As a chartered surveyor, I was always taught to act in the best interests of the client and the reason for that is not only just general decency and integrity, but also because ultimately, you’ll win in the end.
Unfortunately, this does not seem to be a mindset shared by many of the bigger agents in the industry, who in recent years have adopted some particularly unprofessional business practices.
An example I personally dealt with recently came when I was talking to a landlord who was fed up with his agent.
The contract with his current tenants was coming to an end and they wanted to renew, which the landlord was happy to do, but he did not want to continue working with the same agent.
Rather than accepting this and acting in the best interests of the landlord, the agent instead became obstructive claiming that they had found the tenants and so he had to pay them a fee while they remained in the property which is true, as well as telling the landlord he could not speak directly with the tenants, which is false.
Eventually, the situation escalated, and their behaviour became so obstructive that the landlord decided to stick with them, as he essentially had no choice.
This is just one of countless examples of obstructive agents, but the most common bad practice is surrounding the handling of keys.
Agents come up with endless excuses to prevent releasing keys, from claiming they don’t have them, insisting a contractor has them or they may say that they’ve lost them or given them to someone else.
Often this works, because it creates apathy in landlords, and they become so frustrated with agents that it’s easier to stay with them and endure the poor service rather than trying to leave.
Bad practices can usually be attributed to a lack of education within the industry, as there is no regulation and so anyone can set up a lettings agent and start giving advice even if they have absolutely zero training or experience.
This is not a problem you will encounter if you choose to work with Rocket PM, as I am a chartered surveyor and I require all my letting’s staff to do an associate RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), as well as taking a legal course.
As a landlord myself, I am as frustrated as you by the laziness and bad practices that seem to have seeped into the industry in the last few years.
Here at Rocket PM, we want to break the mould and we believe that if a landlord thinks they can make a profit by going elsewhere then that is something they must do.
But, in the same breath, we have enough confidence in our ability to deliver that we don’t need to worry about stopping people leaving, as they won’t be able to get a better deal anywhere else.
We always act in the landlord’s best interests and if that means they want to do something different, sell their property or move to a different agent then we won’t be obstructive.
