Best way to find a llat?

We'll be moving over to London soon, and I'm wondering what the best route for finding a flat is. Can I easily get one on my own through a site (are they reliable? honest?), or would an agent be better?

Can anyone recommend good sites/agents either way?

Thanks!

The general answer to your question is that going through an estate agent will be the easiest. They will all list on rightmove.co.uk, findaproperty.co.uk and countless others. Often times the listings on those sites are out of date but when you call up they will have others.

I would recommend gumtree.com for researching (they have both agents and private listings), right move for area specific because of the draw a map function and when you arrive, go straight to the area you want to be in and go to the estate agents there. The offices are location specific. I love walking around an area I am thinking of living in and checking out the listings in the windows.

What sort of fees are involved in using an estate agent?

You don't pay fees but the flats are more expensive if you use an agent. A lot of people also need to pay many months of rent in advance.

You don't pay fees

This is not altogether true all of the time. *Some* estate agents will charge administrative fees that vary dependent on the agents. Be prepared for a holding deposit as well.

Also, the price you see is not necessarily the price you can get it for, which is the benefit of estate agents. You should try and make an offer for a lower price. Has it been empty for a while? Under the Heathrow flight path? Against a tube line? Could be that it is a hard flat for them to rent out and you could get a deal. We rented a flat in Richmond in the Heathrow flight path - 2bed listed for £1250/month and we got it for £1050.

Oh yeah you're right Dels, I wasn't thinking about that. However I think the admin fee is just a one off? Or so I've heard.

They aren't that much, usually, like £25 and up depending. I recall being charged for one or both of the entry and leaving inventories by Barnard Marcus. Though we got our entire deposit back so I did not complain!

OP just make sure you ask before you start looking with the agent. There's no standardized fee structure sadly.

To the OP- Zoopla is another website you can use to search for flats.