Finding the perfect partner has never been easier with apps and social media. Searching for love you can download an app and with the swipe of a finger find your dream match.Unfortunately when it comes to finding a lettings agent there isn’t an app for that!
In our previous discussion, we delved into the advantages of partnering with a letting agent, emphasizing how they can save you time, money, and provide peace of mind. With over 13,500 estate agents in the UK, most of whom manage lettings, the task of selecting the right one might seem daunting.
Choosing the perfect letting agent is akin to finding ‘the one’ in a romantic relationship. They should be responsive, reliable, and genuinely interested in your best interests. Just as compatibility matters in personal relationships, it’s crucial to ensure your values align with your agent’s approach. While corporate agents may boast impressive branding, it’s the substance beneath the surface that truly counts.
Before committing to a partnership, take the time to acquaint yourself with the agent. Corporate and independent agencies may offer similar services, but their methods and level of personalization can vary significantly. Corporate firms, with their structured processes, may struggle to accommodate individual needs, whereas independent agents often prioritize customer service and adaptability.
When evaluating potential agents, consider their familiarity with the local area. A deep understanding of the neighborhood can help attract suitable tenants for your property. Moreover, consistency of service is paramount. While corporate agencies may dazzle with their professionalism, personal touch and dedicated service are often the hallmarks of independent agents.
Being part of the local community can also be advantageous, as it enhances an agent’s network and tenant pool. Independent agents, embedded in the neighborhood fabric, tend to foster stronger connections and may already have ideal tenants in mind for your property.
While cost is a factor, quality of service should take precedence. Look beyond price tags and assess an agent’s track record, turnaround time, and customer reviews. Independent research, including scrutinizing online reviews and conducting mystery shops, can provide valuable insights into an agent’s reputation and performance.
Furthermore, endorsements and qualifications signal an agent’s commitment to professionalism and ethical standards. Seek out agents affiliated with reputable industry bodies, such as RICS or NAEA, for added assurance.
Finally, consider the agent’s philosophy and values. A client-centric approach, grounded in honesty and integrity, is indicative of a trustworthy partner. Ultimately, finding the right letting agent is a crucial step in ensuring the long-term success of your property investment. With diligence and careful consideration, you can find an agent who not only meets your needs but also helps you achieve your property goals.
Remember, there are thousands of letting agents out there, finding the best fit is the most important factor. Choosing the best letting agent can help ensure your property stays let for the long term.
If you’re considering starting out in lettings or an existing landlord, we’re eager to assist you. We can explore the range of services we offer and help you discover the ideal letting and management solution aligned with your goals as a landlord.
Reach out to us today at 01706 356633 or enquiries@reside.agency, and we’ll gladly arrange a discreet and confidential conversation.
Is it time to consider switching letting agents? As a landlord, your rental property likely stands as one of your most significant financial assets. Thus, ensuring it’s effectively let and managed is paramount.
If your current letting agent isn’t meeting your expectations and you’re contemplating a change but unsure where to begin, this comprehensive guide provides all the necessary insights to facilitate a smooth transition.
What you need
As a landlord, entrusting a letting agent involves a significant level of reliance, especially if you’ve opted for a ‘fully managed’ service where the agent oversees both the tenant and property throughout the tenancy on your behalf.
You depend on your letting agent to:
Secure a ‘good’ tenant who can consistently pay the rent on time and maintain your property.
Ensure compliance with all relevant legislation regarding both the tenancy and the property.
Maintain effective communication with you, keeping you informed of any legal changes impacting your interests.
Handle inspections, maintenance, and repairs promptly and economically.
Manage any tenancy transitions to minimize vacancy periods and sustain fair market rental rates.
Provide guidance on potential rent increases and advise on worthwhile property upgrades or modifications.
Your rental property stands as one of your most significant financial assets, emphasizing the importance of effective letting and management. Your agent’s primary role should involve ensuring consistent rental income, covering your expenses, and ideally generating a profit. Additionally, they should maintain the property’s condition, providing a safe and comfortable home for tenants while safeguarding its capital value.
If your agent is falling short of these expectations, you might be considering a switch. But how can you navigate this transition smoothly? Here’s a helpful guide:
Review Your Agreement Terms:
If your agent is solely responsible for finding tenants, giving notice should be straightforward. However, with fully managed services, there might be an initial tie-in period, delaying an immediate switch. Unless there’s a breach of obligations (see point 3!), the agreement will outline termination procedures for both parties and the required notice period.
Note: Many agreements stipulate continued fee payment to the agent as long as their introduced tenant occupies the property. Discuss this with your new agent to avoid overlapping management fees.
Secure a New Agent Before Giving Notice:
Unlike changing estate agents for property sales, timing is crucial when switching letting agents, especially if your property is currently tenanted. Ensuring continuous and proper management of your property is paramount.
Successfully managing a tenancy involves numerous systems, processes, and legal knowledge. Having a new agent lined up before giving notice ensures a seamless handover, minimizing the risk of overlooked tasks.
Key Considerations When Selecting a New Agent
Do they possess Client Money Protection insurance? (Legally required)
Are they members of a redress scheme? (Legally required)
Do they belong to a professional industry body with a Code of Conduct? (e.g., Propertymark or Safeagent)
How do they stay informed about legal changes in the industry?
What are their fees, particularly for tenancy renewals?
Do they have a track record of successfully letting and managing properties similar to yours?
Do they have an appealing website and effective marketing strategies?
What is their average time to let a property and average annual void period?
If possible, seek feedback from one or two of their current landlords.
These considerations provide valuable insight into the professionalism of the company and their capability to manage your property and tenants effectively. However, the ultimate point on your checklist is whether you feel a rapport with them. Since these are the individuals you and your tenants will interact with for the foreseeable future, possibly for years, liking their approach is crucial.
Once you’ve identified the agent you wish to transition to, it’s time to notify your current agent.
Communicate Your Reasons to Your Agent:
Open and amicable discussions often lead to the best resolutions. Clearly articulate your reasons for wanting to switch to your agent. Consider making a list of these reasons before initiating the conversation.
If your agent acknowledges the issues, they might be willing to negotiate regarding any contractual tie-ins, especially if their tenant remains in the property. For instance, you could propose a one-time ‘introduction’ fee instead of continuing monthly payments until the tenant vacates.
Importantly, ensure the old agent agrees to transfer the tenancy file to your new agent. This file should include tenant referencing information, deposit protection details, and gas check certificates. Also, confirm that they will liaise with the tenant to facilitate a seamless handover of rent payments and other responsibilities.
Ensure that any agreements reached with your agent are formally documented.
It’s crucial to note that every letting agent must be a member of either The Property Ombudsman or The Property Redress Scheme, as mandated by law. Both provide independent third-party dispute resolution services. If you’ve already discussed your reasons for leaving with your agent and have documented them, but the issues remain unresolved to your satisfaction, you can escalate the matter to the relevant redress scheme to seek resolution.
The Final Step
Engage Your New Agent
The last crucial step is to engage your new agent. Be transparent about why you’re choosing to switch to them and clearly outline your expectations for their service. From our experience, a successful landlord-agent relationship hinges on effective communication. It’s vital to establish this from the outset.
If you’re considering transitioning from your current agent, we’re eager to assist you. We can explore the range of services we offer and help you discover the ideal letting and management solution aligned with your goals as a landlord. Reach out to us today at 01706 356633 or enquiries@reside.agency, and we’ll gladly arrange a discreet and confidential conversation.
Are you thinking about making a change to where you live? If you no longer need all the rooms in your home, you might have decided to downsize into something smaller. Or perhaps it’s the opposite – you need more space, in which case, it could be time to upsize into a new place. On the other hand, if you love your home and it’s in the perfect spot, maybe you’re toying with the idea of getting the extra room you need by extending.
A report from UK Finance found that people stay in their homes for an average of 20 years, and selling and buying does tend to take time, money and effort. So, before you set the wheels of change in motion, try to look ten years ahead and think about how your needs might change over that time.
Whether you’re looking for more or less space, the clearer you can be about what you want and need from your new home – and why – the easier it will be to narrow down your options and find something that’s going to suit you well for the foreseeable future.
So let’s explore some of the options out there and what you need to consider as you move up or down the property ladder. You might even discover a great solution you hadn’t thought of before!
Extending or converting your existing home
If almost everything is perfect about your current home, but you just need a bit more space – perhaps a room you can use as an office, a bigger dining kitchen or extra bedrooms – it might be worth seeing if you could extend or re-jig the accommodation.
Two key things to consider here are:
Would the cost of transforming your home be reflected in an increase in value? You might not have any intention to move in the foreseeable future, but at some point you may want or need to sell. So, once you’ve got a good idea of what changes you’d like to make, it’s well worth asking a local agent to give you their opinion on how much the work could add to the price of your home. We’re always happy to help with this – just give us a call on 01706 356633.
The best way to add value is to increase the amount of usable space in your home, perhaps by extending to add a reception room and bedroom above, or converting a garage or loft into living space. But bear in mind that your immediate local area will have a ‘ceiling’ for market values – that’s a price that a home is unlikely to sell above, simply because of the size and type of other homes around it.
For instance, if you live in a road of mainly three- and four-bedroom homes with one or two reception rooms, it might not be worth increasing your accommodation to five bedrooms, three reception rooms and a granny flat. If that’s the kind of space you need, moving to an area that has more homes of a similar size might be a better option. Again, come and speak to us to find out what’s likely to be the best investment from a resale perspective.
And remember that the best extensions feel as though they’ve always been there, so if you do go ahead with works, it’s advisable to choose an architect who has experience in designing for your particular age and style of home. While you may need to pay a bit more for the best solution, it’s well worth the investment to keep a good flow and feel to the home.
How disruptive are the building works going to be? If you’re converting the loft, it might not be too intrusive, but if you’re extending, then parts of your home might be unusable for weeks or even months. In that case, you may want to think about moving out while the improvements are being made. Bear in mind that if you have to pay for an alternative temporary home, that’s going to add to the overall cost of the project.
Something else to consider is whether you could gain the extra space you need by building separate accommodation in the garden – assuming it’s big enough. If what you’re after is an office or guest annexe, there are some excellent self-contained units on the market that you could have up and running in under a month. Going down this route could be easier, cheaper and quicker than carrying out works on your home.
With any building project, it’s important to check with the local council whether planning permission is required and what building regulations you’ll need to comply with. And bear in mind that it could take up to eight weeks for the council to consider even straightforward planning applications, so factor this into your timescale.
Moving up the property ladder
If you need a bigger home and you’re ready for a change, or it’s not possible to extend where you live at the moment, then you’ve got a pretty open book of options. There could be plenty of homes for sale that are the right size, but how do you make sure you pick the one that’s really right for you?
Well, when you’re moving for a specific reason, it’s important to be led by your head and not your heart. It’s all-too easy to fall in love with a beautiful kitchen, a fabulous view or the perfect family room, but if you let your emotions chip away at the square footage you know you need, you could end up running out of space again in just a few years.
This is where an estate agent can really help. It’s worth spending some time speaking to them before you start viewing potential new homes, to explain exactly why you’re moving and the number of bedrooms, reception rooms and other spaces you need. Then they can make sure all the homes you view at least meet your minimum requirements, and you can be confident that anything you’re tempted by already ticks the size box. Give us a call and we can take you through what we’ve currently got on the market in your range – maybe one of them will be the perfect fit for you!
And if you’re prepared to do some work to turn your next purchase into your dream home, again, be clear with the agents you speak to about how much of a project you’d be happy to take on, and they should be able to show you a variety of homes with potential.
Downsizing to a smaller home
At the other end of the moving spectrum is downsizing. Maybe you’ve spent years having friends to stay, entertaining and making full use of all the rooms in your home, but now that whirl of activity has come to an end, and you just don’t need all the space you currently have. You might be moving to a much more expensive area for work or lifestyle reasons, and your money simply won’t stretch as far, or it could just be that you’ve decided you’d prefer a smaller home.
If you are looking to downsize, you might also want something you won’t have to spend much time and money maintaining. So, even if you’ve enjoyed living in period homes until now, it may be time to consider something modern that has guarantees and warranties and will be low-maintenance and energy efficient.
It’s also important to think about whether you want this downsizing step to be your last move. If so, it’s worth planning ahead and making a wishlist of everything you think you’re going to want in your new home. Although compromises sometimes have to be made when you move, if this is your ‘forever’ home, it should be as perfect as possible – even if it takes a little longer to find.
Whatever your reason for downsizing, it can be the trickiest move to make. Even though it might feel like the natural ‘next step’, the reality is that you’re not going to be able to take all your furniture and possessions with you. So, as well as cutting back on living space, you have to work out which things you really want to keep and what won’t be making the move with you. There are plenty of house clearance companies and auctioneers who will be happy to value the items you’ve decided to part with; then you can choose what to include in the sale and what you’d like to sell separately. And make sure your agent has a full list of fixtures and fittings with prices, so they can negotiate with buyers and hopefully help clear one job off your moving list!
Whether you’re upsizing, adapting your current home or downsizing, we’re always very happy to chat through your options and lend our expertise to help you make the right move. Just give us a call on 01706 356633 or email us on enquiries@reside.agency and we’ll get right back to you.
About Us
We are Rochdale’s fastest growing estate agency, not a corporate or a franchise, when you deal with Reside you are dealing with a family business.
