:55

It's not a job I would do. But you can always leave if you don't like it

fez · 23 Sep 2010 at 12:59

Just dont, there is a special place in hell reserved for estate agents.

Vonhelmet · 23 Sep 2010 at 13:13

Pros? You get to rip people off for their deposits, keep all their money and never fix their houses, ignore loads of telephone calls...

Cons? You'll be renowned as scum.

Kutter · 23 Sep 2010 at 13:44

you must have the ability to never answer the phone, then if by a miracle you do answer the phone, you completely forget everything that was said to you 2 mins later.
One of the worst things i did was use a lettings agency to manage my property.

Vonhelmet · 23 Sep 2010 at 14:01

A friend of mine is currently letting a house out through a letting agent. The letting agent let it to some tenants who could barely speak English, had fake IDs and references and who wouldn't pay a deposit because they "work in the service industry".

It turns out they turned the house into a cannabis factory, destroyed the furniture, damaged the walls, etc etc. The letting agent is now trying to worm their way out of paying for anything.

So... scum, yeah?

feedtheram · 23 Sep 2010 at 14:05

only do it if you can a) lie with every word you say. 2) generally not know what you are talking about. and z) look and sound like a complete tool.

Ev0 · 23 Sep 2010 at 14:12

Holy stereotypes batman

Giving an opinion from someone with experience on the other side rather than being a customer, it's not a hard job to do.

Assuming you're just working the admin side and not doing the taking on the work comes to you, as long as you are good at admin/general office work you'll be fine.

Yes there are crooks/bad agents in the business, but there are also perfectly normal ones. Make sure you are the latter and not the former.

Makunouchi · 23 Sep 2010 at 14:18

The lettings agent who handles our property is class, whenever I go into his office he's drinking newcastle brown ale and playing minesweeper.

ntg · 23 Sep 2010 at 14:20

Ev0 said:
Holy stereotypes batman

.......
Yes there are crooks/bad agents in the business, but there are also perfectly normal ones. Make sure you are the latter and not the former.

Show me one and I'll show you a liar..or something to that effect.

No disrespect to you but you are the first one suggesting that there are good estate agents - and that's because you are one!

My recent experience with estate agents (looking to rent):

A) estate agent has over a dozen properties on rightmove AND their own webpage, call to ask and he actually has...0 available
B) estate agent claims to have loads of properties and promises to send everything by email - never does (despite me following up)
C) emailed estate agents to ask which of their advertised properties are actually available - no one responded
D) booked viewing with estate agent - called to say I'll be 10mins late because the train broke down - called again to say ill be another 10 mins late and mobile goes to answering machine, tried two more times. I get there and no one is waiting. I call and he says he asked a colleague to come - I call colleague and he is somewhere completely elsewhere because he thought I wouldn't show up. Call first guy again and he promises to sort it out and send someone - never calls back.

So yeah, they are all scum.

meghatronic · 23 Sep 2010 at 14:21

Ivan Drago said:
Sales people are generally vermin. Letting / estate agents are a particularly parasitic type of vermin.

Find a different career path.

I seriously cannot endorse this post enough.

Ev0 · 23 Sep 2010 at 14:27

kgi said:
No disrespect to you but you are the first one suggesting that there are good estate agents - and that's because you are one!

I am not, I'm an IT security bod working for part of government actually, just said I have experience of the business end of it

And I can name many an honest/normal agent. You won't find them in any of the big chains or cities mind, they are mostly weasley idiots. I have a particular hatred of Connells and Miller Countrywide, don't know they bum from their elbow. Although have to say the girl we dealt with at Haart when we bought our place was great.

But small local village/town agents, local/family run places, tend to be a lot better. They can't afford to be crooks as with just one or two offices they wouldn't survive.

I blame the public who either go with whoever charges least, or gives custom to the big agencies who go through staff faster than a vindaloo through my stomach.