Uh you’ve been our landlord since 2017 Um and I just thought it’s given you plenty of opportunity to see how we perform and um just really wanted to find out why you changed agents in 2017 Well um it was more about having an agent than a changing
one Um I had had a pretty nasty experience uh with a tenant beforehand and it went to court or at least we had to I had to get bailiffs out so it was a bit messy and I realized that I needed to have someone look after the flat and I live abroad So um it just
seemed the lesson for me was cutting corners can actually be quite expensive and so I decided that in fact rather than cutting corners to save money um what I would actually do is um invest the money in having somebody that I could trust to look after the flat and find the tenants that I needed because obviously doing it from here because I live in spain is always it was always a bit more
Yeah and did you find us by a referral or online Through an ad I think it was through referral actually because I put a shout out on facebook just to find see if I could find someone that would be willing and because I didn’t want to do it through the usual um the usual channels I wanted to I’m a big believer in in
some small business and so I didn’t want to do it through the usual commercial channels and I think I put a facebook um shout out and someone recommended you So we then had a chat and it went from there Really Yeah Yeah and that was how many years or four years Almost four years 3.5 years ago Yeah All time flies Yeah And so now you’ve had time to work with us Um
can I ask you specific questions on different aspects of the process that you have gone through So for example how have you found us with based on your last experience with choosing and betting tenants Well gosh life is a world is a very different place than um it used to be So you can imagine with the
coronavirus and everything else that’s been going on having somebody that convert people even more important now than ever because of fellow because of people not being able to pay because jobs being lost and that sort of thing And I’ve been super super super happy with how you vetted my um clients and tenants because the natural fact I’ve never actually had a problem
So um the fact that you managed to get six months in advance um for the first uh well actually not first one of the clients that we had that was amazing and they’ve always paid So I’m very very happy with the way that you’ve been vetting the people that have ended up living in my flat Fantastic And I mean obviously it just means that you’ve not had problems who have not had evictions and you know
how costly evictions are clearly from your previous experience 100 100% rent roll the rent arrears Yeah So it’s been quite positive for you in that in that respect Oh God Um Absolutely and I really know that that my flats in amazing hands and I can go to bed at night not worrying about anything because I know that you’ll deal with it And we’ve had I
know you and I have had quite a few things happen like gutters and issues and But it always gets sorted and so I know that I’ve got somebody on my team that’s always gonna be there 100% Um who’s got my back and who’s on on the ground So um yeah I’m I’m really you know if investing in somebody to manage my property means I sleep better at night then so be it Yeah Which
leads which leads me nicely into the the the question of in terms of maintenance how have you found have you found we’ve done the right things for you in terms of getting the right price for for the jobs And is there any particular situation that comes to mind where you think yes you know I think that if they haven’t been handling it things could have been much worse Um sure I
mean the gutter was was an example example of that Um And uh I can’t think of anything that that you know comes to mind that I would say that if you hadn’t been handling it it would have been um it would have been better so I would just leave it at saying that having you handle
whatever needs to be handled is once again another way of me being able to sleep well at night because I know that you’re on the ground I don’t have worry about dealing with all that sort of stuff and finding somebody to do it for me and this and that and the other and you know admin takes up a lot of my admin takes up a lot of time and so having somebody that can deal with all of that who’s got their team who’s who’s done their homework and is able to get you
know um good people for sound price is almost like well you know I don’t have to do the homework it’s already been done for me So it just means I get to spend more time with my son less time having headaches and I get to sleep better at night Yeah And also just to add this you know we’re quite open to use suggesting contractors we don’t limit you to uh using our own contractors
In fact we don’t have the specific contractors we always go out to get prices to make sure it’s always fair and equitable for yourself Yeah and that’s what I love about you to know is that um I never feel cheated or like you’re wanting to like it’s it just feels like you’re doing the very best by your by your client so that’s the sense I get um
Yeah So I don’t know what Yeah And so what you know I know that whenever I call you and we’ve got something to sort out it’s always very useful to have somebody to bounce ideas off and um to make decisions that way because often you know when you rent out your property um you’re gonna have to make decisions and when you’re in your head it’s very difficult to know what to do and but having
somebody who’s already got to know how who’s who’s been doing this for years but also you can bounce ideas off then you can actually get a better understanding and clarity about what to do next And in terms of regulation and compliance do you feel we keep you updated and we do what we need to do to make sure that property is compliance because that’s it’s a big USB for us So we always like to know that we are
we are fulfilling that Absolutely And you send me messages all the time and then I ask you have we done that Yeah we’ve already done it Okay So yeah now leading on to the dreaded question you know a lot of agents have a range of offering fees wise and we we
just want to find out from you whether you think the value for money especially the fact that we we billed quarterly fees allowing you a bit of cash flow you know from the beginning of the tenancy How do you feel about that I hate you for free I get it I get it
as I said before um when you don’t pay it can actually have you pay more in the long run So um I’m learning from my perspective that often when I kind of get into this sort of um that I don’t want to pay I kind of have to have a conversation with myself because I have recently learned this again
that often or sometimes just because you don’t you want to have the extra bit of cash There are very good reasons behind why you should pay for something that in the long run might cost you more if you don’t So um I had to recently learn that again and so I would say that based on what you do
how you do it um that it’s very good value for money Um Yeah so no complaints here Yeah Good Um um I know we talked touched on the covid pandemic briefly um and we’ve had it coming up to a year and we generally overall
across our court further we’ve managed to um Achieve 100% rent roll with all our properties no evictions no rent rent payment agreement that kind of thing Would you say that um the guidance given to you from us in terms of how to deal with these matters has contributed to those facts So for example when the government um
mandates or issues legislation on certain things and then we spend time interpreting that as to how it will benefit you the pros the cons and then how to then implement it within the tenancy Would you say you found that helpful Yeah very much so Um And once again you know apart from the I think it was two months or three months that we had with no one living in the property
Um We’ve managed to um circumvent that which has been incredible Um And so with that in mind you know have it once again having somebody just give you the information you need to make the decisions you have to make makes it much much easier because it’s like a filter that you don’t have to go searching for Plus um once again it’s the same thing is is like if you’re not up
to date then that could cost you money Um So you know being in compliance is always really important with regards to because I’ve I’ve had situations where I haven’t been complying necessarily and it’s cost me money So once again it’s just space and and time that you create by having somebody on your team like you So I’d much rather I value that over having to do the work myself
And um do you would you say that it makes a difference that we’re not local to your property because we’re not local to your property 3 3.5 years down the line How do you feel about that Now It makes absolutely no difference at all Um None whatsoever Like you still manage to go to the property when you need to you still manage to get the tenants that you needed to get in and show them around as far as I can tell it’s not made
any any difference at all So local doesn’t mean result as far as I can tell based on the way you are Um you get the results regardless of whether you’re local or not And I guess the fact that is that in this day and age you know transacting business online more so over the last year it’s
just almost the law it doesn’t mean geographically it doesn’t really make that much No it doesn’t it doesn’t tool and um you know I I almost feel like state agents are becoming obsolete They don’t not quite sure where they kind of fit in the game Um Especially now I mean I you know I can imagine that
well everything is online I mean most people are looking for properties online I know I did when I bought the property um Yeah so I I just if you work online and you don’t necessarily have to you know pay rent with massive like office in some high street then according the costs are going to be a much much lower Mhm
And the final final question for you would you recommend are fully managed services as the UK and overseas landlords Sure Absolutely I would yeah so that’s it in a nutshell Thank you for your time and thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you and hope we look forward to many more years of
thank you so much You’re welcome
