What's the best advice you can give to a first time renter? (UK but welcome any advice!)

Looking for general advice, but here's some background if anyone is interested: I'm in England, almost 25 I still live at home. Ideally I would have enough for a mortgage before I moved but that will take a good few more years.

Anyway, I have a good job (teacher - first year), £4,500 in savings so far but I need just general advice. I'm still at the googling stage and I''m a little clueless, the last thing I rented was a VHS tape of Titanic.

Any general tips/advice on where to start/what to do are much welcomed!