UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi All,

I hope you won't deem this as inappropriate.

I've only been hovering here just lately, but I hoped you may still find it in your hearts (and time!) to help me a little.

Through choice, I have been a Landlady for 5 years fully managing my property.  I have experienced two tenant finds, one rent arrears, one eviction and numerous (albeit minor in the scheme of things) maintenance issues.

I would be the first to say I think I've had it easy, my rent arrears and eviction went smoothly, all arrears were brought up to date and they left as per the section 21 notice, and my current tenants could be classed as ideal.


I do not intend to fill this forum with advertisements and spam but as a brief introduction, I am looking to start my own company incorporating my accounting knowledge with my passion for property.  I intend to offer all levels of property management on a much more personal level, along with bookkeeping, accounting and tax services.

As I only really have my experience to draw from (my Mother used to deal in student lets) I've compiled a few questions to try and extend my knowledge.

Ideally I would like to look at the range of services landlords feel are lacking from agents currently on the market.

I would really appreciate your most honest answers no matter how harsh you feel they may be.  The more truthful you can be, the better an understanding I can gain.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions. (If you do not wish to answer the suggested questions, any advice would be greatly appreciated).


Here it goes!

1.   What has been your best experience as a Landlord?


2.   What has been your worst experience as a Landlord?


3.   Do you currently use a letting agent?


4.   Please could you explain why you do/do no use an agent?


5.   If you do use an agent, what level of service do you have?


6.   Do you feel your needs are met?


7.   Have you been let down by an Agent?
YES      NO

8.   If so, please could you explain how and why?


9.   Do you or your agent take control of securing the deposit and providing the relevant paperwork to the tenant?

10.   What would you like to see from an agent?

11.   Would you consider using an agent if your answer to the above was achieved?


12.   Do you or your agent create an inventory breakdown?  If so, how detailed was it? E.g. pictures, description, signed


13.   Do you or your agent carry out property inspections?


14.   Do you accept all "types" of tenants i.e. Professional, DSS, pet owners


15.   Length of time as a Landlord:   (Less than 1yr)    (1-3yrs)   (3-5yrs)             (5-10yrs)        (10yrs+)


16.   Is there any other advice/detail/experience you would be able to share to help in my research?


Thank you very much!!

Well... I'm going sound dead harsh here, but my input is genuine.

I think the last thing the world needs is another Agent starting out. I am pretty sure that most Letting Agents think they will be different and better than the shower of <bleep> Agents that are out there already, parasitically surviving by playing both sides of the equation. However, experience tells us (certainly me) that there are very, very few good Letting Agents out there... so it must all go wrong for them, somewhere along the way. Surely not all these Agents can start out thinking "here's a way to make lots of people unhappy"? It can't be true.

I've had experience of numerous Letting Agents... I've not yet had a good experience. Therefore I only use Agents when I need to (for me that means I employ them for a one-off fee) to do Tenant Find for me. All that really means is putting up an advertisement on the big portals and taking the initial contact from prospective Tenants. I do the other stuff... including further contact, viewings, document creation, deposit protection and ongoing management.

I don't seem your post as inappropriate, but I just can't go through 16 questions and write you an essay. Maybe others will... but the idea of being a Landlord is to make money from little effort... we're happy to help others, sometimes, but not when there's other cool things to be doing and an essay is required.  For example, I've just got a 16 x 2 LCD display working with a PIC16F1825 and JAL... that is cool!

Best of luck... don't rush into it. Maybe don't do it at all.

Quote from: Hippogriff on October 15, 2014, 02:12:22 PM
For example, I've just got a 16 x 2 LCD display working with a PIC16F1825 and JAL... that is cool!

Seriously off thread, but I cant resist  , I have just written my own libraries to do this with ATMega328 and with Raspberry Pi. Yes cool :-)

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
Hi All,

I hope you won't deem this as inappropriate.

Hi I dont really like questionaires but, I will say that I have always been untrusting of car salesmen and estate agents. So for that reason I would never go near an agent unless I really got seriously stuck.

I am sure you are OK, but I dont trust any of the others 

Quote from: Martha on October 15, 2014, 02:18:01 PM

Quote from: Hippogriff on October 15, 2014, 02:12:22 PM
For example, I've just got a 16 x 2 LCD display working with a PIC16F1825 and JAL... that is cool!

Seriously off thread, but I cant resist  , I have just written my own libraries to do this with ATMega328 and with Raspberry Pi. Yes cool :-)

An HD44780?

Quote from: Hippogriff on October 15, 2014, 02:33:11 PM

Quote from: Martha on October 15, 2014, 02:18:01 PM

Quote from: Hippogriff on October 15, 2014, 02:12:22 PM
For example, I've just got a 16 x 2 LCD display working with a PIC16F1825 and JAL... that is cool!

Seriously off thread, but I cant resist  , I have just written my own libraries to do this with ATMega328 and with Raspberry Pi. Yes cool :-)

An HD44780?

Absolutely -  up to 20x4 

Man, that's a lot of questions. I'll do my best to answer, but I'm going to keep my answers short.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
1.   What has been your best experience as a Landlord?

No one experience stands out. I just like knowing I'm building equity each month.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
2.   What has been your worst experience as a Landlord?

Dealing with non-paying tenants that don't give a crap.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
3.   Do you currently use a letting agent?

No.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
4.   Please could you explain why you do/do no use an agent?

Bad experiences: poor service and ridiculous prices.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
5.   If you do use an agent, what level of service do you have?

N/A

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
6.   Do you feel your needs are met?

N/A

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
7.   Have you been let down by an Agent?
YES      NO

Yes.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
8.   If so, please could you explain how and why?

I told them to find me a working professional tenant, but they offered me a single mother receiving benefits, and then got annoyed at me because I independently found my own working professional before they were able to find me one.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
9.   Do you or your agent take control of securing the deposit and providing the relevant paperwork to the tenant?

N/A

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
10.   What would you like to see from an agent?

Honesty and at a fair price.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
11.   Would you consider using an agent if your answer to the above was achieved?

No, but it would make life easier for those that do.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
12.   Do you or your agent create an inventory breakdown?  If so, how detailed was it? E.g. pictures, description, signed

Yes.
Pictures, checklist, description and signed.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
13.   Do you or your agent carry out property inspections?

Yes, I do.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
14.   Do you accept all "types" of tenants i.e. Professional, DSS, pet owners

No.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
15.   Length of time as a Landlord:   (Less than 1yr)    (1-3yrs)   (3-5yrs)             (5-10yrs)        (10yrs+)

5- 10 years.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
16.   Is there any other advice/detail/experience you would be able to share to help in my research?

It's a saturated market.

Thank you very much guys,

Quote from: Hippogriff on October 15, 2014, 02:12:22 PM
I don't seem your post as inappropriate, but I just can't go through 16 questions and write you an essay. Maybe others will... but the idea of being a Landlord is to make money from little effort... we're happy to help others, sometimes, but not when there's other cool things to be doing and an essay is required.  For example, I've just got a 16 x 2 LCD display working with a PIC16F1825 and JAL... that is cool!

Best of luck... don't rush into it. Maybe don't do it at all.

I understand -  it was relatively painful writing the questions but I wanted to provide a guide as to what sort of things I was looking to discover, thank you for your input, I need to get out of the 9-5 for other people.

I am aware that I will need to build a reputation based on word of mouth due to the quantity of bad letting agents out there, I am also aware that the more I take on, the more stretched I become and there lies the risk of becoming as careless as the other agents....

Quote from: Martha on October 15, 2014, 02:20:31 PM

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 12:47:47 PM
So for that reason I would never go near an agent unless I really got seriously stuck.

I'm a little bit of a hypocrite in the sense I would never trust an agent to look after my property, however I know I trust myself...I'm hopeful through word of mouth and people who need agents due to distance or ability or knowledge I can make a success out of my company. - Thank you

Quote from: propertyfag on October 15, 2014, 02:53:25 PM
It's a saturated market.

Thank you so much for answering, short and sweet is great I've got no silly ideas that I can change the market or peoples perceptions of agents, I just hope I can prove to be reliable and trust worthy to others.

Quote from: firefly2184 on October 15, 2014, 03:17:44 PM...I am also aware that the more I take on, the more stretched I become and there lies the risk of becoming as careless as the other agents....

This is it, isn't it?

I manage 5 properties (some mine, some owned by my partner)... soon to be 6 (if this vendor pulls his finger out). I reckon I could manage 10 on my own... then it'd have potential to become too much like a 9 to 5. For the moment, with 5, there are completely quiet days... I like those. However, there are certainly days when people want you in two places at once (not so bad for me as my properties are localised) but even then it's down to time and availability and suchlike. As a professional Letting Agent... how many do you think you would want to manage? I am expecting it needs to be many tens or hundreds before you can make a good living out of this... but hundreds is obviously too much for one person. If you maintain a small number of managed properties to retain the special service... well... you'll probably not be making enough.

So... genuine question... what's your target number of properties? And, if you reached that, would you want to expand and manage more?

My target is 10. At least 5 of my own that I'll provide that special level of service to... my partner's Tenants can get a second-class service from me! Fnyack-fnyack!

Interesting how you treat your tenants separate from your partners, Hippo. Do you also have prenups in place?

Yeah, I'd do anything for my Tenants.

My partner dumped her Tenants on me, because "I'm more professional at the Landlording gig"... so go figure. She was just about to let herself be liable for deposit non-protection some time ago... I'm glad I caught it and we decided to take the sharp knives away from her. I reviewed her previous home-grown Tenancy Agreement (let's call it an AST to be kind) and it ran to the heady lengths of 2 pages... 10pt.

She's happier now. Even her Tenants are. 

I could easily manage up to 40 dependant on the tenants in situ.

Where I live there is a high number of DSS tenants and therefore the number of properties I would be able to manage efficiently would probably be less than 40, in fact probably halved, if I took on all that "type".

I don't have any plans to expand down the route where I employ staff.  I want to make a reasonable amount of money without being beholden to an employer or having the responsibility of staff.

I also have the accounting side of my business and aim to have a few cllients on that basis (unrelated to property).  Working for myself means I can attend tenant problems and still supply a P&L to my clients.  It all boils down to time management, if a tenant has a problem at lunchtime, I'll have to finish the accounts at dinner time for example.

My aim is to be able to offer an all-round service for a select few landlords, hopefully avoiding the dodgy ones that will land me with more problems than a problematic tenant!

I have very good relationships with quite a few local tradesmen covering all trades and having discussed my business plan with each of them, both they and I are happy to work together pulling trades together and providing good relaible services to landlords.  (I am aware that not everything always goes to plan and have got a back-up plan for those instances).

I've got to give it a go, only regret what you didn't do eh?! 

Then all that is left is to decide on a name and a logo...

Maybe there is a chance it could work?

I wish you luck.

I have toyed with the idea myself, and have come to the conclusion I am better at turnarounds, set up, and eviction.

So I want to start a service locally to help landlords NOT use an Agent.

So instead of the tenant phoning the Agent, the Agent phoning the landlord, the tenant phones the Landlord, and they phone me?

Same number of steps, but they get results.

So when a void comes up, I'll go in and decorate and organize the certs etc, even find tenants, but do it on an hourly rate and materials basis.

I can win I think as I have experience, and understand the quality needed to let a place.

What do you people think?

1. Do you like Jam

2. If so what sort of Jam is best

3. When you wipe do you a) never fold, b) fold once, c) fold twice d) get shit on your fingers.

4. If you were an animal which one would you be

5. What is your favorite color

6. What is your favorite film

7. Do you like anchovies

8. When you cough and a bit of sick comes out do you spit or swallow?

9. Spit or Swallow....... Bob Carolgees and Amazons........... retro joke.

10. Will you be my friend.... please

You need reporting to a Moderator but, well, what would be the point?

For three, it's all four... as in a, then d, then b, then d, then c.

I am always a) followed by d).