Who Are Letting Agents?

Buying a property to let is not the same as buying your own home. A home can either be built for your purpose or you can build it and then rent it or lease it out for someone. A buy to let property is a financial asset, so it has to be done according to market demand. A home can be built according to your taste, whereas a buy to let property can be built only according to the market need. This is where a letting agent comes into play.

The experienced letting agent will know the local market, whether there is a demand for say, two-bed roomed flats, or four bed roomed houses, or for properties close to schools or transport links or secluded properties with gardens. Also the agent will know the standard of decoration, furnishing, fixtures and fittings required. So you can buy or build a property exactly according to the market need.

A letting agent also selects well-covenanted tenants who will pay their rent on time and leave the property on time and in a proper state; and he also does the management of the tenancy. Equity partners will want to know that a registered letting agent has been advising on the selection of properties suitable for letting. As you know that the management of any inherent risk is in the hands of a professional agent, it enhances the creditworthiness of buy-to-let propositions put to equity partners.

Once a property has been found, the letting agent will confirm whether or not it has letting potential, the range of the likely rent that can be achieved in current local market conditions and advise on the need of redecoration and new fixtures and fittings to attract good tenants and to reduce the risk of void periods.

The authenticity of a letting agent can be checked by whether or not he is a member of a worldwide association like the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA).