How good is your letting agent?

Unfortunately you only really find this out when something goes wrong! The rental market is very buoyant and over the years the quality of tenant has improved significantly and there is definitely less of a stigma regarding renting a home. It can provide more flexibility and also enable people to live in properties they perhaps couldn’t buy due to the lack of a substantial deposit. So as a result finding a tenant is often the easy part, and to be honest, as long as your letting agent is on Rightmove and Zoopla there is a good chance any letting agent can find a tenant relatively quickly. The tenant then moves in and pays the rent regularly and there we have it – your letting agent is great, or are they…?The true test of their greatness is when there is a leak, storm damage to the property or the tenant loses their job. This is when the cheap fee they may have charged, the tales of great management experience goes out of the window. The management of a portfolio of properties is very labour intensive and requires a team of professionals who will proactively deal with issues on your behalf.This is when the agent with 3/4/5 members of staff really struggle. They are often busy with their priority of getting new properties onto the market, this will include sales properties also, carrying out viewings for sales and rental properties often leaving just one person in the office to man the phones, and guess what – your phone calls, the tenants phone calls, the calls from insurance companies and contractors will often go unanswered, which is the most frustrating part of the problem as you will need answers/re-assurance and help, when things are going wrong.This is at the point when you realise that an agent who charges a more realistic fee (not one just to win your business) will have the capacity to employ more staff, who are better trained, and have experience in actually resolving problems, not just selling a mythical cut price service that will ultimately fail under any stress.Any agent who is trying to survive on cut price letting fees will also be trying to bolster their income by trying to sell properties also – so their 3/4/5 members of staff really are going to be overstretched and will be pulled in several directions.At Hathways we always have around 10 to 15 people on the payroll and we have separate departments for Rentals and Sales, in addition to a separate accounts department. We genuinely are large enough to cope but small enough to care. Our rental team are all local people dealing with local properties and many local landlords. Our reputation is vitally important to us, as many of our landlords are friends and businesses’ in the local community and you can call in to see us at our offices which are situated within the same area as our properties – not a remote call centre.If you are considering changing from your current letting agent you don’t have to wait until the end of a tenancy – please contact us and we can take you through the process and ensure you start receiving the quality service you and your property deserve.