In the past, when life was less frantic than it is today, many people enjoyed long-term relationships with professional people who they relied on for expert help and advice in their various professions.
Doctors and solicitors were two of the professions that enjoyed long-term relationships with their patients. In the days before large medical and clinical practices, it was not unusual for a GP to know several generations of the same family and administer medical care for them for many years.
The legal profession also typically enjoyed long-term relationships with their clients. Over the years they would oversee property transactions, help with the drawing up of wills and handle any number of business matters for their clients.
The benefits of a productive long-term relationship for patients and clients was the feeling of security in knowing they were dealing with someone who knew them and who they could trust. For doctors and solicitors, they benefited from knowing the history of their patients and clients. They knew exactly what was needed when dealing with them. This made their task easier and provided a satisfactory solution for their clients.
There is another profession that could offer the same benefits of a long relationship to their clients. Estate Agents provide expertise. They offer guidance in all the aspects of buying, selling, letting and managing property. Activities that if handled in the wrong way could prove disastrous to the finances of someone who has taken the wrong advice. Buying and selling a residential property is often the largest financial transaction many people will undertake during their lifetime.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]These are the most important things to check when choosing an estate or letting agent:-
- Are they experienced,
- Do they have in-depth knowledge of their subject
- Are they members of a professional body
- Are they trustworthy – this is perhaps the hardest to prove
It is therefore important to listen to feedback from other people of their experiences with certain agents. Be sure to meet senior individuals from the firm you are likely to choose, before making up your mind.
So, who are the people who could benefit from a long-standing relationship with their estate agents?
Vendors
People who wish to sell their property would benefit from knowing their preferred estate agent over a number of years. This will give them confidence that he or she has in-depth knowledge of the area they are selling property in.
An estate agent who has many years of successful sales experience in your area will know what other similar properties have sold for recently and for how much. They will also know what the prospective buyers on their registers are willing to pay. Thirdly, he or she will advise you on what may need doing – in the way of repairs and improvements – to increase the appeal of your property to incoming buyers.
Landlords
Landlords will certainly benefit from an on-going professional relationship with their letting and managing agent. Landlords tend to hold their rental investment for a considerable number of years. They are going to need a series of tenants over that time and will want to build trust and confidence with their agent for this reason.
A good agent will firstly check that an incoming tenant is able to afford the monthly rental payments. He or she will also need to be proactive in chasing up the rent, should it not come in. Thirdly, an experienced and committed managing agent will ensure standards within the property are maintained by carrying out regular inspections. He or she will always be available when maintenance issues occur, as they inevitably will from time to time.
Being the landlord of a residential investment property nowadays requires you to have a breadth of knowledge across a wide range of relevant subjects. The most time and cost efficient means of meeting this challenge is to instruct an experienced, competent and committed letting and managing agent, and let him or her take the strain. This gives the landlord time to pursue their own career options, to relax and to enjoy life.
Andrew Reeves founded the company bearing his name in 1982, and has many clients with investment properties in Central London who have been with the company for over 20 years. Andrew’s staff have between them over 100 years’ experience in property letting, management and sales.
Are you a vendor looking for an agent you can trust? Or perhaps you want to let out your home or investment properties? We can make life easier now and in the long-term for both vendors and landlords.
