Guaranteed rent schemes - any good?

[Digger40]

I'm contemplating using a company that offers a guaranteed rental scheme to let my first property. The various bells and whistles they offer such as guaranteed rent, inclusive management, regular inspections, free minor repairs, free landlord gas and electric certificates and a guarantee to return the property to you in the same condition after a 1 - 5 year period all look very appealing . Obviously these benefits will come at some cost such as a guaranteed rental slightly below private rental rates but so long as the rental offered is reasonable they look appealing.

The companies I'm considering are Letting International, Omega, Elliotleigh and Finefair. Do any of you more seasoned landlords out there have any opinions on these schemes, or indeed any words of wisdom regarding the companies themselves (such as don't touch them with the proverbial barge pole)?

I suspect most, if not all of these companies, will tenant the property with housing benefit claimants, but given the rent is guaranteed and the condition of the property maintained by the company it would appear that the risks are minimised.

Any views would be greatly appreciated.

[Richlist]

I've never used them nor am ever likely to .

THE most important thing a landlord can do is pick the tenants......very VERY carefully.

This scheme kinda suggests that someone else will be doing this for you......if so I would NOT recommend you go down this route.

[Melboy]

Bit of a grey area Digger. I am aware of another landlord who entered into this scheme and had a lot of trouble even with all the guarantees that were on offer as you have mentioned. The final straw for him was the breaking or damaging of his front door by a disgruntled drunk and disorderly 3rd party which had to be replaced with a new UPVC door and he had to pay part of the cost as a "betterment item value upgrade".

If your lucky enough to get a tenant who will treat your property as their home rather than a Doss house, as a lot of them do, then it shouldn't be a problem.

You don't mention your location but I think you will find that DWP housing benefit is quite a lot lower than private renting values or at least it is my location.

Personally I wouldn't do it because I want to know who is taking my property over and let's face it I like to be in control of events.

[Grampa]

Think about it. If you were agent and you had a guaranteed rent arrangement not only would you charge a very high commission rate you would likely put any old tenant in the property if it looked like you were going to have to pay out.

If a property is priced correctly, competitively and presents well it will rent out.

There are lots of things you can do to make it more appealing such as first month free or half price. Or just £50 or £100 cheaper per month than other comparable properties.