Rent out a house: which real-estate agent do you choose?

What do you pay attention to when choosing a real estate agent for the rental of your house? The rates of agents vary quite a bit. And what is the difference between a traditional and an internet real-estate agent? Determine which agent suits you best.

The traditional real-estate agent

Most traditional agents charge a commission in the form of a 1 month rent, usually excl. 21% VAT. 'Start-up costs' are often added upon this.

The internet real-estate agent

With an internet agent you do the viewings yourself, often with one or more open house moments. You make the advertisement text yourself and take the photos yourself. If necessary, you can hire a professional photographer. This can usually be arranged through the internet agent. Meanwhile, the internet agent can spend more time on statistics, market research, strategy, negotiations and legal aspects. The property owner pays a fixed rate and saves thousands of euros on commission.

Internet real-estate agent results are better!

The vast majority of people use a traditional real estate agent for the rental of their home. However, the result with an internet real-estate agent is no worse. In fact, it's often better. This is apparent from a major study into the performance of real estate agents by the VU University Amsterdam (publication 2017). The Amsterdam researchers looked at millions of transactions between 1985 and 2011 of transactions via the Funda housing site. This shows that agents who use a fixed rate (internet real-estate agents) transact a house earlier and at a higher price (on average 2.7% higher) than 'normal' real-estate agents. Click here to read more about this research.