The area's longest established property management & letting agency

Information for Landlords

When you decide to use an agency to rent your investment property, your thoughts will revolve around cost, the cost of management fees, repairs, interest repayments and insurance etc.

A cost that most prospective and existing landlords sometimes forget, are the periods when the property is vacant commonly known as “voids”. This cost is tangible and just like the obvious cost above will not go away and will affect the performance of your investment.

The key to a successful property portfolio is high occupation. Simply put, to install a quality tenant quickly and maintain occupation thereafter. The way to maintain high occupancy is purely your choice of agency.

Agents who operate from a home base or small office offer very little in terms of exposure, marketing and do not have independent departments dealing with the various other issues for example accounts, marketing and rental processing. This would be like the captain of an aircraft serving tea and coffee to the passengers whilst flying the aircraft; I doubt he could do both at the time successfully. These agents may purport to offer you the best service available, however in reality it’s unlikely! The result being your property will be let later rather than sooner and the management will be poor at best.

Always look at the recourses of an agency and ask plenty of questions about their various systems, for example:

PPM Rentals Answer

Do you have an in house Chartered Accountant

Yes

How do you market your properties

Web/Office/Media

Do you have different departments

Yes

Do you have town centre offices

Yes

How long have you been established

15 Years

Do you have fidelity bonded client accounts

Yes

Do you have a financial controller

Yes

Do you have a dedicated marketing department

Yes

Do you have translation services

Yes

Do you have your own maintenance department

Yes

Do you have your own inventory clerks

Yes

Do I have my own point of contact

Yes

Do you offer No Let No Fees

Yes

Successful property management isn’t easy. However if the agency is well organised and the right people are doing the right jobs, you wont have a problem!

Letting Example

Your interest repayments are	500.00 per month
Insurance cost	020.00 per month
A maintenance fund, say	030.00 per month
Gas & Electric certificates	014.42 per month (185.00 per annum)
Total cost	564.42 per month

The above cost is fixed and as long as you own the property is there to stay!

If a poor agent is managing your property, he will not let it, or at best let it three months down the line! Using the above example, the property will make you a loss of £564.42 per month.

A good agent will have a small-unoccupied period at the start of the tenancy, normally two weeks, however future lettings should be back to back. Therefore the loss should be minimal and only at the initial letting stage.

Using the table below look at the commission differences below and judge for your self whether the cheap agent at 9% is value for money. That’s not to say all agents who charge 9% are poor, however the level of fees charged by an agency will reflect the service received. The analogy “you get what you pay for” is true in all cases, property management included.

Management fee differences based on rent received over 12 months

Management fees

	Low Fee	Medium/Low	Medium	Medium/High	High
	9%	10%	11%	12%	13%
Annual Fee	540	600	660	720	780
Fee Diff	0	60	120	180	240
Loss 3 Mth	1693.26

•