Does anyone know where I can find statistics about let property in the UK? I'm particularly interested in finding out the porportion of landlords who let and manage properties themselves compared to the proportion who use letting agents. What do those who let privately do about tenant credit checks and referencing? Do they do it themselves or not bother? I've emailed ARLA but yet to get a response. Any personal experiences would also be useful to me. Thanks Huw

Hi Huw, I don't have the data you ask but I can let you have my own experinces. I use an agent to find tenants for me but not to manage. Non of my UK portfolio are within 140 miles of where I live so showing people around is difficult. That said, I have advertised privately and for free on Gum Tree for my flats in London and had a good response. I paid someone a fee per visit to show people around and had lots of interest. In this case the agent beat me to it and found a tenant before me so I guess they earned their fee. For management, I have a little black book of plumbers/handymen etc. to call out in an emergency. If I get stuck I use Homeserve who charge a fixed fee of something like £140 per visit but it covers repairs up to £500 in value. They are very efficient. For refurbing between tenants I usually get a local decorator and I use one of the big names if I need to get carpets changed. For furniture I usually do this myself and buy from Ikea and assemble. Some Ikea stores have a company based in their stores that will deliver and assemble for you for a fee of course. I collect the rents by direct debit and run an electronic rent book for each tenant. If they fall into arrears I let them know straight away and in 15 years I havce had only 2 cases of serious arrears and both were sorted in the end with only one resulting in me issuing a notice. So far I have saved thousands by managing it myself. Some management agencies just are not up to the job anyway so finding the right one is tricky. A good letting agent is not always the best management agent. I have found managing myself pretty easy on the whole. Most of the time there is not much to do but you have pockets of high activity, particularly between tenants. If you have the time then that's not a problem of course. I don't have any student lets. Hope this is of value. Peter

Thanks Peter, this sort of feedback is very useful. Huw

Hi Peter Your e-mail inspired me to start managing the properties myself. I live in Birmingham but my btls are in Gateshead, Manchester & Leeds. Can you supply me names & numbers of plumbers you may know in these areas. Also which scheme of Homeserve have you used. Regards Garyb

Not wanting to push my own products, but anyone fairly new to managing a buy to let themselves might want to take a peek at my book, "The Buy To let Handbook" (ISBN: 1845280121), which covers the whole process from start to finish in an easy to read manner. It includes a few tips and tricks along the way, but essentially keeps you on the right track, so you dont get into any problems over legal compliance. It's in all good bookshops and - if you don't want to buy it - it's also available at libraries. The book has just been updated for it's 2nd edition.