Save on Property Marketing

Landlords will know that marketing their property either for disposal or for letting is not cheap. If you are looking to sell your investment the average estate agents fee will probably be in the region of 2% of the sales price. The costs of marketing a property for let typically equates to between 2-4 weeks rent. The combined impact of these costs will obviously have a significant impact on your overall investment returns.

Internet marketing rules ok!
Research now indicates that between 85-90% of us now use the Internet to find properties that they are interested in. The result has been a ‘mushrooming’ of property marketing websites over the last few years. At the last count they numbered around 130. These sites advertise your property for between £20-200 and can potentially save you thousands in estate agency fees.

Sell tenanted property
The drawback for landlords is that these sites are predominately aimed at the owner occupation market and therefore the demand for tenanted properties is limited. However a new service launched last week that allows landlords to market properties with the tenants still in occupation. This means that landlords looking to buy can acquire a property that is already let whilst those that are selling do not experience any void period whilst the sale goes through. The new site is backed by fast growing property services company, The Erinaceous Group plc. The charges for the service are 1.5% for sellers. In return the company will market the property to a database of investors through its own website, leading portals as well as the press. HomeletIPEX also handles all the paperwork and the letting agents can organise viewings.

An alternative trading site for landlords is Landlord Trader. This was the UK’s first trading platform and it is currently marketing over £37m worth of tenanted properties. Advertising costs start at £29.99 with a success fee of £200 if the property is sold.

Advertising properties for FREE
As well as being able to market properties for sale landlords can also let them by using direct web based marketing. Gumtree is a site which is growing rapidly because unlike the competition it allows landlords to advertise their properties for free. It originally started in London in March 2000 and has since spread to many towns and cities in the UK. The site is an online community which promotes varies goods and services but is particularly popular with tenants looking for rental accommodation. You can add up to 3 photos for free and even a URL to a U-tube video for the technology savvy amongst you.

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