Some good advice for renting a house/flat (Renting a Home)

Member Name: bruffyboy

Product:	Renting a Home
Date:	16/04/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: save money

Disadvantages: none

We have been renting for 18 months now, and I have to say that time when we were looking was one of the most stressful: I just didn't know which way to go, and we landed on our feet (thank God) so let me share what we did.

My number one piece of advice is to go private. This means that you rent directly off the owner of the house, and not through an agency. There are numerous benefits to this:

1) You are dealing with real people who have a vested interest in the property (ie it's theirs), so they are more likely to come and mend something quickly/properly.

2) You can save money. If you rented from an agency you had to pay a £175 set-up fee in my city, whereas private rental had no up-front fees.

3) You have a link with one person the whole way through - when you deal with an agency, it can be a different person each time you contact them.
I won't lie to you, the main reason we went private was because we wanted to save money. Of course, your rent goes 100% to the landlord too (rather than them having to pay a fee) so it's good for them too.

HOWEVER! Don't just jump into any old house. Consider the following:

1) Meet the neighbours - knock on doors, ask about the neighbourhood, check out if the neighbours are old and retired or young with six teenage kids! Ask if the walls are thick, if there are often parties in the street etc. I did this and one lovely woman offered me a brew too!

2) Go the street at night - see what it's like in the evening. Are there gangs there? Is it busy?

3) Get a reference on your landlord - ask for the details of a previous tenant and check out how they are for repairs / visits etc.

4) Haggle on the price - don't be afraid to do this, as it's credit crunch time and you can save £50 just by asking (maybe).

5) Ask your landlord to take rent on pay-day - that way you don't have to be broke on rent day.

Finally, think about renting slightly out of the central areas, and rent will be cheaper. We are ten minutes out of the centre of the city, and save around £50 a month for being so: it's worth it!

Summary: do it