With strong rental demand in the United Kingdom residential property market, many letting and estate agents are struggling to find new properties to offer to applicants and, in a desperate attempt, are reducing their fees drastically to attract prospective landlords.At face value, this may sound like positive news for the landlords. However, the landlords should be wary of offers that seem too good to be true.

Landlords should keep in mind when picking a letting/estate agent that you get the professionalism and service you pay for. Slashed fees may result in a poor letting/management service. Even worse, the agent may end up having insufficient funds to survive.

The letting and management of residential properties is a very complicated and costly process; it demands significant time and resources as well as money. Some people have a misconception of thinking of lettings only requiring to advertise in the local paper.

As a start, having well-trained and knowledgeable staff is vital. Vetting the prospective tenants carefully is very important too. Keeping up-to-date with all the complex legislation is must for both the landlord and the tenant's sake. Addressing the management issues promptly is very key and tend to be a round-the-clock responsibility for the managing agent. This list can be extended significantly with lots of other issues that people tend to take for granted.

Naturally, landlords will, of course, aim to keep their outgoings to a minimum and will seek a competitive letting/management rate. However, landlords paying low letting or management fees that are unsustainable must be aware of the risks of associated, such as the property not being marketed in the correct manner or to the right people.

As we are witnessing in the United Kingdom very often, the agents being driven to insolvency due to unrealistic fees is a very real possibility.

When choosing a letting agent, the we advise the landlords to base their decision not only on the agency fees alone. They should also take into account the overall service that the agency provides, their experience in the lettings and management business as well as the knowledge of the local area, their reputation and professionalism too.