Selecting a letting agent in Cardiff?

There is a large selection of letting agents in Cardiff and as a Landlord it can be very difficult to distinguish one from another. Here are a few tips to ensure you select the right Cardiff letting agent.

These tips assume that you are looking for an agent that will act professionally, is qualified to offer a lettings’ service and will provide advice and guidance to ensure your property is legally let. If this isn’t the sort of letting agent you’re looking for then you’re in luck, because there are plenty of letting agents in Cardiff who will be willing to cut corners and provide you with a shoddy service.

INDUSTRY CHECKS

Letting Agents are unregulated which means that anyone can open their doors and call themselves a letting agent. To counter this, look for an agent that has invested in operating a professional lettings business. Look for agents that -

 

• Are members of a professional body such NALS, ARLA or RICS. Additionally check whether the agent is a SAFE AGENT member
   
• Are members of the Property Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has a code of conduct and is also the place where complaints can be registered.
   
• Has client money protection in place to ensure your money is protected.
   
• Has professional indemnity insurance in place to ensure that if the agent is negligent you will have some financial protection.
   
• Isregistered with one of the deposit protection schemes. Tenant deposits have to be properly protected and if not there are heavy fines.

AGENT CHECKS

Our next set of checks are ‘softer’ checks but these will help you really understand the type of letting agent you may be getting involved with. 

• Look at the agents’ website and check the contact details. Is there an address? If it’s a residential house address or there is no address at all then you may be dealing with someone who, despite the glossy website, is actually operating from their bedroom.

• Check the agents’ office. Whilst location isn’t so important anymore, the office should still look professional? Does it seem like the sort of office that will attract the type of Tenants you are looking for? Speak to the staff. Are they helpful and knowledgeable

• What property portals does the agent advertise on? Rightmove, Zoopla and Find a property are the major portals. To find the best tenants for your property it’s important that it’s marketed in the right places.

• Review some of the properties that your shortlisted agents are currently marketing. Review the property description and photographs. It’s amazing how little effort some agents will put into letting your property.

• Fees – ask the agent to clearly explain their fees, not just the initial fees but all the fees that will be encountered up until the tenant moves OUT of your property and another tenant needs to be found. Check the costs for registering the deposit, Inventory and schedule of condition reports, Tenant check ins and contract renewals.

 

• If your agent is going to manage the property then check whether their management charge includes Periodic Property Inspections and Tenant check outs. If not find out the cost.

• Maintenance – Ask whether the agent profits from maintenance work on your property. It is very common for agents to take a commission or add a percentage to your maintenance bills.

• Find out how much the agent would charge you for a Landlords’ gas safety certificate or for an Energy Performance Certificate. If this is higher than the usual market rate then you’re probably dealing with an agent that likes to ‘take a cut’

Lastly, don’t be scared to ask!

How long will it take them to let your property?
What tenant types and properties do they specialise in?
What advice do they have for you?

This article has been written by Rob Price the owner of Belvoir Letting Agents Cardiff. Belvoir is one of the leading Letting agents in Cardiff offering advice and guidance to Landlords, buy to let investors and tenants.
 
Rob can be contacted at rob.price@belvoirlettings.com or alternatively use our
contact us page.

Buy to Let investment advice

If you are considering investing in a rental property then here are some tips from one of the leading letting agents in Cardiff, Belvoir!

There is currently very strong demand for rental properties in and around Cardiff and sometimes it seems that almost any property would be a good rental investment. But remember, your ownership of a rental property is likely to be on a medium to long term basis and as such it will need to consistently deliver over this time period. During your time as a Landlord your property may largely stay the same but the UK economy, the local economy and property market are likely to change, considerably.

Start with the end in mind. Why are you investing? For how long will you invest? What do you want to achieve?

Are you looking to build a property portfolio that is based on the value of the property increasing? (Capital growth) With many pensions and investment markets underperforming people are taking things into their own hands and are creating and building their own pension through property.

Are you looking for a monthly income from property? Whilst it’s always important to get your figures right, in order to make a worthwhile monthly profit you need to ensure that you accurately budget costs and income.

Ideally you will be looking to achieve capital growth and a monthly income. This should be possible; however with a volatile housing market a long term approach may be required. 

Follow some key points to ensure your property will rent all year round and will continue to be a sought after rental property over the long term.

Location, Location, Location. BUT you are not looking to live in this property so forget your preferred location to live, look from a tenants’ perspective. What will attract tenants to your property?

A good start is to look for a property that has basic amenities close by and is also close to good transport links. This will appeal to number of tenant types. If you are looking to rent to families then access to local schools and possibly a good garden are important.

Look for local facilities that attract renters. Universities are an obvious choice but that doesn’t mean you have to get involved in student lettings. Universities, large employers and large hospitals all attract renters. Doctors, lecturers and employees may be relocating for a set period of time and so are happy to rent. Also, these renters create demand for different property types, meaning there should be an investment opportunity that fits your budget. Cardiff’s University Hospital supplies a wealth of renters around the Heath and Gabalfa areas with a range of requirements, from single rooms in shared housing right through to large executive houses.

Property choice and rental yield.

Compare property prices and rental Income in your investment location.
Before you buy a property check the letting potential with an independent lettings specialist, one that does not offer property sales so that there is no conflict of interest. A specialist letting agent will provide information on the best rental properties whereas a lettings and sales agent will likely only provide information on the properties that they have for sale.

Although the ‘cost of purchase’ and ‘rental income’ is a good starting point for helping to decide on your shortlisted properties there is a more encompassing measurement, yield.

Yield is expressed as a percentage and is often used to measure the return on investment for different properties. It’s also used by people who want your investment money and they use it to demonstrate that their investment ‘opportunity’ is better than any others.

My simple advice here is do not accept anyone’s yield figure until you have checked it yourself. Property investment needs to work for you, so if yields are being mentioned then ensure you get a full breakdown of how the yield is calculated, and then perform your own calculation.

Here’s a basic yield calculation –

Cost of property £120,000

Rental income £900 per month, £10,800 per annum

Yield = Annual rental income divided by Property costs (multiplied by 100 to get a percentage)

£10,800 / £120,000 * 100 = 9%... Not Bad! Except that your actual costs will include far more than just the property cost.

What about insurance, void periods, maintenance, set up costs, letting costs etc. All of these have an impact on the yield and that is why you should never trust a yield calculation unless you have checked it yourself, you just don’t know what has been left out of the calculation or what assumptions have been made.

For completeness the basic calculation above is generally known as gross yield, it’s simply the property costs against the rental income. It does have some value for comparison purposes s but it shouldn’t be used to estimate your income from an investment.

The more comprehensive yield calculation will give you the net yield and this is a far more accurate basis from which to estimate your income from a property.

In these news articles we look at a rental property investment. This article deals with acquiring the right property. Future articles will look at the rental process and managing the property and tenants.

Why use a specialist Lettings Agency?

This short video may help explain why we feel it's so important to be a specialist


BELVOIR! The lettings specialists

TENANTS & LANDLORDS - KEEP YOUR MONEY SAFE

Over the last week I’ve been dealing with Landlords who have very recently seen their prominent Cardiff estate and letting agent go out of business. These Landlords have been only slightly inconvenienced and have felt only a small financial cost. This is mainly because their properties were vacant at the time with the small financial cost relating to gaining access to their properties, something Belvoir Cardiff quickly managed to organise through our close relationship with local locksmiths.

For many other Cardiff Landlords the effect of this agent closing down will be far more concerning. What has happened to recent rental payments made by Tenants? Where are the Tenant deposits?   

The regulation of the lettings industry has long been a source of controversy, and despite the sector’s rapid growth over recent years it is still somewhat unregulated. With growth predicted to escalate over the coming year’s landlords and tenants should choose their letting agent carefully, and in particular look for one that they can be sure will keep their money safe.

Since the launch of the SAFE agent scheme, of which Belvoir was a founder member, this should be a little easier. The SAFE Agent scheme is designed to highlight agents which protect their clients’ through money protection schemes.

All member companies are awarded the SAFE (Safe Agent Fully Endorsed) mark, which has been welcomed by the Trading Standards Institute as an easily identifiable kite mark related to financial protection.

Finances are obviously hugely important to both landlords and tenants; however they sometimes overlook the importance of knowing that their money is safe in the hands of their agent. They are now able to look out for the SAFE Agent kite mark and feel secure in the knowledge that lettings agents that have been awarded the mark will guard their money through client protection schemes.

SAFE Agent has the full support of the National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS) and since its launch has received backing from a number of high profile firms and consumer groups.

Belvoir Lettings is amongst a group of industry experts who advocated the scheme from the start and in the early stages committed funds towards its development.

The introduction of SAFE Agent is a positive step in the right direction for the regulation of this industry. It mirrors Belvoir’s three core principles of professionalism, specialism and high quality customer service.

Double Renting... is it the new way of living in Cardiff?

There is a new trend gaining momentum in the residential lettings market – and it could be taking a foothold across the UK over coming months.

“Double renting‟ is springing up all over the country – where home owners struggling to sell are taking up the option of letting out their existing home to provide an on-going income stream, whilst moving into another - lower cost – rental property themselves.

This has created a curious situation in which a home owner becomes both a landlord and a tenant. But for many it is the ideal solution if they are struggling to sell their property for the desired asking price. It means they can make alternative arrangements without playing the 'waiting game' for a sale.

In this current market, with rents rising and very strong tenant demand, 'double renting' offers a new and ideal solution for many people. It is particularly suitable for owners and their families who are looking to move to another town or city because of a promotion or new job – or for families re-locating to a new area for a particular school. It is very lifestyle driven.

Changes in the family structure – such as parents deciding to downsize, or move to a different area once they have raised their children – are also factors. With double renting, there is no stamp duty or associated legal costs, as there would be in a selling and buying situation. The process is instantaneous and it also enables home owners to stay in the property market. With property prices at an all time low, they can become renters themselves elsewhere and wait for the market to pick up and sell at a profit.

On the face of it, it is a perfect solution for certain people who need to re-locate quickly, but do not necessarily want to let go of their own family home, but 'double renters' need to ensure that they attract the right kind of tenant for their property, carry out detailed referencing and also conform with the wide range of insurance, legislative and health and safety requirements related to private property rental.