Whatever your requirements your letting agent will help to protect your property, maximise the return on your investment and provide you with a rental income for the duration of your letting.
This case study is one example of how a professional letting agent will provide you with a value of service far above the value of their charges.
Background:
Grace worked as a PR and marketing specialist in the retailing industry. She started investing in Buy to Let thanks to a friend who was already using the equity built up in their own home to invest in other properties.
After a chat one day, he suggested she looked at doing the same. Grace liked the idea and started investing as she was keen to have some control over her own retirement plans.
Grace initially managed the properties on her own. She found that the administration side was extremely complex. One of her tenants stopped paying rent.
Very quickly Grace had to learn what she needed to do to apply for a Possession Order.
She had an extremely busy job and struggled to fit in managing the properties; dealing with tenants maintenance reports; chasing tenants for late rent and then having to attend court to obtain a Possession Order.
After nearly a year managing the properties herself Grace soon realised the amount of time she had saved was costing her far more than an agent would be charging.
Grace started asking friends and other investor landlords who they would recommend as a professional property letting agent.
Belvoir Peterborough came highly recommended. A great pool of rental tenants and a detailed understanding of the local market meant that Belvoir Peterborough would be able to find professional tenants; carryout referencing; completing start of tenancy inventories; set up legally binding tenancy agreements; deal with the regulations for the handling of damage deposits; collect the rent; deal with maintenance enquiries; carryout scheduled visits and inspection; carryout a final inspection and give evidence in court should the issue arise.
Grace estimated that Belvoir Peterborough would save her 3 hours per month for each of her properties. All this for less than £70 per month. Grace said that is fantastic value for money seeing as she spends £35 for 45 minutes in the nail bar have her nails manicured.
Belvoir Peterborough came into their own when one of the tenants caused problems at one of Grace’s properties. The insurance to compensate for the problem needed to be handled very carefully as the claim had to prove that all the damage was done at the same time, otherwise Grace would have had to file individual insurance claims and incurred individual excesses on each claim.
Belvoir Peterborough took control of all the paperwork and the claim was settled satisfactorily. When rent was lost, Belvoir also managed to instruct solicitors quickly, not only solving the problem as fast as possible, but also ensuring Grace’s losses were minimised to a few hundred rather than thousands of pounds via a further insurance claim.
Grace has now started advising her friends who have properties to rent in Peterborough about which letting agent to use!
