ASK498: Should I use a letting agent or not? PLUS: As an expat, am I stuck?

0:01Hi, I'm Rob. And I'm Rob. And this is Ask Rob and Rob. Welcome to Ask Rob and Rob, the show where we enhance your knowledge of property, all thanks to some brilliant questions sent in by our listeners. We've got another two great ones coming up today, as we do every week. And it all works because you send in your questions and you do it like this. It's super simple. You head over to propertyhub.net forward slash ask, and there you can get your question in in a variety of ways. You can leave us a voicemail, you can leave a computer recording, you can even write in and maybe see your question in the Sunday Times.

0:37We do not mind at all as long as you keep doing it. Unfortunately, nearly 500 episodes in, you have. So let's listen to our first question in from Simon. Hi Rob and Rob. First and foremost, thank you very much for everything you do with the podcast. It's very inspirational and educational. It's inspired me to purchase my first buy-to-let through my limited company once the purchase has been processed. My question really is to ask what are the advantages and disadvantages of either going through a letting agency or by pursuing letting the property privately by getting all the contracts made up and renting the property out myself with a view to obviously increasing the portfolio in the future, whether it would be beneficial to start from the beginning with an agency or to start from the beginning, renting privately and expand that way.

1:33Thanks again for everything you do and look forward to hearing from you. Simon, thank you. Great question. Really is because I'm sure a lot of people who are new to investment will consider this. and I would say this depends depends on where you've invested so if your property is far away from your home then I would strongly advise you to use a Latin agent is it possible to manage it remotely yes but it's work because you don't have a network there you don't truly truly know the market you can't do the viewings and yes you can hack your way around this and find a way of making it work but the amount of time you're going to put into managing that property will not be worth it you've got to value your time you have to put a price on your time you know what is your hourly rate it's easy to work out what are you worth an hour should you be spending multiple hours on one property well if it is remote there will be a lot of hours and i would say the answer for you and the majority, the vast majority of people should be no.

2:38Now for me it becomes optional if the property is close to where you live because you probably know tradespeople. You probably can do the viewings. There's a lot that you can do yourself but you've said maybe to consider as a starting point to work with an agent and maybe that is a good way to go. I like that idea that you can learn from them, see some of the processes, maybe even find some of the trades people, get some of the connections there from that Latin agent as well, get your knowledge built up as a new investor and then once you're comfortable you may decide to go ahead with it and do it yourself or you may find, if you've got a good Latin agent at least, that hey this is a weight off my shoulders, this is just working nicely in the background, let's carry on.

3:26So I would absolutely use a Latin agent if a property is nowhere near where you live, but if it is close to where you live, it's optional, but maybe start out with one and you may be pleasantly surprised at how it goes. Whatever you decide though, best of luck. Okay, let's listen to our next question. Hi, Rob and Rob. Just wanted to say for a C, thank you so much for your valuable content over the last number of years I've been an avid listener. Hoping today that you could help, please. My husband and I were living in the UK from 2018 to 2020 and we bought our first property in 2019, our second one in 2020, just as COVID was kind of happening.

4:01And we entered into two-year fix, then five-year fix. So one of these properties we're rolling off now come February, 2026. The other one is March, 2027. My question for you, Rob and Rob, is that we're no longer living in the UK. We are Irish citizens. We're now residing in Australia. We would really love to get some equity out of these properties. But when we've investigated it with some brokers, specialist buy to let brokers. The rates that are coming back are just crazy. We couldn't afford that. You know, we'd be breaking the bank every month. And have you any advice on what we can do here?

4:35Is there any workarounds? We really want to keep going on our investment journey. And I guess, yeah, we got a bit stalled post-COVID. You know, we were having a family, a few little kiddies, and buying a family home in Ireland. And now we're just really raring to get going again. and I suppose that we just feel a bit stuck. And definitely one of these properties is it's a bit of a dud. The service charges are really high. It was the first one we bought. I would say it's likely a mistake, but here we are. Have you any advice on how to sell on an instance like that? I've checked up recently. There's no property selling in that area.

5:10So yeah, any advice would be greatly appreciated on the mortgage front and selling a dud property. So, and thanks again. Love listening to your podcast each week. Thank you for your question. and yeah it is a tricky situation there's probably not a super neat magic answer for you but there are some things you can be thinking about the reality of it is that you weren't expats and now you are and that does mean that your product range is going to be more limited and rates are going to be somewhat higher it sounds like you're already doing the right thing by talking to specialist buy to let brokers because the difference between like a generic mortgage broker who does a lot of residential business and someone who specializes in buy-to-let and especially as experienced working with expats can be vast.

5:51So if you're confident that the broker you're speaking to is experienced with expats and they do see the full picture and what they're telling you probably is as good as it's going to get then there probably aren't any options you haven't already thought of. Does that mean that the properties you have are completely unviable from now on? Not necessarily because rates are coming down. That doesn't mean they're necessarily going to fall dramatically over the next year but they are on a downward trend. Now you've got a bit of time until your current fixes end, maybe things will have improved by then, maybe they won't and you'll have a couple of years where the numbers really don't look good.

6:26But if we assume that your financial situation is pretty robust and you're able to handle it if that is the case, it's probably going to be better for you to wait it out and for that to happen than it is for you to sell in a rush and especially sell into a market that is not particularly strong at the moment. And that same view holds for me with the property that you said that you've got that you described as a dud that's got a high service charge that's going to be even harder to sell at the moment because it is a buyer's market at the moment there's more supply on the market than there has been for years and years and years buyers know that they can drive a hard bargain and because they've got loads of options a property that's got any kind of issue with it is not going to be near the top of their list so if you were to sell that property or really any of your properties now you're not going to get the best price for it.

7:12So of course, everyone's situation is different. You might need to sell and you might not be able to wait it out for a few years. And if that's the case, then it is what it is. But if you're able to, then I would consider waiting it out, continuing the conversation with your broker and keeping an eye on interest rates. Because even if the decision is ultimately you want to exit UK property, then it'd be far better if you can pick your moment rather than being forced to do it in a hurry. So good luck and I hope that helps. Well, that's us done for of the week. We'll be back soon with the podcast on Thursday.

7:41Property Pulse will be landing in your inboxes on Friday. There's loads going on our YouTube channel. You'll see us on Sunday in the Sunday Times. And then, guess what? We'll be back, same time, same place, next week, answering more of your questions. Until then, take care, have fun. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.