letting out your house

[dizzydo]

Has anyone successfully let out their property without going through an estate agent and if so, how did they go about it.

TIA

I went through a lettings agent.

I suppose you could advertise in the paper, but would need to be able to do a bit of legal work, and also collect the rent and respond to maintenance issues.

thanks scienceteacher. i have been with two agents for the last four weeks and they are useless! The tenants are leaving soon and I am getting a bit desperate.

We are currently using an agent and we move out and start renting out house out this weekend. We chose to use agents as wanted them to manage the property as well as have young DS and twins due early in 2008, and don't want any extra hassle of boiler breaking down in middle of night etc.

However, I have friends who have let property themselves without an agent. I know one of them mentioned gumtree (?) which I think is a newspaper or something where they advertised.

Sorry, realise I was not much help...

no sorry, we are struggling with useless agents as well, have to suffer with their incompetence as we are too far away to do it ourselves, if we were closer I would seriously consider it.

You would need all the right contacts in terms of plumbers/electricians etc.

good luck

What part of the country are you in dizzydo? In the past I have used the Loot paper in London (not sure if it is published for other parts of the country) to find rental properties and twice I have rented directly with the owner.

The gumtree is a website (www.gumtree.com I think). Mainly backpackers and travellers use it.

Used a lettings agent to find tenants, but managed it ourselves.
Sorry, not much use.
Managing easy though. Organising very occasional repairs was no hassle, assuming property in fairly good condition. And we found it easier to sort out any issues directly, rather than playing chinese whispers through the agents.

Thursday, we too manage the let ourselves as we live close by. I so agree with what you say about playing chinese whispers with the agents and that's if they are listening to what you say in the first place!

Thanks for the replies. Only trouble is I think gumtree and loot are more for sharers. We are looking to let to a family on a relocation or house being done up need somewhere else to live for a while type let. Does anyone know if the relocation agencies deal direct with landlords or only through agents? Any ideas much appreciated. Also, if you go through Loot, I wonder how you check their credentials and ability to pay.

Am in London BTW