Landlords on boarding

This is the term we use for new business – signing up new landlords, uploading all their documents and certificates onto our system, ensuring that both they and their properties are compliant, dealing with the documentation and compliance surrounding any existing tenancies and signing and agreeing our terms and our agency contract. It sounds simple – just a few signatures, what can be complicated about that? However, it’s an important process and forms the basis upon which both sides understand each other. It can all happen very quickly, where everyone is motivated towards speed, but it’s significance should not be overlooked or understated.

We will be looking at two things here, when we are onboarding landlords– compliance and business plan. In terms of compliance, we like to break this down into 3 areas (i) Compliant landlord (ICO, Insurances, Mortgage type etc.) (ii) Property Compliance (certification, HHSRS, any licensing requirements, risk assessments etc.) (iii) Tenant and Tenancy compliance. In terms of business plan, it’s here that we look at any overarching concepts, projects, desires, or plans, which affect your property or portfolio. Two great and recent examples of this are of two individual landlords, who are lovely landlord clients of ours. The first is a property investor who had an absolute HMO nightmare. He is a portfolio landlord, who had stopped investing in HMOs because “they just aren’t worth the hassle…when you equate the time, stress, and extra maintenance, they just don’t make sense.” He passed the management of his remaining HMOs over to us, from another agent and we were able to make some adjustments for him.

We re-modelled some of the rooms; filled his empty rooms, thereby correcting his void situation; found the problem tenants and served the correct eviction notices and replaced them with good quality tenants; hired a cleaner; set up effective working relationships with the tenants and managed the properties correctly. It wasn’t an easy or “painless” process, but it turned a nightmare situation around, into a positive (both in terms of stress, anxiety and cashflow) situation. Just recently, the investor in question has come back to us, to discuss other HMOs that he is looking to develop, as he now has confidence in the model again. The second example is of a landlord, with a flat in the centre of Bristol, who wants to use it for himself and his family for part of the year. We were able to discuss his plans and look at different tenant types and how this might work for him.

The message here is, to speak to your agent as early as you can because that way, they can add real value. Our portfolio landlords often come to us at the planning stage, and this is great, because here we can discuss design, layout, refurb and tenant type with them. We can look at design that differentiates and adds real value and help avoid costly mistakes and use our knowledge and experience to help future proof their assets.

• It's also crucial to remember that the onboarding process is not just about information that your agent needs – it’s about you, your property, and the service you want! We spoke earlier about your business plan and lettings should be the cornerstone of that plan. The onboarding stage is a fact-finding mission for you too and a great chance to ask those all-important questions:

• • • • • • • • • • What’s their process for ensuring your property won’t be underlet? Do they send out a standard notice every year and “stick their fingers in the air” or are they more data driven? This is important because, on average, when we take on management, we usually increase the rent roll by 12%

• Tenant retention – what are their stats and averages here? The national average is 9 months, ours is 14 – they should have this figure to hand because it means that they are tracking it and using it as a key metric, as we are.

• Management costs – how do they deal with maintenance? We try, wherever possible, to fix maintenance issues over the phone, to save landlords money and have videos for tenants on standard issues.

• Ask them about their inspection process – how regular? How long do they take? What are they looking for?

Do they encourage tenants to be present? This is really important because a 5-minute inspection that just checks that the house is still standing, is not going to protect you or your tenants. • Quiz them about compliance and regulations (there are 178 pieces of these) and how proactive are they about this pivotal area of lettings?

• And last, but probably the most important, do you feel that they have the skills, knowledge and experience to be your lettings partner? Are they a friendly face that will field your tenant calls and collect your rent or do they also understand the importance of compliance, have the ability to manage your properties and your tenants safely and effectively and will be proactive in keeping you abreast of the ever-changing legislation and advising, in good time, accordingly? This part of the process is your opportunity to find out – not only is the letting agent onboarding you – you are also onboarding them!

Be proactive, ask the questions and make sure that you come away feeling happy and content with the answers. We love talking property and lettings and when we hear landlords say, “I have a few questions…” it is music to our ears and we always respond with “fire away, ask us anything, we are an open book.” A good, local, agent is worth their weight in gold and should have the answers to your questions at their fingertips. The onboarding process should be a two-way process - get it right and enjoy all that comes with having an experienced and knowledgeable lettings partner, who is every bit as invested in your success as you are!