Watch out for Letting Agents Running off with your Cash!
With business for letting agents booming while income from estate agency has plummeted in the last 12 months, it’s important for both landlords and tenants to be aware that letting agents (unlike estate agents) are not regulated and although there are some great letting agents out there, there is the potential for them to run off with YOUR cash!
There have been a number of stories emerging in the last 12 months of estate agents who have turned to lettings to help cover their bills, then have got into financial difficulties and as such have not:-
1. Banked tenants' deposits properly, potentially walking off with them!
2. Passed on rental monies to landlords.
The result being that some letting agents, either through bad business or sadly through bad practices are not running their letting agencies in the proper manner and both tenants and landlords are losing out as a result.
For example, Martin and Co has one of its franchised businesses in Chester going into liquidation owing over £200,000 and despite the fact that they are supposed to be “the UK’s number 1 letting agent” they have already had five cases of misusing tenants’ deposits.
Recently according to the Oxford Mail, two letting agents and their homes were raided by the police, following complaints to Trading Standards by tenants and landlords who were missing rental income and not having their deposits refunded.
How do you check your Letting Agent is financially sound?
To try and ensure you don’t get caught out by a rogue letting agent or one in financial difficulties, follow our five steps to check out your letting agent:-
Landlords
1. Only use agents that are part of NALS as agents have to insure themselves if they go bust.
2. Always check your rental monies are being paid into your bank account as agreed in your terms of business with the letting agent and the tenancy agreement.
3. Query why any rental income is taking longer than 10 working days after the tenant has to pay the rental income to the letting agent.
4. If the letting agent is saying that the tenant isn’t paying their rent, double check this by requesting a joint visit with the letting agent to the tenant.
5. Visit WebCHeck - Select and Access Company Information and order a copy of the letting agent’s accounts. Costs vary, but they are around £1 or more.
Tenants
1. Make sure you only use letting agents that are part of NALS as all agents that belong to NALs require insurance cover which protects tenants as well as landlords if the agent goes bust.
2. Check that your deposit monies have been registered with one of the three tenancy deposit schemes, ask for a reference and confirm with the scheme they have received your deposit.
3. Confirm after a few months with your landlord that the rental income you have been paying is being passed on, for example if they visit the property or you could write to them.
Some other signs to look out for is staff being sacked and only the owner working in the business, not having your phone calls returned, or the office being closed more than usual.
If at any stage you are concerned about an agent, put your concerns in writing and request a meeting. If your issues remain unresolved, then it’s worth contacting a third party organisation that the letting agent belongs to, for example NALS, ARLA or the Guild of Letting & Management. If your agent doesn’t belong to one of these organisations, then you should check out what insurance they have if they do go bust and whether you will be protected. If you continue to be worried, then it’s worth contacting your local Office of Fair Trading.
ANy real estate agents in adelaide or toowoomba??????
jazzi_fizzle69 Asks: ANy real estate agents in adelaide or toowoomba??????
i am looking to get into real estate and was wondering if i could do some work experience....... to see if this is the path i want to take.....
Best Answer:
Answer by Terry
One thing for sure, its bad time for it right now.
Know more? Leave your own answer in the comments section below!
5 Real Estate Blogging Tips For Agents
If you enjoy blogging, consider adding a blog about real estate to your website. A blog brings you closer to the people who you want to connect with and can give them a better idea of your personality and what you can do for them. If you take the time to show your prospective clients who you are and how you can solve their problems, it will up your chances of them actually calling you up.
Be passionate!
If you are passionate, it will show in your writing, no matter how inexperienced a writer you may be. Readers of any kind can tell if you’re bored or just doing this so you’ll have some unique content on your page. If you’re not passionate about what you write, you won’t convey a very good impression on your blog. Don’t blog if you don’t enjoy blogging.
Write how you speak.
Not only is it easier to write how you speak, it is also more likely to convey your enthusiasm about your subject. Refrain from utilizing a grandiose lexicon and ostentatiously exhibiting erudition. Nothing shrieks, "Look at me! I know all these words! Hire me because I’m smarter than you!" Any fool with a thesaurus can compose the above sentence and your potential clients don’t want someone who is going to make them feel stupid.
Write on subjects your clients want to know about
Your clients don’t need to know that Idealville is the very best home for them; chances are that if they are on your site, they have already come to that conclusion or at least have determined that it’s the best they’re going to get. Either way, they’re not looking for you to tell them why they should buy here. They are looking for information about schools, the pros and cons of various neighborhoods and location-specific real estate issues.
If you can tell them in detail why they should make sure to get a mold inspection before they buy, do so. If you can let them know that there’s an annual Maple Sugar Festival in the area they’re contemplating, go for it. Just don’t sport with their intelligence or yours by writing another terminally dull, "Idealville real estate is the best real estate in the entire country of the United States because we have a lot of single-family homes, condos and townhomes! Isn’t that exciting?"
What you want to convey is that you’ve been there, done that and have succeeded. You want your prospective customers to feel that you have the same aims and interests as they do when it comes to real estate and you are able to help them solve their problems.
Spelling and grammar shall be thy gods and thou shalt keep them holy
While you should write like you talk, you should make an effort not to spell like you talk. Spelling and grammar are kind of like a MLS listing. You can have "Somewhere in Idealville, smallish house" or you can have "123 Listing Lane: 2 bedroom, 1000 square foot house with fully landscaped fenced yard with carport". Spelling and grammar help you say exactly what you want to a potential lead. They also help you get leads, as someone who is careless in these matters may well be careless in others. This may not be true, but it’s how some buyers/sellers think, so it’s worth taking the extra time to carefully read over your blog post and use a spell checker.
Talk about it
If there’s something going on in your area concerning real estate, talk about it! If it’s news to you, it’s news to the people who are looking at your site. Maybe it’s something they missed while skimming the paper or maybe it’s something they were specifically searching the Internet about – either way, if you have useful information they can use, let them know about it! If you have time, don’t be afraid to do a little digging yourself and publish the results.
You can use negative press to your own positive ends – if there is a news item out there about how 56% of real estate agents don’t do a good job, reference it directly and speak out about how you think that real estate agents should do a good job and what you personally do to ensure your client is happy. Offer to discuss the issue with people who post on your site. Go to war on your blog for the rights of clients to have professional representation. There are many ways you can use news items to further you and your business.
There are many great tips out on the Internet for writing a blog that will help get you leads – do a search for "how to write a good real estate blog" on Google for some good ones. For more generalized writing advice, hie thee over to CopyBlogger.com for some great writing advice and tips. If you take anything away from this article, it should be: Be Yourself, Be Passionate and Write With the Client in Mind.
Watch out for Letting Agents Running off with your Cash!
With business for letting agents booming while income from estate agency has plummeted in the last 12 months, it’s important for both landlords and tenants to be aware that letting agents (unlike estate agents) are not regulated and although there are some great letting agents out there, there is the potential for them to run off with YOUR cash!
There have been a number of stories emerging in the last 12 months of estate agents who have turned to lettings to help cover their bills, then have got into financial difficulties and as such have not:-
1. Banked tenants' deposits properly, potentially walking off with them!
2. Passed on rental monies to landlords.
The result being that some letting agents, either through bad business or sadly through bad practices are not running their letting agencies in the proper manner and both tenants and landlords are losing out as a result.
For example, Martin and Co has one of its franchised businesses in Chester going into liquidation owing over £200,000 and despite the fact that they are supposed to be “the UK’s number 1 letting agent” they have already had five cases of misusing tenants’ deposits.
Recently according to the Oxford Mail, two letting agents and their homes were raided by the police, following complaints to Trading Standards by tenants and landlords who were missing rental income and not having their deposits refunded.
How do you check your Letting Agent is financially sound?
To try and ensure you don’t get caught out by a rogue letting agent or one in financial difficulties, follow our five steps to check out your letting agent:-
Landlords
1. Only use agents that are part of NALS as agents have to insure themselves if they go bust.
2. Always check your rental monies are being paid into your bank account as agreed in your terms of business with the letting agent and the tenancy agreement.
3. Query why any rental income is taking longer than 10 working days after the tenant has to pay the rental income to the letting agent.
4. If the letting agent is saying that the tenant isn’t paying their rent, double check this by requesting a joint visit with the letting agent to the tenant.
5. Visit WebCHeck - Select and Access Company Information and order a copy of the letting agent’s accounts. Costs vary, but they are around £1 or more.
Tenants
1. Make sure you only use letting agents that are part of NALS as all agents that belong to NALs require insurance cover which protects tenants as well as landlords if the agent goes bust.
2. Check that your deposit monies have been registered with one of the three tenancy deposit schemes, ask for a reference and confirm with the scheme they have received your deposit.
3. Confirm after a few months with your landlord that the rental income you have been paying is being passed on, for example if they visit the property or you could write to them.
Some other signs to look out for is staff being sacked and only the owner working in the business, not having your phone calls returned, or the office being closed more than usual.
If at any stage you are concerned about an agent, put your concerns in writing and request a meeting. If your issues remain unresolved, then it’s worth contacting a third party organisation that the letting agent belongs to, for example NALS, ARLA or the Guild of Letting & Management. If your agent doesn’t belong to one of these organisations, then you should check out what insurance they have if they do go bust and whether you will be protected. If you continue to be worried, then it’s worth contacting your local Office of Fair Trading.
Calgary Real Estate Agents A Key to your dream house
Calgary is a city of multiple cultures with an ever growing population and a great place for the people who like being outdoors because there are so many natural beauties and public as well as private establishments to look for. People from all around the world come to Calgary in search of a good career and a better life style due to the city's prosperity. With this, the demand for houses and other real estate needs increase day by day. The real estate in Calgary has diversity with great scope. It has all the ingredients which attract people with distinctive taste and their likings. There is a very good opportunities for those who want to invest their money in real estate as the prices of properties in Calgary are always increasing. Once invested, one can get a very good return in a few years. The city and its outskirts are filled with Calgary real estate agents who deal in real estate business. Both buyers and sellers of houses get the benefits from these agents regularly and in huge numbers.
They have a system called Calgary MLS listings, giving details of all the houses, flats and condos to the people who want to buy or sell houses in Calgary. These listings get updated regularly and one can get the home he wants by simply visiting their web sites and putting the requirements and other information such as the budget, number of rooms, the locality and so on. The MLS search can also be customized by City, Map, Postal code and the MLS number of the property. It can be saved for future reference also. They also offer e-mail and SMS support. Once you register, the system will send you the SMS or e-mail the moment a new property gets listed in the MLS system of Calgary real estate agents. Registering to their web site does need any payment and is designed specifically to save the time and effort while looking for the right home at right location with right price.
