The answer might surprise you. The solution is at your fingertips
Okay, so you’re a great buy-to-let landlord. You’re not like the slum landlords that make up half of a popular television programme. You collect your rent on time, and your property is in a good state of repair. There are no rats. The doors are on their hinges, and locks work. White goods are in good condition, and the property is warm in the winter. You’re in good shape. At least, you think so.
Contrary to misguided opinion, the biggest whinge that tenants have about their landlords isn’t any of the above. It’s lack of communication and, in particular, unreturned calls (according to an ARLA Twitter poll conducted recently).
Are you too busy to return a tenant’s call?
We all lead busy lives, and many buy-to-let landlords find themselves busier than most people. Investing in a property, getting it tenanted, and sitting back while the rent pours in. That’s the misconception of many first-time buy-to-let investors.
Then you get a call from your tenant. You promise yourself that you will return the call, but life gets in the way. Before you know it, the day has disappeared. And the next. Then it’s a week. Well, if the tenant hasn’t tried to get in touch again, it can’t have been too urgent, can it? So, you forget about it, as the tenant has.
The next rent payment comes in on time, and you’re convinced that all is well, unaware that the tenant has made emergency repairs to their heating system and its about to get very expensive for you. Worse still, you’ve ‘lost the tenant’. They’ve probably already started looking for a new place to live. All because you were too busy to call them back.
How do you feel about your current letting agent?
It’s not only tenants who get peeved at the lack of a callback. Like the ARLA survey results, one of the major complaints we hear from new buy-to-let landlord clients is that their previous letting agent never returned calls. And if this is how they act towards the landlord, how will they act with tenants?
As a property investor, you want to reap the rewards of your investment without the hard work of day-to-day investment property management. You pay an investment property manager to do this for you. It should be worth every penny. But if your property is managed by a letting agent who ignores your calls, how is the rest of their service?
Are they likely to be on top of your tenant, and your property? Or will you suffer from excess and unnecessary property damage, expensive maintenance issues, and a high rate of tenant turnover?
The key to great investment property management is regular contact
The conclusion you can draw from the ARLA survey is that clients want – and need – regular contact. It’s not about massaging egos, it’s about providing a great service. Your tenant wants to know that you care, and you do that by keeping in touch.
Your property needs constant contact, too. You need to know that it is being looked after, and able to undertake maintenance requirements as soon as possible. By doing so, you’ll benefit from cheaper running costs and a happier tenant.
When we manage your property, you could benefit from our service of regular property inspections and comparison to previous property inventories. We also contact tenants at regular intervals, just to touch base. Contact is caring.
But, of course, none of this would be enough if we treated you in the same way as some letting agents treat their landlord customers. You are our client, too.
We pledge to keep in touch with you. If there are issues related to your property, we’ll speak to you about them and decide the best and most effective course of action. We’ll keep you informed of market developments, and source top craftspeople and tradespeople to carry out maintenance and repairs. You’ll have a hassle-free life as a buy-to-let property investor, as we relieve you of the day-to-day tasks of being a buy-to-let landlord.
The delivery on our promises is just one reason why we are one of the fastest-growing investment property managers in the UK today. Contact one of the Ezytrac team today on +44 01522 503 717, and join hundreds of other buy-to-let landlords who are benefitting from the Ezytrac way of managing investment property.
Yours in effortless property management,
Brett Alegre-Wood MARLA MNAEA