What Is Property Management?
Investing in property can be an exciting and rewarding venture, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges. Property management is a concept you’ll need to understand whether you’re a first-time or seasoned investor. It’s the backbone of any successful property investment, ensuring your properties are well-maintained, tenants are satisfied, and your investment continues to grow.
What Is Property Management?
Property management refers to property operation, control, maintenance, and oversight. It involves a combination of responsibilities, from finding and screening tenants to dealing with maintenance issues and ensuring timely rent collection. Essentially, it’s about maximising the value of your property while reducing the stress and effort involved in day-to-day operations.
Property management can be handled in two ways:
- DIY (Do It Yourself): Some investors choose to manage their properties personally. While this offers complete control, it requires significant time and effort. For overseas investors, this has huge limitations.
- Professional Property Management: A company that will take care of everything while you enjoy passive income from your investments.
Why Is Property Management Crucial for your Investment?
For first-time investors and seasoned property buyers alike, property management is a key factor in protecting your investment and ensuring its long-term success.
Supporting tenants takes many forms but includes things like:
- Ensuring utility and council tax liabilities are set up correctly
- Providing instruction on the appropriate use and care of appliances and facilities
- Diagnosing maintenance issues
- Managing contractors
- Handling insurance policies and claims
- Managing service charges and ground rent
- Inspecting properties
- Negotiating deposit deductions
- Reducing voids by having cleaning and repairs completed urgently between tenants
Should You Hire a Professional Property Management Company?
For first-time investors, deciding whether to hire a professional property management company can be a big decision.
Benefits of Hiring a Property Management Company
- Saves Time: Professionals take care of the entire process, giving you more time to focus on expanding your portfolio or other responsibilities.
- Expertise: Property managers have in-depth knowledge of the market and can provide strategic advice to maximise your ROI.
- Legal Support: They ensure your property complies with legal and regulatory requirements.
- Tenant Relations: Property managers excel at maintaining positive tenant relationships, which is a key factor in retaining quality renters.
How to Choose the Right Property Manager
If you decide to hire a property manager, selecting the right one is vital. Consider the following tips when choosing a property management company:
- Experience: Look for companies with extensive experience managing properties similar to yours.
- References: Ask for testimonials or contact references directly to gauge the quality of service.
- Transparency: Ensure they provide clear reports on financials, maintenance, and tenant management.
- Communication: Choose a company that is responsive and communicates effectively. A good property manager keeps you informed without overwhelming you with unnecessary details.
- Fees: Make sure their fees and terms are clearly outlined before signing any contracts.
At Settio, our property management team is the largest in the business, and we manage the day-to-day of thousands of properties for our investors both UK and overseas. The top priority for our team is to ensure your investments remain compliant with evolving UK and local legislation and hold all required certifications to be rented out. While taking care of those essentials, we support tenants 24/7, 365 days a year throughout their stay.
Our team work closely with building management companies and concierge teams to ensure tenants have the best experience while being held accountable for their responsibilities in caring for their home. This all contributes to Settio’s fantastic renewal rate, with most tenants choosing to stay with us long-term.
All of this is accomplished to minimise any inconvenience to our investors so they can sit back and relax, trusting that everything is being taken care of on their behalf. That’s why we’re rated 4.9* on Trustpilot, customer service is at the heart of everything we do.
If you’re looking for a new property management company or thinking about investing and want to discuss the benefits of having an experienced team guide you, get in touch today and speak to one of our consultants.
