Estate agent & letting agents - who to trust?

[NatFrenchie]

Hello

I would like to buy a buy to let property but am struggling with knowing who to trust in terms of being sure that what I buy will be easy to let and easy to sell ultimately.

All the agents locally have sales and lettings departments and therefore have a vested interest in selling one of their own properties, and of course will say anything to convince me that whichever property I'm looking at would be perfect for rental and resale!

I have had one agent say that a certain property would not be worth buying as the cheaper one would gain the same rent, yet the other agent says that the property would gain a significantly larger rent than the other - agghh - I am so confused and I don't want to get it wrong.

Any advice would be gratefully received...

shocking, but sadly unsurprising in the totally unregulated lettings industry. Still, at least you found out sooner rather than later!

Yes I wouldn't trust an estate agent with a vested interest.

Can you talk to a lettings only agent? Someone with no houses to sell?

Get the local paper and look at the ads. Look at what's in the windows of letting agents and how much they're renting for.

No surprise unfortunately. As Ive said before on many ll bashing threads, its not an easy way to make money at all and there is alot of time and energy that needs to be invested. In a way this lesson isnt wasted, you know alot more now than you did and its best to find it out now than later.

Yes everyone I'm learning quickly here!

Interestingly though, it was the estate agent's own lettings department who confirmed what another letting company had said re the price. She told me they'd told him when he asked on my behalf that the price was around £100 less than he told me. I hope she's not in trouble for being honest!

Back to the drawing board. Need to find a house me thinks! The yield wasn't that great even at the fictional monthly rental.