How to find a tenant

Goodne

Hi all, just wondering what is the best way to advertise a house for rent? Are websites better than local papers? And if so which websites are best? Or do the estate agents & propety management companies have the whole thing sewn up? Thanks

Media999

What area / type of house?

Goodne

sorry meant to put that in; its a 3 bed semi in Laois

Scortho

Goodne wrote: »

Hi all, just wondering what is the best way to advertise a house for rent? Are websites better than local papers? And if so which websites are best? Or do the estate agents & propety management companies have the whole thing sewn up? Thanks

It all depends on your target market and what you are offering.

Personally I would never look in the papers for somewhere to rent. Most other people my age (20) would't either. I'd be looking at the likes of Daft.ie and my home.ie for the simple reason that the website is easy to use and has an excellent selection of properties.

My parents have a few properties and use a letting agent to rent them out. On average the fee is 1 months rent. In their experience it is definitely worth it provided you use a good letting agent.

A good letting agent will do proper vetting of tenants. They will also handle all viewings and the setting up of direct debits. Maintenance issues go through them. Most good ones will also have a list of tenants looking for properties in that area.
They find that it takes away a lot of the stress of having rentals.

Media999

Rent allowance is another choice you have to make.

If you are accepting it. Find out what the rates are and price accordingly.

€505 for a couple with 2 kids.

Ask for €500 and ask a letting agency to select someone with good references would be the smart thing to do id say.

Goodne

ok thanks for that; will check out local propety management companies tomorrow & daft.ie

Media999

Goodne wrote: »

ok thanks for that; will check out local propety management companies tomorrow & daft.ie

The letting agency will generally take care of daft for you.

Goodne

I will probably have to go with the cheapest option & hope for the best!

Scortho

Goodne wrote: »

I will probably have to go with the cheapest option & hope for the best!

Is this your very first letting?

riclad

You can put ads on noticeboards ,in shops,eg tesco ,quinnsworth free.
Also try buyandsell ,
http://www.buyandsell.ie
or www.rent.ie

ProudDUB

Media999 wrote: »

The letting agency will generally take care of daft for you.

Yeah, don't put the property up on Daft if you are going to let an estate agent/property mgt company manage the property for you. They'll put the ad up for you and as they get discounted rates, it will cost a fraction of what it would cost you if you do it yourself.

Agree that you should do it online. Using local publications and local marketing can't hurt, but the internet is where its at these days. As others have said, Daft.ie & MyHome.ie are the two main property websites in Ireland for both sales and lettings.

Or do the estate agents & propety management companies have the whole thing sewn up?

No estate agents don't have it all sewn up. I guess people just use them as they are not able to manage the tenancy themselves, or they don't want the hassle of dealing with tenants directly. If the property in question is clean, well maintained, priced right and in a good location, you won't have a problem finding a tenant if you decide to manage the tenancy yourself. If it is old, run down, shabby, over priced etc etc you may have your work cut out for you, whether you use an estate agent or not.

Dunno about Laois, but when I was thinking about letting out a property in Dublin, I was quoted an upfront finders fee by the letting agency for doing the advertising and marketing of the property, showing the house to prospective tenants, vetting them, checking references, drawing up all the legal lease paperwork and house contents inventory paperwork etc etc. It varied by 300-500 euros per company.

Once the tenant moved in, the letting agency took a percentage of the rent to manage the property for me...collect the rent, forward it to me, deal with any maintenance issues that cropped up etc etc. (Quotes for that varied too from 8% to 10% to 15%, so shop around.) They had a team of plummers, electricians etc on their payroll. If anything happened that they could fix, I was not charged the labour for it. But if parts had to be purchased or new appliances bought and installed then the cost of those would be deducted from the monthly rent payments forwarded to me.

Best of luck to you.

JustAThought

Daft.ie is the way to go.
Or for Laois put a sign up locally as well ; a local audience may want to move & spit it as they do their shopping etc. I'd include interior pictures ; good ones!!!

On mgmt companies I researched this. I met with three large estate agents & one smallish local one. All had signs on tbeir windows advertising tenants needing properties in your area " now".
They charge at least what would be a months rent, in advance; this averaged from e850 to e1100. For this they said they would find a tenant; show the property/work with you to show it; and check references/collect rent. I asked what would happen if they didn't get the rent & there it got fishy ; it was all about waiting yimes & legal procedures & letters in the post after 10 days , waiting times due by law & more letters... I wasn't that convinced that if anything went wrong they would be there as hard as I would ..nor would they say they would send anyone out. The reference checks they said they would do themselves ; I'd asked if they used an agency etc. They said they would basically ring the person named on the form & speak to them & that they would " know". In the UK I'd had to provide pay slips & show copies of contracts & get letters/forms filled out by HR. Here they ring a number & ask -and " know". I wasn't overcomvinced.
I asked what happens if the tenant leaves/breaks the contract etc. They said that they would charge me the fee again to find a(nother) new tenant. In fact all bar one said that ...the smallest one said they would only charge half ; the others said that depending on the length if time the tensnt was there they would see what they could do, but normally the same fee would apply again.
You had to pay extra again for " management " ie balloted for problems. This wasn't something I would do so I wasn't that thorough but I asked if they had sn after hours emergency number for this; two said yes. I got interested & asked how it was manned ; the girl said it would be checked the following morning during work hours!!!! Great Irish after hours service that!!! A deposit was needed for the managent service -this varied from e600 to the full one months deposit ; Which they would keep to ensure that if you didn't pay/there was an issue; they would have a safety-net. In two cases they wanted am extra e600-e800 cash; in one they were prepared to work off the tenants deposit with a " top-up" agreement to keep it at this rate in case Yiu used it. No straight answer as to what happened the tenants deposit if the tenants left bills unpaid etc ; it was now used as a slush fund to protect the " management agency" ; not my interests in case if damage/default etc.

I wasn't convinced at all : by any if them. TBh it sounded that they were pushing this " management" to consolidate a gap in their income left by the fall in the markets; nothing about it sounded well thought through. I would also be left laying full vat on all parts bought despite them being able to reclaim this back themselves under the standard business VAT agreement; 15-20% extra in their pockets at my expense ...

The reason I was so questioning is that my friend got hit for 5 months rent after a " management company & estate agent" shut up shop & did a runner on them ; this was in the UK but I'd be concerned. Ireland isn't exactly an on-the-ball place with regard to customer protection . I also like many others am screwed by a " management company " for apartment/houses that effectively does nothing but has the hand out all the time... Typically run by tbe builders/agents who are looking to bridge a gap in tbeir sagging lifestyles . Again; a different thing but mostly unregulated by law & no effective consumer protection or meaningful legislation.

Ok; to bring it back together , unless you were out if the country or had a really old problematic property I woudnt be recommending an agency; I'd be taking good photos & putting it up on daft.ie & locally.

Daft will also allow you to search in your area & see what the competition is , and to get an idea if what the Market is in terms of rents. You can also see how many people ate looking to lease houses in the area which can be useful.

If there is a big employer hub (?) I'd have a sign up there ; or a GAA hall or community hub .. Seeing what is available also triggers people who half would like to move , to move ; if they can see that it's nice /modern/fair price etc!

I'd be looking to consider signing up to the Ptra ( private tenants agency ) to protect myself ; all letting sgents required me to do this ; it'll cover your ass if there's a dispute ( only cos they can't basically blackmail you for not being on it) ... But this will mean you will be on revenues list for tax, household charges, water rate charges etc ...

Good luck!

Goodne

Thanks everyone for all the replies. The last tenant was there for over 2 years so I wasn't sure how best to advertise it now. I have had it on myhome.ie for 2 weeks and haven't had one call. The house is in really good condition & in a good area so I guess I need to advertise it in better places ie. where prospective tenants will see it. I'm going to try daft.ie. & if I still haven't found a tenant in 2 weeks I will go with an agency.

Media999

Goodne wrote: »

Thanks everyone for all the replies. The last tenant was there for over 2 years so I wasn't sure how best to advertise it now. I have had it on myhome.ie for 2 weeks and haven't had one call. The house is in really good condition & in a good area so I guess I need to advertise it in better places ie. where prospective tenants will see it. I'm going to try daft.ie. & if I still haven't found a tenant in 2 weeks I will go with an agency.

Make sure your not even slightly pricing people out. 500 for 2 adults with 2 kids. Anymore and they wont even bother ringing.

Your losing the extra by the house lying empty anyway.

Goodne

good point thanks; will make sure its priced the same as others in the area

mrs vimes

many good points from JustAThought about the pitfalls of using an agent.

just to nitpick a couple though:

JustAThought wrote: »

I would also be left laying full vat on all parts bought despite them being able to reclaim this back themselves under the standard business VAT agreement; 15-20% extra in their pockets at my expense ...

If the agent is claiming an input credit for the VAT then they have to charge it on to the customer. It's easier for them to just charge on the bill for the appliance directly and not put it through their VAT return.

JustAThought wrote: »

I'd be looking to consider signing up to the Ptra ( private tenants agency ) to protect myself ; all letting sgents required me to do this ; it'll cover your ass if there's a dispute ( only cos they can't basically blackmail you for not being on it) ... But this will mean you will be on revenues list for tax, household charges, water rate charges etc ...

Registering the tenancy with the Private Residential Tenancies Board is a legal requirement, glad to hear all the letting agents informed you of this. It may put you on Revenue's radar, but if you don't do it you can't claim any interest paid against tax due (they may well catch you eventually). Also can't claim against a tenant who damages the house/leaves unpaid bills/etc.