There are advantages and disadvantages with lettings of the property on your own and letting the agent do it for you.
If you go on the route of letting the property on your own back then there are a lot of hurdles you have to cross before the end result of finding a good tenant.
Firstly you have to make sure you have the property in a good clean state before you put it up for rentals.
Then you have to advertise in the local area or the local newspapers to get some response from would be tenants.
After which you have to interview them and get references from their previous tenancies to see if they have a good record of being a good tenant.
After you have checked all the references and matched them all together you have to provide them with a short hold tenancy agreement.
If they are a good tenant you will get your rent on time and if not then they will delay your rent after complaining about the state of the property or disturbing you in the middle of the night about leaks or noisy neighbours or any other menial things like dogs barking outside or other people disturbing them which you can do without.
If you can handle this kind of pressure then it is well and good because you will save 10 to 15 percent in letting agents fees.
And if you a letting agent to sort everything out for you and you do not have the time to chase after the rent payments and other harassment that go with finding your tenant then the letting agent is best for you.
You have to weigh up the cost of the letting agents against your time and effort and see which one will be the better option.
If you go for the letting agent make sure he is a reputable and has a good record of looking after his clients and the charges are reasonable.
The letting agent will do all the checking for the landlord like getting all the references and vetting all the tenants and writing to their previous landlords to see if they have been good tenants and paying their rents on time and have not been unruly towards the landlords and everything else that go with the tenancies.
The replies from the previous landlords are a must for a peaceful and a prosperous tenancy agreement.