When we are employed we all love the thought of a long weekend! Time to relax and spend time doing the things we love. However, when you are self employed or a landlord the reality is somewhat different. As we all know as a freelancer when we don't work we don't get paid and as a specialist property virtual assistant you can almost guarantee things go wrong out of hours and often during long weekends!

When supporting small landlords they also want time to relax and this is where I often step in and provide emergency support. I also choose to work on more complicated things that need time to complete without numerous other distractions, when nobody else expects me to work. 

I can often be found working quietly at weekends. Recently, I have reorganised all of one client's folders and for another worked on a property launch, and I can often be found updating tenant enquiries for another ready to follow up on a Monday, as well as doing all my own admin to keep my business running. All done with coffee, the radio and minimal distractions and after I have done my own shopping. (I learnt the hard way when an emergency occurred and I didn't manage to leave the house that day)!

​With the second bank holiday weekend in quick succession I settled down to get on with the work. My plan included covering a client's team member who usually covers our serviced accommodation and a property launch. 

No problem a couple of hours and I will be finished or so I thought, followed by the afternoon to keep an eye on any guest messages and respond from the comfort of my living room, which is how I usually cover weekends. But as we all know when working in property everything can be calm and going along as planned and then all hell breaks loose (or it can feel like it)! Things always go wrong in threes and I can honestly say this is regardless of industry or profession. Boilers always break in threes like cardiac arrests always come in 3's. Two extremes but totally true and I have seen both. 

Literally it did go from calm to chaos in the space of a few minutes, when I received a call asking for support from a team member, regarding a serious situation. I dropped the launch and started helping them to firefight the situation and gave my complete attention to assisting them to sort out the matter. We worked to resolve it and I continued with the launch. Then we found we were getting technical issues on some of our software, which was causing booking issues, so again while not an emergency something urgent to attend to. By the time I finally finished working I had spent 6.5 hours working!

The moral of the story is property is unpredictable and flexibility is the key to supporting landlords to run their property portfolios. Yes, we would all love that any issues occur Monday to Friday during normal working hours, but the reality is they don't and sometimes I am required to work outside the hours that I do offer. As a freelancer I can commit to working or take the weekend off as the clients need me to. Note to self next time we are moving students in on a Sunday set the alarm clock early ready to provide support to the landlord!

This weekend I am covering as operational support for all their portfolio while they have a much deserved weekend off. 

#landlords #rentals #serviced accommodation #tenants #propertymanagement 



   

Love it or hate it maintenance is part of managing your portfolio! 

It may seem common sense but having a list of reliable contractors is an essential part of your tool kit. Rather than just one person it is worth having a number of contacts in your armoury to cover each trade and try to build a relationship with your contractor, wherever possible so that you are not just a number in their phone. 

Personal recommendations are the gold standard  and even better if your contact has previously used the contractor themselves. This is where networking comes into its own by asking around.

Over the last few years it has become more difficult to find reliable contractors. This doesn't seem to be unique to one geographical area and adds to the frustration of booking people and  getting work completed in a timely fashion. 

Whether you are using a spreadsheet or property management software making sure you store as much detail about each contractor is essential and trying to grow it, as well as keep it updated.

Each client I work with I focus on developing a list of preferred contractors and also build a rapport with them. Nobody wants to be bottom of the list when an emergency situation arises.

​Of course paying promptly once the work is completed also helps to ensure that they will work for you again.   

All the landlords I have ever known are extremely busy people and I regularly hear them say that working with their agency is frustrating.

Here are my tips for building a good relationship with your letting agent:-

• Check your agreement with the agency.
• Good communication.
• Be responsive. 

Firstly check your signed agreement with the agency and what it includes. Are you on fully managed or tenant find only or rent collection only or something else?
If you are on a fully managed agreement check for details such as how often are inspection reports carried out, do you need to login to a portal or are they emailed to you directly? 

Compliance - do the agency automatically notify you when things like your gas safety check are due? Do you have your own preferred supplier or are you happy for the agency to organise this for you? Do they advise you of the price before it is undertaken? Do they give you options like a boiler service as well or is it just the gas safety check?
 
Maintenance issues - do the agency contact you for each item separately or have you given them an allowance where they can spend up to a specified amount on your behalf for issues?

Communication
The key to every interaction we ever have! We are all human and have good days and those that are not as good.
Try to build a good working relationship with your letting agency. Hopefully the agency you have chosen will have one person in their office who looks after all your properties (I recently came across a case where the owner had 3 separates flats in a house, but each one was managed by a different member of their in-house team. As you can imagine this was frustrating for everyone concerned as it meant calling or emailing each staff member separately)!  
Consider picking up the phone and have a chat if you have a quick question and follow it up with an email to reiterate the conversation you had.

If you aren't getting the response you want regarding things like your interim inspections, rather than pick up the phone, when you are angry put it in an email  and save as a draft. Then when you are calmer reread it before you hit send. I am not trying to teach you how to communicate but I know for one I often have to walk away from something and calm down and come back to it later, so I don't send a rant!  

The aim is that you get value for money from your agency and that your tenants are happy. No landlord that I have ever worked with wants unhappy tenants and unfortunately poor communication leads to a breakdown between landlords, tenants and agencies. We all have dealt with the unreasonable tenants who  make unrealistic demands and the agency is there to act as your buffer from them.

Be Responsive. 
I have added this one, as from experience I have encountered some landlords who  aren't the best at responding to things. This usually happens for a number of reasons including they forget to. I'm not saying you should respond immediately, but there is nothing more frustrating than when you are caught between the tenant/ agency and the landlord and a week has gone by with no update, despite chasing for a reply. 

Ultimately, you are busy and your time is money! Yes you can change the agency that manages your property but will you be more satisfied ? 

With more  landlords having small portfolios but not looking to self manage, but needing someone to liaise with the agencies on their behalf who are knowledgeable about property and the legislation your option is to consider someone like me to liaise on your behalf. 

This post is not about agency bashing, as I have come across some very good agencies during my time working  in property but just some tips you can try to help you to work cohesively with your agency, so that you get the best outcome for everyone concerned.

I have debated long and hard whether to write and share this post, but I have decided that even if only one person reads this and gets it then it has been worth writing it and it is cathartic for me. 

This year has not had the greatest start and last week I realised just how tired I was and in need of a day off!

For context my Aunt passed away mid January she had been ill for a while but it was still a shock when my other Aunt called me to tell me. She couldn't get hold of my Mum who lives 2000 miles away and is 2 hours ahead. I am really and truly a sandwich gap person. I called my Mum to let her know as it was nearly 8pm there and then called my adult daughter who is 70 miles away and then called my Aunt back. In between this the client who I work for slightly later in the day I quickly messaged and said I was finishing for the day and would be back the following day.
We were in limbo for 10 days waiting for the funeral arrangements and throughout this time I advised my clients the following day I was working and available but might not be so quick to respond as usual.

Anyone who knows me well know I tend to be someone who just gets on with things and that was what I did, from helping my parents arrange flights, organising the taxi picking them up, to hiring a car to drive them to the funeral. I hate driving to places I don't know and even more so when I know that some of the return journey will be in the dark. I don't own a car or drive regularly and my anxiety over driving has increased since a road rage incident last year. If I didn't have to drive every again I probably wouldn't be too sad.  

The same week was my daughter's 21st birthday and we had a weekend away. My parents stayed at my home, while we went, as we had booked it months before including tickets to things. After a hectic weekend it was straight back to work and then my daughter had the sickness bug from hell! Even at 21 she wanted me to look after her so with less than 2 hours sleep I worked a full day, and kept on top of my client work. To add insult to injury during this time I had a blocked drain and raw sewage in my garden. You really couldn't make it up and our local water company didn't arrive for over 48 hours! Most people would have being loosing their temper by this point, but as usual I just dealt with it.

By the middle of last week I realised I had worked 18 days without a full day off and was beginning to get irritated by anything and everything! Currently all my clients are lovely and I genuinely love the work I do, but when one client actually said I seemed more stressed than normal I realised that yes perhaps I was. I will never understand why rather than leave a voicemail message you will continually call someone up to 8 times in 20 minutes for something non-urgent! This seems to be becoming more of an issue recently. Personally I leave a message and am patient but in this age of instant access people seem to have an inability to be patient.  

It was one of those weeks and we all get them where everything I touched was not complicated and I couldn't complete it. I love structure and organisation, so this didn't help my stress levels! 

This week I feel refreshed after a day off. Yes I still got up at my usual time, but I had the time to do the things I needed to do without having to get back to check things that were supposed to send automatically had. 

As a freelancer it is easy to forget that you choose the hours you work and don't work, as most of my clients do need traditional working hours. I sometimes do start later in the morning but tend to revert to working traditional hours. I am very much a lark so by late afternoon I am ready to finish for the day and spend my evenings relaxing.

After a conversation yesterday it reminded me why I love being a freelancer I get to choose the hours I work. So this morning I needed to return some running shoes, rather than doing it Saturday.
Wednesdays and Thursdays tend to be slightly quieter than the rest of the week. I was out by 8.10am and at my desk by 9.45am. None of my clients knew and no work was missed. I already have non-negotiable times in my diary and I felt empowered by actually taking time to complete the job I needed to do. 

I have learnt a few lessons from these last few weeks.

• I am not superwoman!
• Grief hits you when you least expect it (I should know this as an ex-nurse we were taught about the stages of grief).
• Stick to your personal boundaries!
• Regular days off are essential and burning out is not an option.

I am hoping that by being honest, people will understand a little more about the real me and realise that when I work with clients I really do try to do my best.

  

I originally wrote this post in November last year but things overtook me and it is only today that I have had a chance to revisit it. I am taking the time to pause and reflect on the last year.
At the beginning of the year I knew a little about serviced accommodation and apart from helping to assist with a few houses that was it. That all changed in February when one of my clients took on a new block of apartments, which had been delayed from last summer. It was baptism by fire. I am experienced  in dealing with people but some of the guest expectations were like nothing I had ever seen. With multiple maintenance issues it certainly took a few months and a long snagging list, before everything was fixed. The heating there is not the easiest to operate, so we all learnt how to do this from videos and now can repeat the instructions in our sleep. Then summer arrived and the requests for fans came with it and several times staff were dispatched for more! As winter arrived we laughed about the need to remind ourselves how the heating works. The number of people who call and message telling us the stove is broken - no it's not please have a look at the video we sent you! The child lock was on or you hadn't got a pan on the ring. The joys of induction hobs!

On the plus side I can now list properties on booking channels and connect to the software of choice. The software my clients use is not particularly user friendly unless you are technical, at times we are convinced the only people who understand it are the developers! I've gone from the time it connected to the wrong listing (there was a problem with the channel we were connecting to, not the software or users) and caused us chaos for days and weeks to follow, even though it was only connected for 2 hours to being fairly laid back, sometimes, when connecting to the channel manager. I now make sure I do all my listings and pull them through undisturbed. I've also learnt about different software associated with serviced accommodation. 

I have also continued working with clients on managing their HMOs, which come with a different set of challenges. To help with my knowledge. I took my Level 3 NRLA Property Management and Lettings, which I am incredibly proud of. The biggest issue was breaking a charger when trying to make sure I could be seen taking the exam. It was elevated on a shelf and dropped off part way through!  
The biggest challenge with the HMOs has been guarantors. From personal experience I know that some agents won't consider guarantors unless they are home owners, or accept guarantor companies. This is a regular discussion in some groups where parents talk about university. This year I've seen people try to give guarantors who haven't agreed to act as a guarantor, people who aren't eligible to act as a guarantor for a number of different reasons ranging from not having a regular income or the right to live and work in the UK for the period of the tenancy.
​ 
While I rent my own home and am familiar with ASTs this year I have looked at it from a parent's perspective and having to try to be Mum, rather than look at it from a professional perspective! Are you sure you really want to put that up there? While really thinking how much painting is going to need to be done when you leave to ensure you get your deposit back? The indoor water feature was an unwanted additional feature, (leaking sky lights) along with the lack of regular heating (2 hours morning and 2 hours in the evening) included in their tenancy!
The mould in her room, due to maintenance issues was the final straw and yes she did open her window regularly! The issues have now been sorted except they never want to get up as the house isn't very warm. Who puts the thermostat on the unit above the tumble dryer near the 2 ovens! This is my daughter's real experience in her shared house. She now has a heated throw and I tested it the last time I went to visit and it is better than being cold when she puts it on high!

With January closing I am thinking about the next few months and what I want from my business. I am looking at not only the services I offer to my clients but how to schedule time to work on my business. Basically getting organised. I am great at organising my clients but not so great at making sure I work on my own things. 

​While as a freelancer I am used to the lulls in work, especially around this time of year and working flat out when needed, I have already decided not to take time off during the busy time of year when students are moving in and out of their rental properties (note to self I am allowed to have a day off to move my own university student)!