grocer jack Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 A little help please from you intrepid full timers. We hope to join your ranks early next year and are in the middle of our research. We are currently looking at renting out our house, and would prefer to do this without any involvement from ourselves. Would those of you who do rent out their houses be kind enough to relate your experiences? How did you find your managing agents? Are they responsible for everything? Would they look after refurbishing your house? Thanks, in advance for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 I do not believe this is the favorite forum for full timers. you will find a lot more information over on MHF and motorhomefun. as for letting your house, yes you can find agents. BUT as they are normally estate agents I wish you the best of luck!*-) why would you need house refurbishing while away? either get it done before you go or find a reliable friend or relative to manage for you in your absence. or come back and sort it out later - are you disappearing to the other side of the world? lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry1956 Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 Hi, I don,t full time but rent out 3 houses in glocester. In 6 years this is what I have found out, 1. most rental management companys don,t check historys of tennants, they all say they do, but they don,t. 2. The powers that be stated last year that any deposit be placed with one of three companies that they set up. If you don,t use one of these companies you loss the power to kick them out if need be. 3. I have found that over the years the standard of tennants as gone down, alongside the personal standards of most of the UK, this leads on to lack of care re the houses and broken fittings etc, I had one case of a family leaving with all the white goods and no comeback as their is very little redress or backup from the law. 4. I have this year placed 2 houses on the market as I am sick of seeing my houses which are nearly new and with new fittings etc being used in the way they haev been. I nowever have one set of south afican tennants that are just great and look after the house as their own, in this case I don,t use any 3rd party rent collection firm and in return for the money saved by doing so i was able to cut their rent and give them the power to order repairs done in my name, this works as they know that I am away a lot and its gives them a feeling of being in control of their home. 5. would I rent out MY OWN home, in answer NO WAY. 6. sorry if this is not what you want to hear, but its my storie of renting out. terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 And that is why most full timers either lock up and leave their home empty or sell up...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 We don't full time either but have rented out 'spare' homes both in the UK and in Spain. Our experience re tenants is similar - so much so that it just ain't worth the aggro and we are selling both properties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted December 17, 2007 Share Posted December 17, 2007 I wouldn't now trust a managing agent with a rental property, never mind my own home, I have had two agents for our bungalow which we bought new and neither of them kept their side of the bargain, the do NOT do the checks they say they will, the do NOT want to know when there are things that need doing, they just contact you anyway so you've got to ask yourself really what are you paying them for? The first agent cost us at least one month's rental if not two due to their inability to keep in touch with a 'supposed' tenant, we also found out by accident that they had marked our property as 'let' when in fact it wasn't, hence we weren't getting any applications! All we found they do is collect the rent which is usually just paid into their bank account anyway so that is easily set up to come direct to you in any case. It costs quite a bit of money each month, between 8% and 15% in my experience and, believe me, it doesn't matter which end of the scale they are at, they are still as bad as each other. We still have our rental bungalow simply because, all being well, we will be moving into it ourselves sometime next year and selling up our current home. That's the plan for now, but a second plan is to sell our home, buy another near our rental bungalow and leave it rented out, that way we are on hand most of the time if there are problems, which is unlikely as it is less than 2 years old. The tenant are nice and by not having agents anymore we agreed to keep the rent at it's original rate so they are very happy bunnies indeed, they know if they misbehave and have to move out they'll be paying a lot more, this is one of the reasons we are considering not taking up occupation of the bungalow ourselves as they are such good tenants. The only way I'd consider letting out my own home would be if I knew who I was getting, and by that I meant they were already known to me, ie friends, relations, colleagues, and I trusted them. Otherwise I wouldn't do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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