STUDENT LANDLORDS - MANAGE YOUR OWN PROPERTIES?

We know Margo has given up managing, however we're still interested enough to do our own thing, so what are the advantages and disadvantages of managing your own property?

One advantage is no management fee to pay to a letting agency, which can be up to 15% of the monthly rent. That's an annual saving of up to £1,800 on a rent of £1,000 a month or £18,000 on a portfolio of 10 properties. We make sure everything is in place to provide a faster, superior service to letting agents and this develops our local reputation as landlords.

The electrics, plumbing, gas and major kitchen appliances are all insured. We recently received a call from a tenant at 6.30pm. The wall sockets were dead and they couldn't solve the problem. Our insurer's electrician arrived at the property that evening. Within two days this was followed by a further visit and three days later a faulty washing machine had a new motor - all arranged via the tenants without our involvement and all on our insurance.

Developing a good local network of electricians, engineers and builders and paying bills by return ensures our contractors never let us down, responding promptly to emergencies and maintenance.

Student tenants receive a comprehensive 'Household Handbook' with detailed information on how to deal with common situations. We ask them to contact us in an emergency, however if we are unavailable our tenants contact our insurers directly - they do the job of an agency!

An obvious disadvantage is that managing requires a little of our time and sometimes an inconvenient time, however we charge a non-returnable admin fee of £200 per property per year to cover our expenses.

We usually find ways around most situations by:

• Advertising our properties on free local sites such as 'Torent' or 'Gumtree'.
  
• Receiving emergency phone calls from tenants when on holiday (this has only happened once) - we phone our insurer/builder and ask them to deal with it.
  
• Ensuring prospective tenants make appointments with the existing tenants to view.
  
• Providing existing tenants with a supply of Energy Performance Certificates to give to prospective tenants when they view.
  
• Asking our builder to handle a recent insurance claim when the 'owner had to be present'.
  
• Making our builder a key holder (after all they are going to get the work!).
  
• Delivering a new mattress, for example, by asking the tenants to contact the company if the delivery time arranged is not convenient for them to receive the mattress.
  
• Arranging our annual landlord's gas certificate to be organised directly by the company with our tenants.
  
• Developing simple systems for managing accounts, making financial projections and employing an accountant (you would have to do this anyway).
  
• 'Borrowing' and adapting a free tenancy agreement and inventory from the Internet - taking photos for the detailed inventory.
  
• Visiting properties three times a year over a weekend. This ensures the property is tidy and clean on at least three days a year!
  
• Developing contacts with the university. They ring us now for any vacant properties.
  
• Asking the Council to inspect the property as part of the local 'Student Accreditation Scheme'. You can charge higher rents if you are accredited.
  
• Corresponding with guarantors and vetting the guarantors at the tenant's expense.
  
• Responding to activated burglar alarms, because we are the call out centre. Accidental activations occur a couple of times a year and we only respond during a long vacation.
  
• Researching the Office of Fair Trading to ensure our tenancy agreements are appropriate.
  
• Subscribing to free landlord sites such as Property Hawk and keeping up-to-date with legislation. We have never paid to join an organisation in order to get advice or access documents. You can always find everything you want free somewhere on the Internet.
  
• Designing your own, usually much better, comprehensive check-out booklet and giving it to the tenants at the start of their tenancy!
  
• Keeping a record of correspondence.
  
• Issuing a Section 21 notice at the start of the tenancy.
  
• Checking students in and out over a couple of days of our holiday. Sometimes tenants check-out themselves (posting the key though the door in an envelope) and we inspect later at our convenience.
  
• Not taking a deposit from the tenant, which saves a lot of hassle!
  
• And so on.

It looks like a very long list and inevitably it doesn't cover everything, however once things are up and running and as your experience grows, it takes very little time to manage.

If you maintain your properties at a high standard and build a trusting landlord relationship with your student tenants you will receive very few phone calls during the year. Word will get around and your properties will be snapped up.

Is it worth it? With a little extra time and effort what would you do with the money saved? Did your letting agent earn their money last year?