Why is it that some landlords have to wait months to find a suitable tenant to rent their property? If you are a landlord, or you are thinking of becoming one, read on.

It should be easy to rent out your property, shouldn’t it? You will not need to wait very long between one tenancy ending and the next one starting, will you? Why does so much property seem to have estate agent boards outside waiting to be let? Well, there are many possible reasons for this. It is true that some properties do not reach the standards for letting set by the local authority, and there are some rogue landlords who are trying to charge too much for poor properties.

In general, however, there are some perfectly acceptable properties that seem to be on the letting market for long periods of time. Is this due to poor performance by some letting agents or is it down to the complex administrative and legal processes? If some letting agencies can let investment properties quickly, it cannot be down to the processes, but to the performance of the office or branch.

You can, of course, let a house without using an agent, but are you sure you know enough about the process? There are plenty of horror stories about landlords who made mistakes that have cost them dear in terms of evicting problem tenants and/or not receiving the rent due. This is why you need to choose an agency with care.

The best course of action is to get professional advice about the letting process and the legal forms you and your potential tenant will need to complete. If you have a house to let, you can hand over the whole process to a lettings agent that you have checked out in terms of reputation, efficiency, fees, and charges, but you will pay a premium price to do so.

Many landlords also report that they feel they lose control of the rental process and of their property using this option, others, however, are perfectly happy to ‘get people in’. In reality, with the right professional advice, guidance, and legal forms provided, a landlord is quite capable of successfully completing many of the tasks needed to set up a tenancy.

The landlord can take suitable internal and external pictures of the house, prepare an inventory, conduct viewings, and even write the property listing details. You can even hire a drone pilot to take some amazing shots of your property to boost your listing. In fact, many landlords have a better understanding and appreciation of their house than any letting agent.

The more difficult areas, such as checking a potential tenant’s references, holding the deposit in the correct account, or filling in the correct legal forms are still best completed in partnership with experts. If you are prepared to do some or most of the work, you can significantly reduce your letting costs.