Offering 6 months rent to a private landlord?

A question about : Offering 6 months rent to a private landlord?

My daughter has just changed jobs and needs to move to Bristol and will be finding somewhere with her partner. The Bristol rental market seems to be moving fast and she needs to get ahead of the game. She lost a lovely flat by minutes at the weekend.

She has enough savings to offer 6 months rent up front to the landlord and has found a very good flat on Gumtree. Is this a good idea and how does she protect herself as much as possible because handing over such a large sum is a bit scary?

Any thoughts?

Best answers:

• She can do so & that would be attractive to many landlords:
  But beware (I make no slur or comment on your esteemed daughter..) such offers - more so if 12 months up front - can raise concerns that someone may be planning a cannabis farm or a brothel...
  Turning up with mum would reassure..
  Best be forewarned..
  Good luck!
• Young lady turns up with 6 months rent....... Many LLs would run a mile!
  As for offering that much cash to a stranger from gumtree.....
• If they ask to see proof that you have the money in a western union account you know you are being taken for a ride. Just don't do it, they'll empty the account by lunchtime.
• Thanks for the replies.
  My daughter lost out on a flat only this weekend because the other person could offer 12 months rent up front. I thought that it was a bit odd at the time because apparently they needed a guarantor, had less income than required and yet had nearly Ј10,000 knocking around.
  I only asked as I had seen this suggested on this very website. Bad idea then?
  And yes Western Union would have me running a mile.
• She's not that young - mid 20's.
• I live in Bristol - there are plenty of other properties out there without resorting to 6 months cash up front.