A PropTech firm is offering landlords the opportunity to manage their portfolios from £35 a month, suggesting it could be a way of minimising increased charges from agents off-setting the tenants’ fees ban.
RentalStep claims its premium model offers landlords a range of benefits - particularly unlimited advertising on Rightmove, Zoopla and PrimeLocation - that would cost significantly more if provided by a letting agency.
"Landlords' available properties need to be advertised on the major portals and we provide the means to do this for a fraction of the cost of letting through an agent" says Mike Georgeson, RentalStep’s founder and chief executive.
The start-up’s premium service also includes access to tenant referencing, credit check facilities, deposit protection, tenancy agreements, rent collection via Direct Debit and an annual gas safety check, as well as access to maintenance management services, document storage, a communications centre plus GDPR compliance.
"We now know that the ban on fees will come into play from June, so landlords only have five months until their management fees could start to rise as agents look to offset the costs of the ban" Georgeson explains.
"What’s more, over the next few months some tenants may delay moving as they consider the impact of Brexit while waiting until they no longer have to pay upfront fees to agents.
"This scenario reiterates why it’s so important to advertise on the major portals as this is where the vast majority of those who do choose to move will begin their search," he says.
RentalStep, which was launched in 2017, is now used by almost 2,000 landlords and over 9,000 tenants: the company’s TenantPassport services can help renters boost their credit scores.
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Online agents are fine until there's a problem at 4am in the morning and someone has to turn out to deal with it. Or the tenant demands to see the agent over an issue with the property. Headline prices are fine until you have to pay all the add ons that high st agents do as part of their management package. That's why 95% of landlords still use traditional agents.
Just returned from a 7am viewing so applicant can go to work, deal done. The applicant was very clear in his wish to deal with an Agent (we were recommended), as he found 'on-line' too dismissive and one previous 'self-managed' very unsupportive of the property repair needs. Just like SCN Lettings comment, where are the eyeballs at 4am when a pipe has burst or Friday evening when the lock has failed?
Not all self manage are unsupportive of repairs. What tenant failed to appreciate is that it's dependent on tradesman timetable n when they can fit an appointment in. So long as repairs are done within reasonable time according to the law, it's acceptable. Unfortunately tenants have a tendency to expect repair done immediately
Now the question is what could possibly have happen at 4am when all was well n people are fast asleep in bed. Except of course the tenants who got lock out because they list their keys or too drunk to open the door with the correct key n the self manage landlord haul themselves out of bed to open the door for them only for them to refuse to pay any charge incurred in order to come open the door on the pretext the lock is broken? N the landlord or letting agent are able to open the door with their keys !!!
S I
What can happen at 4 in the morning
My ceiling collapsed due to the plumber still not turning out.
I'd turn the water off at 11pm
Ceiling still came down thou
Don't be so arrogant to think all renters are drunks/druggies/smash your house up and expect you to foot the bill
It's landlords like you who expect the renters to pay pay and pay
To rent a £700 property in spalding costs with first months rent is £3050
Greedy bas*€¥¢s
How could ceiling collapse? Do u have a water think above your ceiling in the loft . Just because u have an emergency not Mean all landlords are what you claim to be. Tenants like u should not rent if u r not prepared to pay deposit to protect the property you are renting n rent arrears instead of throwing abuse on this site where decent people are reading. If u said plumbers not turn up, did you call landlord n did u say it's leaking? Surely the first thing anyone would do is switch off the water when there is a leak especially with a water tank above your room
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