What Has The Pandemic Taught Us and How Has The Market Changed?
Having extended the eviction ban for a further month at very short notice the government have issued further guidelines that come in from the 1st September. You will only have to give 4 weeks notice of intention to repossess your property on grounds of anti-social behaviour; with just 2 weeks notice for tenants who have committed acts of domestic violence, and 4 weeks notice for tenants who have built up 6 month rental arrears. Whilst this is a (very) tiny step forward, you will still need a court order to evict, and with courts likely to be almost a year behind due to the current restrictions, you are still in for a long and painful process. Should Landlords Manage Their own properties? With all the current legislation changes, and the Governments determination to protect the tenants from Landlords (I'm not entirely sure what they think Landlords are like) it's a nightmare trying to keep up! You say, or do one thing incorrectly, and you could see yourself in a year plus long ride through the court system. Scaremongering aside, Landlords need to remember that renting your property is a business, and all personal feelings have to be set aside. In a recent survey of Lettings Agents 90% of them said that tenants, at the viewing stage, always ask ‘who is managing the property?’ With 70% of those saying that, given a choice of properties, they would go with the property managed by an agent. I believe tenants feel that dealing with an agent is less personal, they feel that any repairs will be done quicker and that if things go wrong they are better protected when dealing with an...
TAKING UP SPACE - When desk space in your agency is tight, it’s time to outsource your property management. Small & Medium sized estate agencies who offer letting services face an ongoing battle balancing space between property management staff and fee earning agents. In a typical office of 6 desks, at least two of them will be occupied by property management/admin staff. Dead space in terms of income. It’s true that the letting business is great business for any agency, but the cost of running it (and the headache that comes with it) drastically reduces income. The ideal situation would be to have every single desk in an agency occupied by a fee earner. That’s obvious, but how can you achieve that, and still have a lucrative lettings business? Outsourcing. I’m not talking about taking your support off-shore, I’m talking about having an expert team of property management staff, superb tenant and landlord support, all done in your name, without the cost and hassle, with an increase in profits of up to 40%! Outsourcing in the professional services industry is a well established and supported way of doing business. But it’s relatively new to Property Management. Lettings is historically a very competitive environment with agents vying for properties to add to their portfolio. The problem isn’t necessarily when you first start out, but once you reach a certain level of properties the costs (and headaches) start to increase exponentially. For start-up agencies (or smaller established agencies) the cost of supporting lettings can be prohibitive as it means shelling out for so many things that you didn’t need before. Costs for things like; Client Money Protection Scheme Professional Training ...
Lettings are your bread and butter … how about increasing your profit by 40% AND delivering a better service to your clients and tenants? Lettings are a vital component of every estate agency, but managing a letting business is hard, costly and time consuming. Doing it right isn’t easy and demands a high level of expertise and experience, which doesn’t come cheap. Not only is it essential to employ experienced property managers, there’s a whole bunch of annual licenses, training and fees to pay. Including; Client Money Protection Scheme Professional Training Management Software Non-resident Landlord Scheme MARLA Membership Bank Fees for client accounts The list feels endless when you’re running an agency. But, the value of running a lettings business speaks for itself, despite the high costs there’s still plenty of profit to be made. But what if there was a way to offer better service, without any of the management headaches that come along with rental properties, and increase your letting profits by up to 40%? Sounds like one of those ‘too good to be true’ type of deals right? Well, it’s actually not as far fetched as it sounds. It all comes down to outsourcing. Not off-shore, or to an impersonal call centre, but to a highly professional (and focused) property management company who have better systems, more experience and a one stop shop for both tenants and clients. You get to keep the profits and drop the costs. Your clients don’t see it as outsourcing, because the whole service is branded with your name. Both landlords and tenants will see an immediate...
What Has The Pandemic Taught Us and How Has The Market Changed?