Management agents are popping up in more places than ever. There are roughly 22,000 firms in the UK that deal with residential property management! There is also a statistic that states 67% of landlords who have used managing agents before are unhappy with the service they have received! That’s why it’s really important for landlords to be aware of the contract they’re about to enter into to ensure that they are receiving the best service they can.

Location

The first step in choosing the right agent is to ensure they cover the area(s) of your rental property. Property Management is the art of organisation and if property managers are located too far from your property, it may lead to a less efficient service. Some management agents have over 200 properties on their books that they manage, and you have to consider their ability to provide a consistently effective service for yourself and your tenants.

The whole point of appointing a management agent is to release the burden of visiting your property for emergencies and inspections, so the last thing you want is for your tenants to be complaining that their issues are not being resolved quickly enough or that they can’t get in touch with the agents.

Communication

When it comes to choosing the right management agent, bigger is not always better. More often than not, Aksum Lets run into landlords that are unhappy with their previous agents due to a lack of communication. As mentioned in the paragraph above, some agencies manage over 200 properties and if they haven’t got the right management systems in place, they will struggle to keep up with all of the enquiries and/or issues that tenants may be having. It may be worth considering a smaller agent in order to receive a more efficient and personable service for managing your property.

Reviews

Reviews are a crucial part of choosing the right management agent. It goes without saying that if a lot of people are unhappy with the service of a certain agent, but a lot of landlords are happy with the service of another agent, the landlord will most likely choose the one that all of the landlords are raving about. If you know other people that use management agents for their properties, speak to them about who they are using. In addition to this, check Google pages for testimonials and call the agents with the best reviews.

Tailored Packages

Most of the time, management agents have certain packages which they offer their landlords, whether they would be fully hands-off packages or partly hands-off packages. At Aksum Lets, we like to offer our landlords only what they need. As a result, we are able to tailor our packages to the needs of each individual landlord as not all landlords are the same. Some landlords prefer not to have to think at all about their property whilst other landlords may like to keep some portion of control over the management of their property.

For landlords, this is really important to consider as you do not want to be overcharged for a service that you may not actually need. Think about what you can take care of and then speak to agents about building a personalised package for you.

Accreditations

Sometimes, it may slip our minds to check some of the most important things when it comes to choosing a service. In this case, it would be accreditations. Management agents have a list of schemes that they have to be a part of in order to legally trade. This would include being a part of a government approved letting agency redress scheme, which agents have to abide by. In short, it means your management agent should provide a good and fair service. Click here to see the list of redress schemes which are accepted. The agent only has to be part of one of these.

In addition, your agent should be part of a client money protection scheme that is also government approved. This is to ensure that management agents do not misuse the money received from rental payments that they collect for their landlords. If you are signing a property management contract with an agent, it should state in their terms which scheme they are with and if you are dubious, you have a right as the landlord to ask for proof of them being a part of this scheme. Click here to see the list of government approved client money protection schemes.

Conclusion

When combined, all of the above are really important points to consider when choosing a suitable management agent for your property(ies). Aksum Lets work with landlords in Liverpool, Essex, London and Kent. We are fully accredited, and have 4.9 stars on our reviews section on our Google Page. We offer tailored packages, and provide a very good service that offers full transparency and true value for money.