Very long - sorry I havent read all the answers so please excuse if I am repeating anything. DH and I have been renting a flat out for 5 years. We now go though an agent to find tenants as its a pain having to show people round now we have the DCs. Before that we always advertsied ourselves. Where you advertise will depend on your market. In our case our flat is a 2 bed so attracts young professional sharers. In our part of London we have lots of South Africans/Austrlaians/Polish so Gumtree has worked well for us. You could also try Loot but never had any success. You may also find a local newsagent that attracts lots of adverts for flats (there is one where we are). Our flat is in a nice part of London but due to the position of the flat we attract the lowerish end of the rental market. If I had a plush flat in a good area I would rather go through an estate agent than gumtree as you are more likely to attract a 'better' tenant. By that I mean, people looking for flats on gumtree are in my experience on lower budgets than people using agents. Fine for us but may not be fine for you.
If you do decide to go through an agent do remember you can put the fee against your income tax bill. You can also negotiate the fee and play agents against each other. I have my favoured agents (The one with the minis is best avoided ) but never just go back to them. I always get 3 rental assessments at the beginning of each tenancy and negotiate hard.Finders fees can be as low as 4% + VAT. Bear in mind they will want their fees up front and they are calculated on the annual rent. They normally remove it from the first months rent. They also charge you for everything they can like contracts and inventory. I have always done the inventory myself and get my own contracts online from Residential Landlord.com (Very useful website for legislation and detailing your responsibilities).Just had a thought about your advert - If you don't want animals/children/people on housing benefit or students make sure you say so in your ad other wise you will get loads on e-amils/calls that you could ahve filtered out. Not sure if you are going to declare to your mortgage company (if you have one) but if you do they may have a criterias of people who can rent your property. For exmaple, we have a buy to let mortage and cannot rent ot people on housing benefit.
Sorry, I really am going on but its all springing to mind now. Right. so lets say you've gone it alone and advertised. Shown people round etc and now have people to move in. I would strongly recommed you carry out reference checks. I have used a company called rentchecks but there are loads. We charge prospective tenants for this (Its about £30). If they were to go through an agent it would cost much more than this. We ask for cleared funds and then carry out the checks online. They take a few days and give a risk rating of that person. We then personally call paresen landlords as well. You can get insurance to pay the rent if your tenants don't but it is quite ££. If you are going to go down this route then make sure you speak to the insurance company first as they may only accept reference checks from certain companies.
Your property needs to comply to certain regulations. You need a Energy Performance Certificate- at least you do if you are going through an agent you would have to check if you are doing it yourself. You will need a gas safety certificate for your boiler and gas appliances, all electrical items should be checked by an electrican, not sure about the legislation for electrics as ours is newly rewired anyway so check that out, all furniture should comply with fire regulations (most do anyway) and you need to provide smoke alarms.
You should provide an assured shorthold tenancy agreement and I would recommmed you put a six month break clause so you or your tenants can leaves/ask to leave the flat after 6 months. You should familiraise your self with your contract and what you should do if you need to ask someone to leave. To be frank, if someone doesnt pay its very difficult to get them out and the legal system is very much on their side in my opinion.
Always take a deposit. We take 6 weeks instead of just a month as then you have money for any missed rent (tenants tend to try and not pay the last months rent!) plus a little for any repairs. You must hold the deposit in a government scheme. If you don't you can be fined up to 3 x the depoit amount. Ours is held for free with the deposit protection scheme (just google) and has rules about how long you ahve to transfer the money after receipt etc.
Make sure you have a list of trusted tradesman. you will almost certainly need it.
I do think you can go without an EA and if you live near by I see no benefit to them managing the property but they can be useful in getting a tenant in. If they find someone make sure you meet them before any checks are done. I find my instincts can be very useful in filtering out any potential probelms. When you are working out whether its worth doing from a financial point of view do not forget to add in the cost of repairs and maintenance. We spend far more on the flat than out house in keeping it in order!
Once they are in make sure you carry our a property check about 6 weeks after they move iin and at least every 3 months thereafter. Almost all of our tenants have had people living there who shoudlnt be. They should not be doing this as it will cause far more wear and tear on your property.
Lastly, before you go ahead check out the market to see if there is much about. Last year the market in our area was dire and as a result we accepted a low rent. This year things ahve turned around. Don't be greedy - its much better to have a tenanted flat on a lower rent than an empty one.
I could go but I will stop now. All I will say is this is not to be taken lightly. It can be hard work.