Why do most landlords choose our fully managed service?

When you own a property that you rent out you are officially a landlord. Sounds simple doesn't it?

There are more than two and a half million private landlords in the UK and according to official figures from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, 4.4 million households live in privately rented accommodation.

In fact, the private sector is bigger than the social rented sector, having grown by 45% between 2008-09 and 2020-21.

So if you are a landlord then there's plenty more people like you - and most of the ones we deal with choose our fully managed lettings service.

Here's why...

Business Matters

Renting out property means running a business. That's just as true if you're one of the 43% of landlords who have just one property or if you’re managing a much bigger portfolio.

You might think that being a landlord could be an easy way to make money, however the bottom line is that there's a lot of work involved to generate a return on your investment.

For some the sheer scale of things that need attending to can simply be too much to deal with. For most people who have a job or family to look after day to day life simply doesn't leave enough time to be constantly overseeing a rental operation, whatever the size.

Any successful business will always involve letting a specialist help in certain ways, whether that's with accounts, tax considerations, client acquisitions or legal matters. When it comes to being a landlord all of these and much more come into play.

Tenants

The people who rent and live in your property are essentially the clients of your business.

So getting the right tenant can be tricky, because there’s far more to it than just finding someone that’s happy to move in.

Are you willing and able to vet applicants to make sure they can afford the rent? To find out if they have a good track record as a tenant? Or to ensure they adhere to all the various checks that need to be made by law?

How about looking after the deposit? Drawing up a rental agreement? Knowing your own legal duties and responsibilities as a landlord?

A lot of questions need answers and if that all sounds time consuming, well, that's because it is!

Rents

Knowing what level to set the rent at is something of a skill in its own right. Obviously you need to guarantee a certain return on your investment (ROI) and cover various expenses and outgoings involved in maintaining a rental property at the same time.

Setting the rent too low and you run the risk of harming your own interests. Set it too high and you might price yourself out of the market, even for good tenants who are willing and able to pay top rates.

An experienced lettings agent will know the 'sweet spot' for rent values in the local neighbourhood for your property. But there's much more to it than that.

Dealing with rent collection is something many landlords just don't want to do themselves. If that sounds familiar then you’ll be glad to know that setting up banking arrangements and making sure payments are made is all part of the job a lettings agent will do for you.

Using their services essentially creates a 'firewall' between you and your tenants and puts everything on a much more professional basis.

Maintenance

Keeping your property in good order isn't just something that’s good business practise - in many instances it's also your legal duty.

Being up to date and compliant with the various Government and local laws, rules and regulations that govern the private rental sector is a job in itself. With constantly changing guidelines and obligations, often involving energy efficient and safety measures, it can be really hard to keep up with things.

Again, it's the job of a professional lettings agent to be constantly aware of any changes, updates or introduction of new measures that will affect you as a landlord and your responsibilities.

Getting necessary work done can be more than a chore it can seriously impact your ROI. Having a lettings agent manage your property means that a leak, damp, electrical repairs or any other number of small problems can be dealt with quickly and stop them becoming something more serious.

It also means that when your phone rings in the middle of the night you won’t be asked to come out and fix something.

Of course keeping your rental property in tip-top condition is really important for another reason - one day you might want to sell it!

Attention To Detail

Having that buffer zone between you and your tenants covers much of the ground when it comes to having a lettings agent manage your property.

There are plenty more extras above and beyond the basics though, such as end of tenancy inventory checks and if you ever need to serve legal notices.

Another benefit of having a successful relationship with a lettings agent is that if you want to expand your portfolio or sell a property you already have a local specialist who you know and trust right there waiting to help you!

We can make life as a landlord simpler, stress free and more profitable - our lettings team would love to hear from you. Get in touch today and let us be your property partner for life.