What does a rental agent do? A rental agent is (as you would also expect) primarily in charge of renting out homes. The rental agent mediates between potential tenant and landlord. But there is much more to it.
In this article, we will take you through the entire rental process so you can see crystal clear what a rental agent does.
Working method of a rental agent
Please note that the following is how WE as a rental agent proceed and also believe that a GOOD rental agent should proceed. However, you should not assume the same with every rental agent.
First contact at new hire
Renting may seem very simple, but you will have to deal with several areas of law here that if you don’t understand them properly can cause big problems. The first job of a good rental agent is to ask thorough questions with every new rental and offer advice.
It starts with a client calling the rental agent asking if they might be able to rent out his house. The rental agent will want to get an initial idea of the potential assignment and therefore want to know, among other things:
- Why do you want to rent it out?
- How long do you want to rent it out?
- As of when do you want to rent it out?
The rental agent will suggest meeting briefly with the client at the property for a recording of the property and a rental consultation. Meanwhile, the rental agent is already getting to work and figuring out the following, among other things:
- Does the buyout protection law apply that this property falls within? If so, is it good to already point this out to the client prior to a visit by the broker?
- Is there a housing ordinance applicable to this property?
- Does the property have an Energy Index, an energy label or neither?
Recording the property
During visit to the property, the rental agent will make a brief recording of the property. In that “recording,” the broker establishes the following, among other things:
- The living area
- Classification
- Number of bedrooms
- State of maintenance
- Degree of luxury
- Outbuildings
- Pluses and minuses about the property
- Actions to make the property rental-ready
Based on this, the rental agent can work later to determine the rental value and create a rental plan.
Rental Consultation
Now that it is clear what kind of property to rent, it is time to ask the right questions of the homeowner.
Examples of questions in a rental counseling session:
- What does the landlord consider important when it comes to tenants (type of tenants, pets, non-smokers, family, a couple, expats, etc)?
- What kind of contract term does the client want? For example, 12 months or 24 months?
- Does the client want to co-rent certain amenities such as furniture, energy, water and/or internet?
- Is renting allowed from the Homeowners Association or does the client want the rental agent to check that out?
- Does a rental ban or owner-occupancy clause apply, or does the client want the rental agent to take a moment to figure that out?
Rental Points
In the rental consultation, the rental agent will advise what can be done to get enough rental points to drop the property into the freehold. This may mean that the property can be improved through a number of “quick wins” in terms of energy and/or luxury and comfort in order to achieve sufficient rental points.
Energy index
In preparation, the rental agent has already figured out if the property has an energy index or energy label. If the home has an energy label, the real estate agent will advise the client to ignore it and get an energy index (a BENG label) as soon as possible.
The reason is that an energy label often destroys a rent point count, and an ostensibly free sector property is marked as a social rental property by the Rent Commission upon objection by a savvy tenant. As a result, all overpaid rent (difference free sector rent minus social rent) must be paid back.
Housing Ordinance
The rental agent also found out beforehand whether a housing ordinance applies to the property. If so the rental agent will explain the consequences of this to the landlord and give advice on how best to deal with it as a letting party.
Mortgage
If there is still a mortgage on the property, the rental agent will explain the consequences of renting out the property without the bank’s permission and the risk of the bank finding out about the rental without their permission. The rental agent will also give advice on what and also how you can arrange everything to be allowed to rent out the property cleanly legitimately from the bank.
Establishing rental value
The real estate agent is going to determine the property rental value based on the observations made during his home recording. Here he uses rental references, the intended target market, the speed at which the property needs to be rented and his market knowledge about the current rental market around property to be rented.
Rental plan
Then, the rental agent will prepare a rental plan that includes a proposal for the rent and the complete plan of action to rent the property. Upon the client’s approval, this plan is implemented.
Rental property
A good offer text is written, professional photos and floor plans of the home are taken. The property is listed on various housing websites and viewings are scheduled with candidates.
Viewings
During viewings, the rental agent can answer any questions prospective tenants may have and ensures that people have a good impression of the property. What is even more important, however, is that the rental agent does an initial piece of screening of rental candidates right away.
He does this by asking the right questions to viewers (who are interested) at the viewing in order to get a profile of this candidate and also make an initial assessment of whether the candidate is and does who they say they are.
Nb: there are a lot of criminals and other people with wrong intentions operating in the rental market. The rental agent has an important gatekeeper role to recognize and ward off these risks.
Screening
The rental broker invites interested candidates to send a rental proposal. The rental agent selects the best rental candidates and does a comprehensive screening (background check to these candidates). Then the rental agent makes a recommendation to his client about the best rental candidates. At the request of the landlords, the rental agent can introduce several rental candidates to the landlord in person if the landlord is more comfortable with this and only then make a choice in which candidate may rent the property.
Lease
The rental agent drafts a legally sound lease agreement in which nothing is left to chance. The rental agent answers any questions landlord and potential tenants may have about the lease after which it can be signed.
In check / check in
The rental agent handles the in check of the new tenants. This is when the tenants get the key. Very important is that the rental agent does not proceed to hand over the keys until the deposit is paid.
During this in check, meter readings are taken, many photos are taken and a new hire inspection report is prepared. Everything is recorded extremely completely and accurately so that if it later turns out that there is damage to the home or things are missing, that there can be no discussion.
Property managment
Many rental agencies also offer their clients the option of doing the management of the rental property. This includes being the broker’s point of contact for tenants, coordinating breakdowns and maintenance, handling changes in the rent itself, indexing (increasing) the rent annually, monitoring contract terms and terminating contracts in a timely manner (to avoid rent protection)
Why use a rental agent?
Sounds all good but why use a rental agent? Basically, you don’t need to use a rental agent. In some cases, people do it themselves. However, to each his trade. Mistakes in rentals are immediately very expensive.
Tenants in the Netherlands are hugely protected and there are many rules and laws that you can go wet on as a landlord. Consider local laws and regulations, private law (between other residents in the property), mortgage law, public law aspects (such as housing ordinances, buyout protection law, housing valuation system) and so on. This is a sample of the things that the rental agent will take care of for you, among other things.
Let’s put it this way:
As a real estate agency, we use professional IT people for our IT, and professional IT people, in turn, use professional rental agents when renting out their homes.
What are the costs of a rental agent?
Rental agent fees nationwide are usually around 1 month’s rent excl. VAT total (including photos, application fees housing websites, screening of candidates, etc)
Sometimes the rental commission is the 1 month’s rent including VAT, but then the costs for photos, registration fees for housing websites and screening of candidates are often added on top.
Why VK Makelaars as a rental broker?
Now that you know by now exactly what a rental agent does, we’d like to take a moment to explain why you might choose us as your rental agent. You might say that we are a nice “professional idiot” when it comes to what we do.
We do not blindly implement what customers ask us to do. We think solicited and especially unsolicited with our customers and especially in the case of rentals. We do this because we don’t just want happy customers in the short term, but rather in the long term. Of course we carry out the customer’s wishes, but we will always warn loudly and clearly if we see danger on the road and advise how to avoid that danger. Rental is a recurring thing. Tenants usually only stay for a few years and then the process has to be done all over again. We want to be that partner for the landlord that ensures that the landlord really has almost no worries about his/her investment. This is why clients choose VK Makelaars as their rental broker!