Page 12 – The software for estate & letting agents.

April 16, 2012

Tenant Complaints About Noisy Neighbours

One of the risks with renting or buying a property is you don’t know who your neighbours are. You don’t know if the neighbours are renting or buying, what kind of people they are etc. Rented properties tend to have more issues associated with them. It’s difficult to figure out a reason why this is the case, maybe it’s because the properties isn’t theirs that they don’t feel the same duty of care to it, but that discussion is a touch tangential to the topic at hand. It can be very frustrating as an agent to be getting complaints from tenants about the neighbours’ activities which are seemingly out of your control. So what can you do? Ask your tenant to keep a log of the noise to see if a pattern emerges. Then try to talk to the neighbours directly, in a polite way of course. Being overly accusatory isn’t going to work. If the noise persists, the following is a route to take.

1. Find out who the management company in charge of the property or the landlord is and get in contact with them to inform them of the complaint

2. If the problem is not fixed, write them a formal letter on company headed paper asking them to fix the problem and inform them of the possibility of PRTB action or eviction

3. If it still isn’t fixed, make a third party complaint to the PRTB (this costs €25 and the complaint form can be found on their website)

If the property is a local authority house, then the local authority would be the first place to contact after the neighbours. In some extreme cases, the Gardaí may be better equipped to handle the problem, or at least would work in conjunction with the other parties involved.

You may also be interested in our blog on Keeping a tenant happy & Choosing the right tenant

Thanks for reading!

by Andreas Riha

April 13, 2012

Best Places to Market Your Rental

If you have a property that’s ready for rental, you need to find tenants for it. You want the property rented quickly; therefore you need the maximum amount of people possible to see it. The obvious place to market your rental on is the internet. But the internet is almost unfathomably large, so where exactly should you start? The first place is undoubtedly the property portals; daft.ie, myhome.ie etc. They are the first sites people think of when looking for a property. Next up, social networking sites. They are very much the ‘flavour of the month’ for marketers. The two key sites are Facebook and Twitter. Set up profiles on both, where you can advertise the property, share links to daft.ie or myhome.ie and generally engage with potential tenants. Twitter isn’t as good for providing a lot of detail on properties, so it’s more effectively used by giving brief updates or sharing links. Like or follow the profiles of other property management and estate agent companies. People who are browsing the pages of other companies will be looking for a whole range of companies and so will click on your page if they see it.

We could talk about the virtues of social media marketing all day, but in doing so would miss out on less tech savvy potential tenants. These people may be technophobes, just aren’t familiar enough with the internet and the technology needed to access it or simply don’t like the internet. For these reasons, attention should be given to the more traditional outlets. Newspapers, the radio and leaflets are all effective ways of communicating the message to people.A sign outside the property can catch the attention of passers-by, who either could be looking for a property themselves or know somebody who is. These signs should have your company logo, phone number and website to make it easy for potential tenants to get in contact. The same can be applied to notices in bulletins boards in local shops, community centres, libraries and colleges. Finally, if you want to be particularly creative you could wear a large sign around your neck with a picture of the property and some key details about it. It may get more laughs than potential tenant interest, but it certainly would be attention grabbing!

Please feel free to comment, tweet or follow us.

Thanks for reading!

info@rentview.com

April 10, 2012

Tenant reference check questions

As much as landlords want their property rented and off the market, they want the right tenant and not one that will end up costing them more than if they left the property empty.

Reference checking is one way to ensure an A+ tenant rents the property. There are three key reference sources; bank/building society, employer and previous landlord. While confidentiality clauses will prevent detailed information from being discussed, banks can provide proof of financial stability and capability to pay. Similarly, employers can provide financial information that indicates a tenant’s ability to pay.

Employment Reference

A typical rule of thumb would for the rent not exceed the tenant(s) income by 35%. Aside from financial information, employers can provide personal information; what is the tenant like to work with, confirmation of details such as current address, job position etc.

Landlord reference

Possibly the most important reference is the one from a previous landlord. This will provide you with key information that may make or break an agreement. A few questions will reveal what rent was paid, if it was paid on time and what the person was like as a tenant.

Some useful tenant reference check questions to ask:

Was the tenant unreasonable in any way?
Why did the tenant move out?
How long did the tenant rent the property?
Was the rent paid on time?
Would you rent to this person again?
Were there any complaints from other tenants?
Did they cause any major maintenance issues?

What are the tenant reference check questions you would ask?

by Andreas Riha

April 2, 2012

Property management and good customer service

Property management – How important is good customer service?

Customers are the lifeblood of your business. Without them, your business would more than likely not exist. Due to the fact that they’re so vital, it’s important that they’re retained and don’t take their business elsewhere. One of the best ways to do this is by offering excellent customer service. This is especially important for property managers, as you’re in direct contact with your customers a lot more than many other businesses.

property-management-customer-service

Poor customer service gets talked about. A lot. People are very willing to spread negative stories, whether it is just to their friends, or more dangerously, by posting their experience online. Marketers are waking up to the power of word of mouth, and so should you. It has been proven that negative word of mouth is more common and effective than positive word of mouth, but that’s not to say that positive experiences are ignored entirely. Providing excellent customer service encourages positivity and loyalty to the company, which is exactly what you want. After all, it can cost up to five times more to attract a new customer that it does to retain a current one. In saying that, current/old customers can do some of the job by attracting potential customers through positive word of mouth.

If your customer service is not up to scratch and you don’t know how to begin to improve it, it may be worth your while looking at the customer service life cycle model. Often mentioned in relation to the area of information systems, this model breaks the business/customer relationship down into a number of stages. Identifying these stages is a good starting point as it will be easier to pick out areas that need improvement and what priority they should get. Doing this may be a bit time-consuming, so in the meantime there are some basic guidelines you can follow to improve your customer service.

Customer service in property management

Build rapport with your customer – it doesn’t matter whether it’s a landlord or a tenant; you need to connect with your customers. For first time customers, simple things like introducing yourself, engaging in a little bit of small talk and asking how you can help them all work towards building a lasting relationship. Don’t forget your manners and do show genuine interest in the customer by listening and taking notes if necessary.

If you’re dealing with a landlord/tenant when another one appears needing your attention, politely ask them to wait a few minutes and offer them a tea or coffee.

Deal with problems immediately, as much as is possible. Complaints mean unhappy customers and unhappy customers leave very quickly. If a rent is late, keep chasing it and reassure the landlord that they’ll get it soon.

Keep your promises. If you say you’ll get an electricity account switched over by the end of the day, make sure you do.

Finally, go that little bit further for the customer. Even if it’s not fully part of your job, doing something small like offering advice will make customers feel that you truly care and increases the chances of the customer engaging in positive word of mouth.

There is letting agency software available that will help you provide greater customer service, why not research the area and see what fits your needs?

Please feel free to comment and share!

Thanks for reading!

by Andreas Riha

March 29, 2012

Payment of rent

The payment of rent on time from a tenant to a landlord is the golden rule in the rental industry. It is the most basic of expectations that rent will be paid on an agreed date. It may not be possible to keep a 100% record, but tenants should make every effort to pay on time and to save for emergency situations so the rent can still be paid. A simple way to ensure with relative certainty that it will be paid is to set up a standing order. With standing orders, money is transferred directly from the tenant’s bank account to the landlord’s, which removes the hassle of a manual payment.

Missing the payment date

Paying on time is a common courtesy, which should be enough of a reason to do so, but sometimes tenants need a little push. So if the rent does not arrive on its due date, a phone call may be enough if it is a genuine mistake, but if not, a landlord must notify the tenant in writing followed by the relevant action in your region. I would recommend seeking professional assistance at this stage is needed.

Outsourcing the management of your property

One of the benefits of renting a property through a letting agent is that they take over the responsibility of managing the payment of rent. Now whilst there is a fee for a full management service and rent collection, it is well worth it as they take over the stress. This can be a very stressful and time-consuming task and if not done so correctly it can result in being very costly. Time spent chasing tenants could be used much more effectively and as a result many leave it to the professionals.

Late payment penalties

There are ways to discourage late payments which both landlords and agents can make use of. The obvious one is having a fee for late payments, many leases which have a financial penalty clause for late payment of rent. Another option is to charge a slightly higher rent but give discounts for on time or early payments.

By Andreas Riha

March 27, 2012

Tenancy Board

The PRTB in Ireland is also known as the “Tenancy Board”

Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB)

To avail of the PRTB dispute resolution service, tenancies must be registered with the PRTB. Disputes regarding deposits, lease terms, ending tenancies, rent arrears, market rents, complaints by neighbours, breaches of statutory obligations and any other matters related to the tenancy are covered by the service.

To get the process started, a dispute application form (available from prtb.ie) must be filled out and sent in. This costs €25 per dispute. After this, the landlord and tenants will be called for either mediation or adjudication. In mediation, a mediator discusses each side and facilitates each party reaching an understanding that both agree with. This is often more preferable than having a third party decide on the outcome. If the parties don’t want to use a mediator then an adjudicator is appointed, who examines the case in detail and decide on a resolution. This resolution may be binding.

Tenancy Tribunal

If the parties are not happy with the adjudicator’s decision, it can be appealed to a Tenancy Tribunal within 21 days. In some circumstances the Tenancy board may refer a dispute directly to the tribunal. The tribunal consists of three people with relevant knowledge and experience. While not entirely formal, basic court rules apply. Both parties can make their case and call upon witnesses if they feel it is necessary. The tribunal’s resolution comes in the form of a determination order of the PRTB and is binding, unless either party wishes to appeal it to the High Court within 21 days.

March 26, 2012

Dispute over the Condition of Property

Disputes of this kind occur the most frequently out of all disputes. Generally they take the form of a landlord withholding a deposit to cover the cost of any repairs that have to be made to return the property to the condition it was in at the beginning of the tenancy. Tenants will often argue that they are leaving it as it was, and any damages were already there before they moved in. Taking the dispute to the PRTB can be a lengthy and costly process, so it’s better to prevent the dispute from occurring in the first place. How is this done? Quite simply really, take an inventory.

An inventory is a log of the property, the contents and the condition of them. They reduce the occurrence of disputes and can speed up the resolution process and reduce costs if a dispute does arise. If the inventory taken just before the start of a tenancy is comprehensive enough, there shouldn’t be a problem in spotting damages or anything that goes beyond normal wear and tear. A landlord can choose to do it themselves or hire a professional inventory clerk. To do it themselves, a landlord will need the following:

Patience. A proper inventory takes time to complete
A clear and methodical process is needed to ensure everything is noted correctly and can be easily checked. For example: take one room at a time, noting the main items first and their condition. Be sure to note if there’s currently any damage or if an item is brand new. Then list the smaller items e.g. pictures and their condition
Be detailed and realistic in your descriptions e.g. say one brown leather two seater sofa with scuff marks on the left back leg, instead of one sofa
Take photographs (preferably with a digital camera) of the rooms as a whole from multiple angles as well as of individual items
After the inventory is complete, walk around the property with the tenant and agree the descriptions, ensuring that the tenant checks and signs the inventory list. Sign it yourself, keep the master list and hand over a copy.
If any changes are made e.g. new curtains, an amendment should be made to the inventory.
While this option is cheaper, it does involve the risk of bias.

For the professional inventory clerk option:

Dedicated inventory companies haven’t taken much of a foothold in Ireland as yet although there are some companies who provide this service.
These companies take over the landlord’s role by doing a full inventory, walking around with the tenant and reaching an agreement and at the end of the tenancy they’ll carry out a full analysis of the original report and compare it to the current condition.
They also carry out inspections throughout the tenancy and adjust the inventory when needed. This keeps things up to date to prevent disputes at the end of the tenancy.
As they are trained for the job you can expect the final report to be well structured and very detailed with possibly more observations, more so than if it was just an ordinary landlord conducting it.
Also, a third party will more likely be impartial so the bias pitfall is easily avoided and better judgement calls relating to wear and tear can be made.
A letting agent will do close enough to the same job as a professional inventory clerk. If your letting agent uses Rentview they will have the ability to share a full picture condition property inventory report directly into your email or through your Rentview account.

The decision of which option to choose is a matter of preference. Landlords who have the time, patience and ability to be methodical, concise and realistic will probably do it themselves but those who live a distance from the property or who just don’t want to go through the hassle of it all will probably choose the dedicated service. Or if the landlord is confident that the letting agent will do a good enough job then that will suffice.

To find out more about the Rentview Inventory app contact

Twitter: Rentview_

Email: info@rentview.com

Facebook: Rentview

March 23, 2012

Property management:Retaining tenants in the longterm

2012 is Well under way how can Agencies work towards a successful year?

Hello and welcome to the weekly Rentview property blog, today I am going to look at the top priorities of company CEO’s and analyse or discuss these in relation to the lettings and management industry in Ireland. The idea for the blog came about after reading through a great report published by Oracle that I received from a lecturer in Strategic Information Systems for Business this week and it highlights some great areas in which managers and company CEO’s are looking to address and improve. The report is titled ‘The Best Defense Is a good offence’ and it immediately stood out to me as the lettings industry has become quite competitive recently with the fall in attractiveness of the market and influx of people renting.

So what were the top needs and business improvement goals identified by the CEO’s interviewed by Oracle? See the table below!

Today I would like to briefly look at the top ranking priority on the list and over the coming weeks I will look to analyse and discuss the other top improvements that agencies may be able to make in accordance with those ranked here. If there is any that stand out, let me know in the comments!

Attracting and Retaining new customer?

A pretty obvious answer that we could have expected from managers and a goal any agency will have a major focus on, attracting tenant brings in the demand we can utilise for securing landlords properties and once we attract the landlord this can lead to long term income for an agency is they are retained successfully through management services. Today’s blog will solely focus on the tenant as the customer and next week we can look at the landlord as the customer for a better analysis or discussion.

There is obvious ways in attracting tenants to your agency with Daft.ie being the hotbed in which they browse the thousands of properties in Ireland but my opinion is that a lot of letting agents do not put enough focus on the retention of a tenant. Check out this recent theoretical model on customer service relationships , the majority of the points are relevant for Letting Agents.

Above-Building a relationship as a PM with your tenant can lead to retention.

If we view the tenant as a long term asset to the company like many other industries it can eliminate a lot of re-occurring issues such as minor disputes over often avoidable issues and the significant time spent in re-letting your properties at the end of lease terms if a tenant is lost. Ultimately an agency should aspire to provide such a high level of service to its tenants that they act as advocates for that agency and create a positive word of mouth marketing channel that really doesn’t exist with a lot of agencies in the Irish market yet.

You want the tenant to be so satisfied with the level of management received they wont go looking on Daft for new properties as the end of lease approaches, and if they are in a position where they need a new or improved property they contact you the agency! That’s all for this one, don’t forgot to comment with your opinions and share the content if you enjoyed the blog. You can follow me at @cormac_rentview and for information on Rentview check out the main site.

rent management software

March 16, 2012

Students and renting: Getting the Inventory Right

Today I wanted to get a quick blog done on the importance of Inventories for students in rented accommodation. The points obviously apply to all renters but its important the message gets out to first time renters who are sometimes not educated on the matter before they find accomadation. There is a few key areas I wanted to discuss and if there is other important issues please drop a comment at the end.

Checking your list of Inventory with the actual contents in the property

Once you find your property and are set to move in often the landlord or agent will provide you with a list of contents for the inventory which you are to sign. At first glance to yourself this is just a simple process sign it and move in but there are a few things you have to do first.The last rented accommodation I had provided me with a list of the various contents from sofas,dining chairs,curtains,hoovers and more. After signing the lease and the inventory list we noticed several items were missing from our list. Whether the landlord purposely did this or simply didn’t know which is probably the case its irrelevant as you are now liable for that missing inventory unless you inform your landlord or property manager of the mistakes. So always verify exactly everything Thats on your list.

When signing the inventory list/report you may not think in the long term but there is two key issues which often not being addressed with this document, picture evidence and condition. Once you have verified your inventory and made any amendments you have to check the condition of your contents and communicate your findings to the landlord or property manager(do this via e-mail or it will mean nothing). In an ideal world every agent would do a thorough report that captures all this vital information but in reality it often isn’t the case. So you have checked the contents and everyone is clear on whats in the house, now the important part

This is the sticky point with inventories its all well and good knowing the contents or inventories but at the end of the day the most likely disagreement or dispute you may find yourself in is condition of the property and its contents.Ultimately this is what will protect landlords and renters against one and other in any potential disputes at the end of a tenancy. Simply writing down the condition of something is good but not sufficient as evidence of the condition so we need pictures! Taking a photo though has its drawbacks as often cameras wont have dates on them so make sure to send these images again via e-mail and ensure the landlord is aware or agrees with the condition.

Thats all for today and thanks for reading, dont forgot to follow me on twitter @cormac_rentview and search Rentview on Facebook! for more information on inventory reporting and the application Rentview offers to letting agents you can click the link here: http://rentview.tumblr.com/post/11140727179/rentview-inventory

March 13, 2012

Rental property – Fake landlord scam

Following on from the cheque cashing scam its important to remember that not only the agent / landlord who is the potential target in property rental scams. Through out my career within the lettings industry I have spoken to numerous tenants who have experienced such a scam. The fake landlord scam is where tenants hand over a deposit and possible rent upfront to a fake landlord. This scam normally happens as follows.

A home hunter responds to an ad normally on a free advertising website but could also be on a property portal, local paper etc. The home hunter arrives to view the property which is priced below the norm in a well sought after area. The tenant very much interested and in assuming they are getting a bargain is convinced to hand over a deposit. So what is wrong here you ask? Well this landlord is doing this to every set of tenant who has called to view the place. The landlord could do this for the whole day in 30 minute intervals or even a couple of days. The first time anyone is made suspicious is when the phone number the tenant contacted the landlord on is no longer reachable. Here is the story of a particular case in Dublin of such incidence.

In some cases the brazen fake landlord will also arrange to meet, sign a lease, hand over keys and collect the rent in advance perhaps in a hotel lobby or coffee shop. When the home hunter arrives with lease and key in hand at the dream property the key does not work. There might even be a queue of new tenants looking to see if their key works. Here is such a case where once again the con man was caught.

So as you can see just because someone has possession of a property it does not mean they are the owner or acting on the owners behalf. It is ever so important to know who you are handing the deposit over to. Bank draft & cheques are always the best way to give a deposit as they are traceable. Under some genuine circumstances a property may require something to hold it for a night. Perhaps until you can get a draft and if you are placing a cash deposit it should be only a token amount to show you are serious. I would say nothing more than €50, this should be ok for one evening. Most if not all professional agents and landlords will be fine with this and if they are not it might be better to walk away.

The above incidents happen to a very, very, very small percentage of rental properties. But it can happen and it is always better to be safe then sorry.

Other blogs which may interest you are The Rental Property Scam & Property Rental scam cheque cashing

by Andreas Riha