Owners of villas in France, Spain and the Algarve who come to us do so for two reasons: firstly they don’t know how to market their house, and secondly, they worry about damage to their house. Agents can help with both of those things to some extent, but are they worth the commission? The answer is it depends.
Marketing is more than just advertising. The villa rental market in Europe is now very price sensitive, at all levels. Customers do their research and know precisely what a villa is worth. Set your pricing too high and your house will stand empty: set it too low and you will be full by March and wish you had asked more. A good agent can tell you what it is worth and has a lot of data on which to base that advice. But do your research and you will know what your villa is worth as well. If you are confident in your ability to do that then you can save yourself a commission.
You might need help describing your villa to the best effect. For example, your views might be stunning, but sadly that is not worth much in the market these days – to some customers ‘stunning views’ sounds like something that people say when they can’t think...