Upad: The Biggest Online Lettings Agency?

Written: 27th April 2017

Upad was founded by James Davis, a professional landlord himself in 2007. Since Upad’s inception, the company has become Britain’s largest online letting agency, primarily because of the simplicity involved in finding tenants and letting a property. Over the last year, Upad has helped to rent over ten thousand properties, evidence of their popularity amongst landlords that previously used high streets agents and classified advertising to source their tenants.

As an alternative to the traditional local lettings agency, Upad provides a national service, which offers savings to the landlord based on the economies of scale. And although their process is more cost effective they are still able to provide landlord support seven days a week, as well as offering online account access to landlords at any time.

The Premise

Starting off by creating your own property advert using their easy to use form, followed by some checks by Upad’s team who will ensure it’s as effective as possible, your property enjoys maximum exposure across all the giant property sites such as Rightmove, Zoopla and PrimeLocation. One advert exposes you to as many as ten million tenants a month.

From the moment your advert is live, Upad’s ARLA qualified team will check in on a regular basis to ensure that there are no issues and everything is going to plan. They send you everything that you’ll need such as what questions you’ll need to ask your prospective tenants and make sure that your viewings run smoothly. The most versatile aspect of Upad’s offering is that the landlord can make changes to their advert at any time.

Upad provides a complete one stop shop, that any landlord would need, from listing and distributing adverts, providing support seven days a week, and offering all the additional services such as tenant referencing and photography.

Get In Touch

Address: Unit 15, The Linen House
253 Kilburn Lane
London, W10 4BQ
Telephone: 0333 240 1220
Website: https://www.upad.co.uk/

Sales Options and Pricing

There are three packages available which make Upad’s approach accessible for all landlords.

The Standard package: £120 including VAT
The standard package has four main features:
All their properties are featured on the main property portals, viz. Rightmove, Zoopla and Prime Location. Secondly, the landlord maintains control of the letting process, while experts provided by Upad are available to provide support should it be required. The third main feature is that landlord arranges the viewings to suit themselves and enjoys the opportunity of meeting their prospective tenants and finally all tenants selected by the landlord will undergo rigorous background checks before they take occupation.

The Essential Package: £259 including VAT
The Essential package boasts the same features as the Standard Package, and also this package offers the drafting of a bespoke tenancy agreement that is approved by ARLA. It is signed online by all parties, thus preventing any mistakes. Furthermore, the tenant’s deposit is collected and registered with a statutorily approved government scheme, all done on behalf of the landlord. The first month’s rent is collected and a standing order mandate is arranged for payments going forward.

The Complete Package: £399 including VAT
Included with all the features offered in the Standard and the Essential packages, the Complete Package provides all the additional services that mean that the landlord won’t have to worry about anything, including photography and floorplans. The landlord gets to keep their photographs and floorplans for future adverts too. All additional paperwork is dealt with too, so everything is covered.

What Are The Positives Of Upad?

Upad, offers diversity in their packages that will suit every pocket, with straightforward and transparent services and pricing. The landlord can mix and match according to their requirements and also budget for each property that they have. The online service provides a time-saving solution for landlords that are otherwise time constricted meaning that they can get more done, in smaller time frames for less money.

In a climate where landlords have to absorb increased costs in their business, with new tax rules and other economic influences, Upad offers multiple alternatives that even other online agencies have yet to equal.

What Are The Negatives Of Upad?

For those landlords that prefer a personal relationship, with a face to face property manager, this is possibly not their solution, particularly if saving on fees is not their main objective. Landlords that may need to list and manage multiple properties in bulk may find navigating varying packages for each property slows them down. Landlords will still have the responsibility of ensuring that the annual gas safety check is performed and that the EPC certificate is valid.

Summary

Upad enjoys an exceptionally high score with Trust Pilot possibly one of the UK’s most reliable sources of business information. Because they focus solely on lettings, they have managed to become leaders in this niche of the property business and make the ideal first option, the exception only being bulk corporate property owners.