Managing a rental yourself?

[R.O.S.S.I]

Hi all, i have a property which I let out and has been for about 4 years now. I have always had a letting agent manage the property for me as I was out of the country and it was just easier, however, I am moving back to the UK and trying to ascertain the value in having an agent on board as i'm not sure they actually do much aside from take the rental payment, do yearly gas checks, and references for any new tenants. I've been lucky and only had 2 tenants in that time.

I'm wondering if I should just save myself the 10% fee they charge and just manage the letting myself.

I have landlords insurance already, the only thing I can think of that I will need to sort out is taking the rental payment from the tenant, potentially do something to transfer the bond, or who has ownership fo the bond, and then have some draft contracts drawn up.

I'm aware that come the time the tenant wants to move out i'll need to find new tenants and do checks etc however my sister used to let her house and said it was super easy finding your own tenants.

I also want to maintain a good relationship with the tenant now and potentially do some upgrade works to the house so they stay for longer.

Is there anything else i need to be aware of when doing the management myself?

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Well I reached out to my current tenants as I wanted to find out how they were finding the property, how they had found the agent, if there was anything that needed urgently doing at the house and also to find out what their long term plans were as the current letting agreement was due to expire in 1 month. They seem like a lovely couple with 2 young kids who have been in there for over 2 years now and seem like they want to stay. Ive never really had any condition report updates from the letting agent, which leads me to believe they aren't really doing them or havent done that many and outside of holding a deposit in a scheme and vetting the occasional tenants i'm not sure what value I get from them. When I was living abroad it made sense, but with me being back in the country and more at-hand to deal with things it doesn't make as much sense.

They agents also put me in a predicament with my neighbour who asked if I would go halves on some fencing and said yes if they can confirm things with a quote first so I could assess whether I think it was a fair quote, which the letting agent never passed on and subsequently resulted in my neighbour sending me a quote 50% more than the original figures they spoke about.

Im also aware the house hasn't really been decorated in over 5 years so could well do with a few touch ups here and there so would rather try and let the tenants know I want to make it a more pleasant place to live and am not just a rogue landlord.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Yeh pretty long thread in that link, any TL;DR?

There's always a risk of dodgy tenants, touch wood i've been lucky so far. I'm going to find out if this family intend on staying in the house for another 12 months at least as I see no reason to utilise them with the same tenants. If and when the current ones decide to leave then I can think about using a new agent to find new tenants potentially - or give it a go myself.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Can you not stipulate as a landlord you aren't willing to accept/consider people on UC?