Landlords - how do I stand out from crowd in high demand rental market?

[Yawnandstretch]

Hi,

I’ve been renting for the past 13 years but always through an agent, so I’m not sure if the agent chooses the tenant or the landlord?

Rental properties are in very high demand in my area and we really struggled to find somewhere last time we moved due to sheer number of people applying for each property.

I’m going to see a house next week and it seems perfect so I really want to be in the best chance of getting it - is there anything I can do?

It’s a 3 bed house, excellent price so demand will be high. My husband and I are both self employed, I have 5yrs of tax returns, my husband (main earner) only has 2yrs, the agent wants household annual income of 30x rent which we have, we have 2 children age 3 and 1 (not sure if this puts us on back foot).

We are only moving as we are currently in a small 2 bed flat and paying same price as this house is listed for. I was pregnant when we we last moved (almost 4 yrs ago) and because of this the agent/landlord insisted we have a guarantor despite passing affordability, so we can use this person again if needed - do I mention that or wait to be asked? We both have fair credit ratings with no IVAs or CCJs/bankruptcy.

Thanks in advance if you’ve read this far - any advice on how/if it’s possible to stand out from crowd very welcome!

We had two nightmare tenants one after the other in a property got through agents! I advertised on FB and it had loads of interest. People offering to pay 6 months up front, pay the deposit without seeing etc. I showed the house to prospective tenants. I ended up offering the house that night to a young couple with no references. They had a child and were living with her parents. They had bank statements, spoke to his employer on the phone. Really respectful couple, had to actually encourage them to look around. They were so shocked to get the house as they had no references. He worked days and when he came home to she worked evenings. Never had a minutes bother with them. It was a gut feeling. Best advice is have all paper work ready and be super nice without being pushy. I hope you get lucky 🍀

We’re landlords and make sure we’re present during viewings.

Last time we immediately discarded the applications from one person who was extremely rude and those who didn’t take their shoes off.

We accepted the application from the family with a 2-year-old boy who were all well presented, polite, insisted on taking their shoes off and generally seemed like responsible people/parents.

When we started renting out we asked advice from other landlords. One recommendation was to look at the bottom off their socks (dirty means dirty house) and another said look how they keep their car (I can’t judge as my car is a state).

The estate agent was doing the viewings so to some potential tenants they could have just presumed I was the current tenant... Very interesting how people changed once they realised!

I'd provide evidence of my regular payments ... the proof of the pudding

Off topic but I'm really curious about why lump sums are seen as a sign of being crackheads/drug dealers? If they intended to trash the place and abandon it why wouldn't they just pay normal rent in the interim?

An upfront payment can be used to avoid Referencing and/or if they fail the usual checks

Govt wants to stop upfront payments. www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jan/14/landlords-england-wales-upfront-charges-renters-rights-bill

I work really closely with my agent who knows that I am looking primarily for tenants who are likely to stay for a while and will take good care of the house and am prepared to compromise to an extent on monthly rent to achieve that. I am absolutely fine with pets and small children provided any damage that's not normal wear and tear is made good at the end of the tenancy and neither would have any bearing on my decision - I just don't want it to become a drug den or a shithole.

I very much trust my agent's judgment on who is the best fit for me - she's a good egg, so basically you convince her and she'll convince me. That's probably the case for most landlords using an agent.

No pets and an offer of a home owner, working guarantor sway me. It's getting harder/ longer for a landlord to evict tenants for non payment of rent, and people are a lot more willing to stick to a repayment arrangement if their mum's credit record and potential problems with future mortgages is at risk, not just their own. Sadly.

It's a well known tactic of weed growers to pay 6 months/ a year of rent up front. It means they're more likely to get left alone without checks on the house, and it's a good way to shift cash about for money laundering/ cash payments.