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I am looking at online businesses that help private landlords find tenants and tenants to find properties. I know of all the big portals like rightmove and the like. However, I am not talking about them. I remember seeing a lot of start ups in this sector all at once, similar to rentify.com, however, I don't see many of them at the moment. Did the market get saturated? Did most of them go bust? Do they still exist and I am not seeing them on search results?

I am a private landlord. I own 3 properties in London. I let them out myself and manage them myself. The truth is they need very little management. I probably see my tenants once a year. I don't use estate agents or letting agents. However, I do advertise when the need arises on places like Gumtree. Most tenants stay on average 2 years. I would not pay Rentify's £549 + Vat fee. For me it's way too much. However, I know Estate Agents charge even more than that. About £1,500-£2,000 from what I remember. 

However, if someone was to say to charge £100 or even £50 one off fee, and they had a site that had a good chance of finding tenants then I would most likely use them. I would do the rest. They just need to advertise and get the enquiries in.

In London properties let for a premium. It is really a landlords market. However, I am very ethical about it and the whole I have good relationship with my tenants. I am not in the property business. It was just an investment decision at the time. I am what some people may call accidental landlord. I also have a professional friend who owns a flat/apartment near in the City, prime location, and he wants to go travelling around the world. He just owns this one place. But again he is an example of a person who is not a professional landlord. 

So I would be interested to hear from people who let properties they own. 

This all came to my attention because I was watching a day time TV programme, and the lady was saying that landlords would not have to charge so much if estate agents did not charge the landlord such high fees, at the same time, estate agents in some agencies charge the tenant a fee as well for finding the property. So they are making the money both ways. There is also a thing being highlighted by Labour with their promise of Rent Caps. 

One last thing, so that this is an open an honest discussion, I will declare my interest, I own a domain which I feel is really good domain for this market, it's called viewproperty.co.uk , and I was thinking of what to do with it.

I would welcome all views on it. From tenants, landlords, and anyone else who has an opinion on it. 

As an ex FSB member, I have to say I have seen FSB from both sides. I have seen their sales guys/ladies use pressure selling tactics. At the same time I am aware that they do a lot of lobbying and someone needs to represent the small businesses voice in the UK. However, I hardly hear of them nowadays. I don't see that of a benefit in joining nowadays. If the public recognised them more widely, then I would have considered them more. 

Hi Aron,

Adding to what Steve has said already, I have found that most small businesses are driven by the passion or drive of the owner or the person who started the business. If you take them out of the business, a lot of these businesses fold or stop operating. That doesn't mean that they are not successful or don't make money. On the contrary, I can tell you from personal experience that they can be very profitable and can me very good money. It's all relative. 

However, if you are in a fortunate place to turn your passion into a business then you are the fortunate few in life. However, say as an example, you like designing, it could be graphic design, and you turn that into a moderately successful business which is great. However, say that you also had an acumen for business anyway, and instead of focusing on your passion, you focused on say a more profitable market, say as an example electronic parts, it could also be true that you could turn the electronic parts into a very successful business, and make far more money then you ever could have done by graphic design. So although sometimes following your passion is the right thing to do with regards to your heart is concerned, it may not always be financially the best decision. There is always a bit of a trade off.

I hope that made some sense.

I used to buy a lot of domains. Which I do less nowadays. Anyway, I found what I thought was a very catchy and suitable domain, ideal for that industry, for people in that market place to advertise themselves. I was thinking of what to do with it. That's why.

Does anyone know what they call Handy Man or Odd Job Man in the United States or North America? I assume we generally use the term Odd Job Man or Handy Man, do they use the same terms as us to describe such a person or someone who works in that trade?

I have very little knowledge about commercial retail property however, something has been puzzling me for some time. Someone may know the answer to this.

There is a retail unit advertised available to rent in Central London, in the City area. Over a year ago, I phoned up saying I was interested, the estate agent who it's under, did not want to take down my details, said they had an offer. Anyway, 12 months later the place is still empty. So I phone up about 3 months ago, and say that I am interested, and the person again doesn't take my details, said they have an offer. No this is is not the first time this has happened to me. I let out a few properties that I own privately. Now if I had an agent letting my properties, I would want them to take down the details of all interested parties just in case any contracts fall through. With these properties, they seem not at all interested in trying to let the property. Am I missing something obvious? Is there some kind of scam that I am not aware of? It doesn't make rational sense at all? This is not the first property this has happened to. I can remember at least 2 or 3 other occasions where I was told that it's gone, with no details taken from me, and for me to find the properties still empty, a year down the line. It's mainly on retail units that I find this. Not on normal office space.

It puzzles me. Can anyone shed any light?

@thelegalstop, @steve , basically I have a double whammy of a problem. 

You see I know it's my Google Places listing, because it's my website, my telephone number and address and so on. However, for whatever reason that Google Places account is not associated with any email account that I have access to. My mind has gone blank. I have been trying to think of every email address I could have used. 

See, to recover an account I either need to say I don't know my password or I don't know my email address, and I have tried and neither works. 

It's for a Google Places account under the business name of "iPad Screen Repair" with the domain www.ipadscreenrepair.org.uk , it's been going some time, and it gets it's fair share of business and inquiries. I know from past experience whenver I have meddled witha Google Places account, it has ruined the ranking and I have regreted it. However, in this place, I am having to do it very reluctantly. And I do need to do it. I need to change the telephone number on that listing badly.

I so wish Google brough out a service where you would pay a premium, say $50 a year, for business people to get telephone support from the Google admin or support team on things like this. Because it's very frustrating on Google forums because you don't know and you are kind of blind being led by the blind. 

I have this situation I hope someone can help me with. I have a Google Places Account that I created some time ago for the domain ipadscreenrepair.org.uk , now I need to update the telephone number and just in general update the listings. However, I cannot login and get access to it. The email address that I thought was associated with it doesn't seem to be. It's an email address from the same domain. 

I have no idea how I am going to get hold of this Googe Places account, because even the Google Forums, that used to a place to go for help with things like this are not so user friendly anymore.

The worst bit about it is, this Google Places account actually generates a bit of business, so I am worried about doing anything to harm it's rankings. However, I do need to change the number.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I would have thought they had a good market. Shows how little I know. I suppose if you want soft or hard porn, or anything else, with smartphones so readily available, you can get everything online without having to pay for it.