Online Letting Agents

More on online letting agents

How online agents work

The following is based on a typical online model:

• 1) Sign up to an online agent and pay the fixed fee.
• 2) Enter your personal details along with your property details, including photos.
• 3) Your agent will then advertise your property on the UK's most popular online property portals.
• 4) Receive enquiries directly from the tenants.
• 5) You will then to communicate with the applicants to arrange and host viewings.
• 6) Pick an applicant you would like to be your tenant.
• 7) Inform your online agent so they can reference your prospective tenant to ensure they're suitable.
• 8) Sign a tenancy agreement with the tenant (most online agents can assist with this process and even provide the contracts).

Who are online agents suitable for?

It's important to note that online agents do NOT have local branches or local agents on the ground, so they do not offer face-to-face services, which includes tenant viewings. Their job is to generate leads and assist you in picking the right tenant.

Generally speaking, online agents are suitable for landlords that want to manage their own properties and tenants.

Are all online letting agents the same?

To a certain degree, yes.

Their job is like any other letting agent, and that is to find you a tenant. And, almost all of them will market your property on both Rightmove & Zoopla to generate leads (they're currently the two biggest UK property portals).

Beyond that, the services can slightly differ, and each online agents offer various packages with different feature lists. Our advice is to look through what a few online agents have to offer in terms of packages and features, and choose which one you feel is most suitable for you. Don't forget to look through their TrustPilot rating/reviews, either.

What's the most important factor when using an online agent?

Using high-quality images. Definitely.

Research has proven that the number one factor to influence enquiries are the images, so make sure yours are of high quality. If people don't like what they see, they're unlikely to enquire.

Most online agents offer reasonable priced “professional photography” services, whereby they will send out a photographer to take images of your property. The cost is usually about £80. Yes, in most cases that is more expensive than the actual tenant-find service, but bear in mind, you can reuse the images over and over again in the future. Also, it makes for a very ineffective campaign if you don't want high-quality images that SELL.

For more information online lettings, we highly recommend the resource on the Property Investment Project, where the whole process is thrown under the microscope.