It has, no doubt, being a tempting thought at some point. The profit associated with the property market can lure us into trying out life as a landlord or working with a letting agent. But is the life of a landlord a profitable one? And which is the better approach, to be a landlord or by yourself or to do it through an agency?
Deciding The Type Of Service Through A Letting Agency
There are a couple of options for you, and it depends on how much you need the agency to hold your hands throughout the process. The full management approach covers, as you would expect, everything. From the marketing of the property to the collecting of the rent, as well as inspections of the property and so forth. You can look at numerous online letting agencies to give you an idea of how they promote properties. There are so many out there, depending on where you are, North Texas Property Management can help if you are in that specific region. But on the other hand, you may want to go for a partial service, where they provide the marketing, the viewings, as well as the administrative procedures, but as soon as the tenant has moved into the property, it’s all down to you. The fees vary in both areas. It can be a one-off fee, or a percentage of the annual rent, roughly up to 8%. For the full management, the fees can depend on the amount of admin work they have to do. For example, they may charge separately to find tenants. But, up to 15% of the rent is what you can expect.
The Hassle Of This Hustle
Sure, it sounds ideal to earn money as a landlord, but you still need to keep your end of the bargain. A lot of people are reliant on letting agencies because they can do the whole process so it’s a way to be relatively hands-off. But, when there are problems, especially in relation to structural issues or the plumbing, you will need to give the go-ahead for specific alterations. And if you intended on being a very hands-off landlord, the abundance of phone calls you may have with the letting agent can prove to be frustrating. But if you decide to do it all yourself, this means that the tenant has direct access to you, meaning you could have a million missed phone calls in the middle of the night if a pipe bursts!
Doing it by yourself, you are minimizing admin fees but you are increasing the frustration. By having a letting agency do it all for you, you will bypass this, but only to an extend. As a lot of people look to renting out a property as a way to earn extra money, they gravely underestimate the tasks involved. If you have no experience of fixing superficial issues, and yet you still want to be involved in the landlord game, you’d better learn a few screwdriver skills! This is why a lot of people do it through an agency, but naturally, cost becomes more of an issue.
