Leetting agents fees

[Goodwordguide]

We've been quoted between 3% and 9% for a finder's fee. What's normal? Do you usually pay it upfront or ongoing for as long as the contract?

We're in London, letting a 3-bed, the market is fairly buoyant (I hope!)

We previously have paid a set £500 for finding tenant and referencing.
However our tenant at present hasn,t paid any rent since oct and the agent didn,t check his work place.
They told us he was on circa 40k at said firm. I rang them last week and they had never heard of him.
Agent doesn,t want to know!

Oh dear fat, sorry to hear that.

If we pay a 7% fee, it will cost just under £2000 and I wonder if we will really get a better service than you got for that?

I paid 6% with KFH last year - watch out for hidden fees, I had to pay an extra #280 + VAT for some sprious reason . Tbh, I find it much easier to let and manage myself but in this instance, the refurb over-ran and I was going on holiday so rather than leave it empty for another three weeks and lose that income, I got agents in. If you're not up against a deadline like that, I'd say do it yourself.

Interesting lala as you're not very far from us - we are in a bit of a rush as moving in a month but will ring around a bit more.

A finders fee is usually a set fee ie one months rent and is paid upfront when they find you a tenant. This is all they do, find you a tenant and reference and credit check them.

If you have a managed service then thats usually a %, 10% would be reasonable. All agents will probably tell you their service includes much the same thing - how they actually go about it though will vary hugely. If you're local it shouldnt be necessary.

I've use stow letting agents, one charged 8% for finding and checking tenant which was invoiced so we were supposed to pay within thirty days, the other charged 9% for finding, checking tenant and collecting rent, they took their fees out of the first couple of months rent and then passed the rent on to us.

I've accepted 5% for finder's fee only, to be paid upfront. I couldn't really see what extra service we got for the 9% fee or the 7% fee - they were still only finder's fees. Fingers crossed we get some tenants soon...

We rented out in London for years as DH worked overseas. Because we were overseas we had to pay full managing agent fees and they did nothing to deserve the money. One of the bigger chains didn't even notice when the tenant failed to pay the rent for 3 months.

In our case, we got the best service for letting and when selling it, from smaller local agents than national or all-London chains.

I'd go with the one you felt was the most professional, regardless of fee and then try to negotiate their fee down if they were dearer than others.

Ooh, we have gone with a smaller local agent so I hope that bodes well!