How to rent an apartment without intermediaries?

Through an agency

When faced with obtaining real estate for rent for the first time, people usually turn to special companies. It is best to choose an organization based on the recommendation of family or friends. How to rent an apartment through an agency? Professionals must find suitable accommodation, so it is important to set out your requirements.

Then suitable options are selected and appointments are made to view the property. Agency specialists must accompany the client in these cases. And when drawing up an agreement, they conduct all the negotiations. Agency employees provide advice on issues of interest.

A specialist checks property documents. If everything is correct, then a lease agreement is concluded and a transfer and acceptance certificate is drawn up, which contains an inventory of the housing property. Specialist services usually cost 50-100% of the monthly housing price.

The cost of renting an apartment, how does the agency determine the price?

Now the price of real estate has increased slightly, but along with it, the demands of tenants regarding the quality of rented residential apartments, their location, and size have increased. To determine what monthly benefit you can get from housing, you need to analyze several indicators:

Location of housing.
Its area.
Condition of the rooms.
Layout.

Sometimes even minor investments in cosmetic repairs will increase the cost of renting. It is necessary to separately note the location of the house, how developed is the nearby infrastructure, how is the transport interchange, is it close to the city center, are there nearby establishments necessary for comfortable living:

Educational.
Trading.
Entertaining.

All indicators have a significant price impact. A person who has not previously encountered an assessment of this kind is unlikely to be able to justify his position. If you rent out an apartment in Moscow through an agency, the owner will not need to worry about such trifles, because an expert will arrive at the address and analyze the cost himself, suggesting rational measures that can be taken to increase it. It will be a huge plus if the property is equipped with everything necessary for housing:

Furniture.
Household appliances.
Interior elements.

The market value of rent can only be calculated individually. If a person has a decent area located near the center, then the landlord will be able to earn decent money.

Types of fraud

How to rent an apartment correctly so that the transaction is completed according to the law? Here are some common scams to avoid:

Photos are not real. Particular attention should be paid to cases of discrepancies between the rental price of housing and its repair. If the pictures show luxury interiors, but the price is average or below market value, then these are probably scammers. They may say that this apartment is rented out and recommend another one. To check whether photos are taken from other sites, matches can be determined using the Google Images service. False advertisements are created to create a customer base.
The apartment is fictitious. Care must be taken when filling out contracts. It is important to check all information, even if the transaction is made with the help of a realtor. There are often cases when the addresses recorded in the contract do not exist, and people have to pay rent without housing. In this case, you have the right to terminate the lease agreement unilaterally by sending a letter to the landlord. There are also cases where clients are provided with landlord numbers for a fee, but they do not negotiate or accompany them.
Paid inspection. No one can demand money for viewing a property. If this is offered by a realtor, then that is how he earns money, and he is not interested in transactions. Travelers from small towns and villages often fall for these tricks.
Resale housing. Tenants may not move or temporarily occupy other persons, nor may they take a deposit, fee, or commission. How to rent an apartment from the owner? You need to check your housing rights documents.
Offer to purchase a customer base. Those wishing to rent a property are offered access to an online database of owners. A realtor can convince you that the database is updated every day, but after gaining access to it, it will be discovered that the information is out of date.

What are the advantages of legally renting an apartment?

Let's start with the fact that this is an absolutely correct approach from a legal point of view. It is the presence of a well-executed rental agreement that makes the transaction the safest for the property owner.

Advantages of renting out an apartment under an official contract:

you insure yourself against financial losses associated with possible dishonesty of tenants. For example, in the event of theft or damage to your property specified in the rental agreement, you will be able to recover damages through the court. If the tenant floods the neighbors, then he will also have to compensate for the damage caused;
you will record on paper the tenant’s obligations to pay rent and utility bills within a clearly defined time frame. Thus, he will not have a chance to evade payments. If the tenant tries to escape without paying, you will also have the opportunity to resolve the issue in court;
You will be able to rent out housing not only to friends or relatives, but also to complete strangers, without fear or worry. The latter, by the way, is preferable if you want to get the maximum benefit from renting out an apartment;
you will not have problems with the tax office, since you will be able to fully officially register income from rental property and pay income tax, as required by law.

Obviously, officially renting out an apartment is much more profitable and safer if you want to keep your property and nerves in order.

Pros and cons of hiring without intermediaries

Renting real estate without involving intermediaries has advantages and disadvantages. To determine how to proceed, you need to study all sides of the issue. Self-removal has the following advantages:

Savings due to the absence of additional costs for mediation.
Joint hiring with friends and splitting the amount of payment.
Bargaining with the owner and reducing payment.

All of these points will help you save a large amount of money on getting a rented apartment. But the downside is the risk of fraud. Other disadvantages include:

Difficulty finding a suitable apartment.
Possibility of conflicts with the landlord.
Risk of eviction.
Lack of guarantees of rights.

Where to look?

How to rent an apartment correctly, choosing the most suitable one from a variety of options? There are several services that will make your search much easier:

Avito and Domofond. This is a rich database of real estate of different types and categories. To get acquainted with the proposed apartments, you need to select the “private” section of the advertisements. You can specify the number of rooms and the desired metro stations. You can set up alerts about new listings.
"Yandex.Real Estate". The service allows you to set the maximum number of search conditions. There are few advertisements, but there are often interesting offers.
The Locals, “I’ll rent” and other communities on social networks. This is an excellent option for those who want to rent a room. Often such sites charge a fee for access to the database. You can search for advertisements in thematic interest groups.
CYANOGEN. This large housing database includes many apartment offers. Intermediaries do not charge a fee for this.

Owner verification

How to rent an apartment yourself and for the first time? To do this, you need to check the legal purity of the property. The owner should request the following documentation:

Certificate of ownership.
Property rights agreement.
Passport.
Notarized power of attorney if the transaction is carried out through the owner’s representative.

It is important to check that there are no debts on utility bills. Checking payment receipts and electricity and water meters is carried out before concluding a contract.

How to rent an apartment daily without being deceived: specifics of the contract

According to statistics, 60% of fraudulent actions are committed during short-term apartment rentals. This is explained by the simplicity of concluding an agreement, or its actual absence. Why waste time on paperwork if you only need an apartment for a couple of days? However, these are precisely the arguments scammers use.

How to avoid getting caught when renting an apartment for several days? To do this, you must first inspect the documents for the premises. House book or any other document confirming that the apartment is being rented from the real owner. Many scammers use the “re-rent” option. That is, they rent an apartment in the city center for a few days, and under the guise of the owners, they rent out the premises for a more significant amount.

At the same time, there is one small feature: the advertisement on the Internet was recently posted, there are no reviews, and the imaginary owner himself offers prepayment. Before giving or transferring money, make an appointment, review the documents for the apartment, and only then transfer the money. Drawing up an agreement will not take more than a minute; do not rush to give money for promises.

Agreement

How to rent an apartment without getting scammed? You must check the documentation carefully. The lease agreement must include the following information:

Full name and passport details of the owner, tenant.
Rent payment.
Conditions for changing fees.
Number of visits to the owner for inspection.
Persons who may live with the tenant.
Deadline.
Conditions for termination of the contract.
Description of housing: address, area, number of rooms.

In each case, the contract is individual; there is no standard form. It is important that it contains the rights and obligations of the parties.

What documents are required to draw up an agreement?

A lease or rental agreement for residential real estate is drawn up in writing. To complete it, you will need to prepare a minimum of documents.

The contract will require:

ID cards (passports) of the tenant and the landlord or their representatives;
documents to confirm ownership of real estate (registration certificate, extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate);
notarized consent to rent from all property owners, if the apartment is in shared ownership. It is also very desirable that they are all present when drawing up the lease agreement:
an extract from the house register with a list of all persons registered in this living space.

The easiest way is to use a standard form for a lease or rental agreement, which can be easily found on the Internet.

Rights and obligations of the parties

According to Russian laws, ongoing repairs to the premises, for example, leaking taps, peeling wallpaper or cracked plumbing, are repaired at the expense of the landlord. Therefore, it must be indicated that the elimination of defects in the premises should be carried out at the expense of the owner of the property, for example, through a monthly payment.

If this is not fixed in the contract, then the employer will have to eliminate the shortcomings on his own. The owner can check the condition of the house, but this does not mean that he can come at any time - you need to agree on when and how contact will take place.

Rental rules

How to rent an apartment if several suitable options are found? It is important to check the documents and the availability of contact information. The apartment must have an Internet connection: you should find out the rules for paying for this service.

During the inspection of the premises, you need to check the condition of the plumbing and electrical wiring. The main thing is that the plugs are not knocked out with the connection of a minimum set of devices. There should be no cockroaches, bedbugs or other insects in the room.

How to rent an apartment for a long term? When planning a long stay, you need to clarify all the details. There's no need to rush. If any deficiencies have been identified, you should find out at whose expense the repairs and elimination will be carried out. It is important to write down emergency numbers for various problems. The furniture issue needs to be resolved. Since rental prices on the market are unstable, it is undesirable to sign contracts for a long period at a fixed price.

When signing the document, the owner of the premises hands over a set of keys that need to be checked. Typically the contract period is 1 year minus 1 day. This is a short-term rental and reduces the likelihood of co-tenants moving in. To renew the contract, you must sign the agreement one month before the expiration date.

How to rent out an apartment for daily rent

You can rent out residential premises in various ways, first of all, independently or through an agency. Both of these options have certain advantages, as well as significant disadvantages, and the choice of a particular method and organization of this business directly depends on the owner’s ability to participate in this enterprise.
However, daily rentals often turn out to be noticeably more profitable than long-term rentals; both of these options can be profitable for the property owner.

Having a problem? Call a lawyer:

Moscow and Moscow region (toll-free call) St. Petersburg and Leningrad region

Rent an apartment for a day without intermediaries

A residential property that is rented daily, as opposed to an apartment for long-term rental, must provide the tenant with the most comfortable conditions. His task is to replace the guest’s hotel room. Therefore it should contain:

full set of furniture,
dishes,
towels and bed linen for guests,
hygiene products,
ironing board and iron,
household and kitchen appliances.

Apartments with wireless Internet are in higher demand.

In addition, after each guest it is necessary to thoroughly clean the apartment, change towels and bed linen. You can hire a cleaning lady for this job or do it yourself.

Relationships with tenants can be built both on oral agreements and on the basis of legal documents. You must be prepared to provide a full package of documents confirming your right to rent out this property.

To run a business (officially renting out an apartment), it is logical to open your own individual entrepreneur, where you should register renting out an apartment as a type of activity. While engaging in this activity, you will be required to:

pay taxes on profits received,
maintain accounting documentation,
submit reports to regulatory authorities.

If you want to rent out an apartment correctly and safely, then do not forget to draw up the text of the contract; some clients may require such a document. It will also protect you from damage and allow you, if necessary, to recover compensation from guests.

Even if you do not enter into an agreement with tenants, get into the habit of copying down the details of the guest responsible for the apartment; in case of conflicts, this will also help you assert your rights.

In addition, for your own safety, you can insure your property. A small regular fee will allow you to receive compensation from the insurance company if necessary.

The greatest difficulty for apartment owners can be finding clients.

Many potential tenants are wondering: how to find an apartment without intermediaries? Regular advertising, communication with clients, and attractive photographs of the property posted online can help you attract their attention.

However, according to experts, even liquid objects are idle, on average, up to a quarter of the total operating time, especially not during the tourist season.

However, the apartment owner can always re-qualify the activity and rent out housing for a long period if income from daily rentals decreases.

In general, with the right approach, daily rentals are a profitable business, but much depends on whether you can offer tenants a high level of service while maintaining an affordable cost. Many owners organize entire chains of apartment-type hotels, offering their clients a wide range of options, and such an enterprise can become very profitable with the right approach.

How to draw up a contract

You can easily find a sample daily rental agreement on the Internet, for example, here rentel.ru. The text of the document, in general, does not differ from a standard contract for long-term employment, but there are still differences. Adjustments will be required for the following items:

Payment . Many landlords prefer to receive 100% advance payment. However, tenants do not always agree to fulfill this requirement and are more willing to agree to 50% before moving in and 50% when leaving.
Validity . In this paragraph, it is worth indicating that the Lessor has the right to terminate the contract early (in case of violation of the living conditions, which must also be stipulated in the contract) by verbally notifying the Tenant, and it is also easy to extend it, at the Tenant’s verbal request.
Payment of utility services . This clause should not be in the agreement, since they are paid by the owner of the apartment (the costs are “sewn up” in the rental price). The only thing you need to leave is payment for long-distance, national telephone calls.

We rent an apartment for a day through an agency

The problem is that this business will require your constant participation. But what if you don’t want to give up your main job and at the same time you have an apartment that, in your opinion, can and will generate income?

An alternative option may be to turn to intermediaries: an agency or person who will take on the search for tenants, maintenance of the apartment and other concerns. In this case, you, as the owner, will receive income minus a third party commission.

Your profit will directly depend on the work of agents who will take care of all issues related to organizing a business, from finding and placing tenants to resolving controversial issues. In return, you will need to pay an agency commission of 15-25% of their services, depending on what conditions the particular intermediary sets.

Please note that the commission somewhat offsets the profit from daily rentals, but it will still remain higher than with long-term rentals.

Working with an agency begins with signing an agreement, which must carefully spell out all the nuances of doing business.

Tariff policy;
Conditions for renting an apartment;
Amount of agency remuneration;
Conditions and terms for transferring profits to the owner of the apartment;
Responsibility to the owner for maintaining the appearance and condition of the residential premises.

Trust management of an apartment assumes that you are not involved in the process, but at the same time receive a fairly high profit. This benefits both you and the agency.

However, the profitability of a business depends on whether the apartment is in demand, so much will also depend on its location, condition, equipment and other parameters. Here the risks are equally distributed between the apartment owner and the agency. At the same time, income from liquid objects is invariably high.

It is no secret that agencies have their own established client base and methods for promoting apartments, so for beginners, turning to intermediaries can be the most profitable option.

And one more important point: all responsibility for paying taxes on the profit received also falls on the owner of the apartment, so registering your own individual entrepreneur will be relevant even with this option of organizing your own business.