advice please re Renting our apartment

JoeA3

Hi guys,
I'm wondering can anyone advise...

My wife and I are reluctant landlords. We have a 2-bed apartment and our long standing excellent tenants recently moved out so we are trying to get it back on the market. Due to the ongoing restrictions and with us both in busy day jobs, kids, etc, we thought it would be best to give it to a letting agency and let the professionals deal with it.

It's a nice apartment. I don't think it is over-priced and it is presented well. However, it doesn't seem to be going to plan. It's been 3.5 weeks. The ad on Daft has had nearly 5k views, its now the oldest ad in the area search and the agent has only shown it to 3 potential clients, 2 of which were the day after the ad went up! - i.e. when the ad was very fresh.

I feel that the agents are likely letting potential interested parties slip through their hands by not being proactive enough, not responding to genuine interest in it in a timely manner, etc. We actually find it hard to get them on the phone ourselves so needless to say, a potential tenant isn't contacting them that easily either.

They have explained to us that they are being very strict with applicants in terms of having a proper application submitted and Covid restrictions/rules are also a factor - which I suppose is fair enough, the formal application process weeds out the time wasters and non-runners, but perhaps we are losing genuinely interested parties too who just move onto something easier. The whole thing seems slow and we are getting very frustrated. The few people who did view it didn't find fault with the apartment, they just decided to go with alternatives for one reason or another.

At this point we are trying to decide what to do.
- reduce the asking price? As I said, its competitive as it is, but maybe we have to get more competitive!
- cut our loses with the agent? And then what? Take the ad down and re-advertise it ourselves or try and find an alternative agent? Back to square one basically.

I should also add that this isn't in Dublin, it's Galway City, and I know the Covid situation is a big factor, so perhaps we should just be a bit more patient. I don't know.

Spanish Eyes

Sell it. If you can

JoeA3

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Sell it.

Yep, that's definitely being considered. Just have to be mentally prepared for it to sit on the market for months earning nothing and a mortgage still has to be paid.

Del2005

Get a friend to call about the apartment. If they get a suitable response then it's just a slow market, if they don't get a response try a different agent.

agoodpunt

its is slow in dublin as well both letting and selling but people are building their cash pile in saving if possible hang on in there 6 months and vaccine could be a game changer