“Stressed-out Landlords – A managing agent is worth its weight in gold”
Your managing agent is the key to you having a more profitable return on your property investment, to achieving a good yield and more importantly, taking the stress away from you.
Having acted on behalf of hundreds of landlords to evict their tenants, time and time again so many say to me “landlording is a pain in the backside”. After one bad experience many even decide to sell up because they can’t handle the financial and emotional stress.
However, in an ever increasing buy-to-let industry, which currently stands at 17% for the private sector but is anticipated to grow to 22% by 2020, a buy-to-let property can be a great investment if handled correctly, and with over 22, 000 letting agents in the UK, help is at hand.
If you don’t have the time to find the tenant, do the viewing, take on the daily management of the property, do the correct referencing, deal with the contract, put the deposit into an appropriate scheme, arrange the inventory, ensure the EPC and gas safety certificate are up to date, deal with tenants’ complaints on maintenance and chase any issues such as non-payment of rent – THEN GET YOUR PROPERTY MANAGED – I really can’t stress this enough. If you don’t do this, it will only be a matter of time before you run into trouble.
So, you want to instruct a letting/managing agent?
First of all, where is your property located and which agent has a good reputation in the area? A good place to start might be a website like Allagents.co.uk which posts different agent reviews. Although, don’t take everything you read as gospel, the best thing to do is go into a branch of that agency and ask them what service they can offer you.
Ensure they belong to an association such as ARLA, NAEA, Propertymark, The Property Ombudsman, or Guild of Lettings. This ensures they uphold a certain level of service and means they will be insured against defaulting rent or deposits not paid into a scheme, for example. Ask to see their registration, check that it is up to date with the association and if needs be, go to the Association website.
Ask questions such as:-
1. What is the company’s terms of business?
2. What do you get for your management fee? Does it include inventory and mid-term inventory documents and renewal fees. Also how long do you get paid after receipt of rent collection?
3. Are they transparent with their costs?
4. How many properties do they have that are fully managed?
5. What suppliers do they use? (We have acted on behalf of 2500 agents as an eviction supplier)
I would also recommend getting two references from current landlords that use their management services
Remember it is very easy to become a letting agent as they are not regulated in the same way estate agents are, which is why it is great that the Government are addressing this issue and bringing in measures that will mean all lettings agents have to belong to a re-dress scheme.
Be wary if you are being offered much cheaper fees than anywhere else, it may be because the staff do not belong to an association, have not been trained properly or are not insured. Our debt recovery department has dealt with dozens of cases against rogue agents who have failed to pass on rent to landlords. Unfortunately, some rogue agents use the landlord’s rent for their own business cash flow.
Rogue agents give good agents a bad name so do your research but remember there are many fantastic reputable letting agents and managing agent out there that can be trusted, and can help landlords to run a very profitable buy-to-let business.
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Here at Belvoir we will give you a rental valuation on your property and we will take in important factors such as market conditions and similar properties recently let.
We will use all of our resources to market your property and you will find that when we market your property, that we will receive enquiries about your property within hours which will result in instant viewings and a quick let
We carry out viewings 6 days a week from 9am up until 6.30pm so that we can be as flexible as possible to ensure that we let your property as quickly as possible
We carry out full reference checks on your tenants to ensure that your tenants have a clear credit history, that they are working and earning enough money to afford to rent your property and if they are currently renting, then we will check to make sure that their current landlords are happy with them and have not caused them any problems in the past
If your tenant can provide us with a guarantor, then we will check that they have a clear credit history and are currently homeowners
We will produce a full colour photographic inventory on your property that will include all fixtures and fittings and any furniture that may have been left in the property. The inventory will provide us and your tenant with a record of the condition that the tenants have received the property at the start of the tenancy.
We will produce an up to date and fully comprehensive tenancy agreement that has been drafted by solicitors that specialise in property. This agreement will then be signed by a member of our staff, the tenants, and the guarantor (if applicable) and witnessed to ensure that the agreement is legally binding.
We will contact the gas, electricity and water utility companies and also the local council to inform them of the new tenants and any meter readings that we have so ensure that all new accounts are set up and any accounts in landlords name are therefore closed.
We will register all deposits taken with the appropriate government backed deposit scheme within the time frame needed so that the landlord is not liable to be fined.
We will carry out regular inspections on your property and this will entail that we walk through your property to access for any visible damage that may have been carried out. It is also a good time to chat to the tenants to find out how they are finding the property. We will then send a full photographic report back to the landlord.
We will also liaise with your tenant and any contractors so that any repairs undertaken on your property are fully completed
We have access to a professional legal team who solely deal with all Belvoir offices to offer advice and guidance if any problems may arise throughout the tenancy.
When your tenant vacates the property, we will inspect the property by checking through the inventory. We will liaise with the tenants, our contractors and the landlord if any damages have arisen through the tenancy. We will arrange for damages to be repaired once all parties have agreed.
We will contact the gas, electricity and water utility companies and also the local council to inform them that the tenants have vacated and any meter readings that we have so ensure that all accounts are closed and set up for the landlord.
For more information please give us a call 0151 256 0880 or email us @ westderby@belvoirlettings.com
Let. us do all the work!
Belvoir
West Derby
