NMR Lettings

I have been a distant landlord for over 20 years so obviously I have seen a thing or two" in terms of both tenants and letting agents. Before I came across Nathan and NMR Lettings I did not know Nathan from Adam and had never heard of his company. The last letting agent I had let me down by refunding a deposit to a tenant who had left my property dirty, left behind rubbish and also left it with damaged flooring. The extent of which was not discovered until Nathan went in and provided me with a comprehensive set of photographs. There had also been sloppy management of the property throughout the time I was with them. One particular incident was when I rang in to see if the landlords gas safety check had been booked in the day before it expired. It had n't despite having reminded them in writing several times in the weeks leading up to the date of expiry. A landlord should not be doing this. I asked if they had not received my letters and the response was we don't always receive our mail, only the ones that have to be signed for"!They went on to say that they had the CP12 down to be booked in that afternoon! Putting this down in writing has stirred memories of many other concerning incidents with the agent. So, with the property now empty I was now in a good position to terminate my contract. I should also mention that the previous agent had a hefty fee to leave written into the contract when a tenant they found was still in residence. It would probably have been ruled as an unfair term by a court of law but who wants that hassle? At this point, especially as a distance landlord, I had in my mind the questions, should I stick with the devil I know? Could I be jumping out of the fire into the frying pan? I just had to bite the bullet and get on with it. Ok, now back to Nathan and NMR Lettings. I found him through this website having found All Agents through Vanessa Warwick's and Nick Tad's Property Tribes forum. The latter also an excellent resource for property investors might I add. I made a few enquiries about his service through email and asked for a copy of his contract. The enquiries were answered promptly and a copy of the contract was attached to the email. One thing I liked about email communication is that one always receives an acknowledgement that one's email has been received. Ok, it's an autoresponder but it is re-assurance that it has been received and has not been lost in the ether or is trapped in a spam filter. This avoids the annoying situation that we've probably all been in where we are waiting for a reply and we follow up several days later to find that the recipient has n't received the email. Very convenient for the less than transparent agents around! It promotes accountability and in my humble opinion, it's little things like these that make businesses stand out from their competitors. Just to re-iterate, the response from day one from Nathan has been excellent, communications being answered within 24 hours where possible otherwise in a very timely manner. Once I had informed the previous agent I was leaving, my property was up on his website, sent out on his mailing list and he personally went over and collected the keys. This happened all on the same day! The day after he attended at the property and provided me via email a comprehensive set of good quality photos which showed the true state of the property. He then offered to get me quotes from local contractors for works to bring it back to a standard for letting. The first contractors' quote came in and Nathan offered to get me another one. The quote was so reasonable and bearing in mind the time involved to get another I thought it prudent to go ahead with the works. It was also a lot less than the previous agents' contractors quote. The works were completed quickly and the property was ready to let. Professional tenants were found, referenced, deposits taken and the AST was signed up. Nathan uses an independent inventory company (best in the event of a dispute) who provided a very detailed inventory and schedule of condition report with accompanying photos. It was well done and a good choice in my opinion. The inventory was so good that it was recorded that there were a couple of very small areas on the bathroom ceiling where plaster had come off. These were about the size of a ten pence piece, however, the contractor had charged me for touching up the bathroom. I got on to Nathan and he was immediately on the case. He held his hands up, apologised that he had missed it and had been onto the contractor who is scheduled to come back to rectify the situation. Throughout my communications with Nathan what has come through is his enthusiasm to provide a good service in a transparent manner. I feel, as in the case above, if he was in error he would hold his hands up and rectify things at his own expense if necessary. So to conclude this testimonial, I would not hesitate to recommend Nathan and NMR Lettings, especially if you are a distant landlord unsatisfied with your agent. He's your man! As a distant landlord, a letting agent can either make or if you're not careful, break you. My faith in letting agents has been restored and I now feel more confident about expanding my property interests in my native north east. What Nathan and NMR letting have on their side is they are a dedicated letting agents so their service/focus is not distracted/diluted by selling properties, unlike traditional estate agents. On the question of his fees. Any property investor who has been in the game for a little while will know they are extremely competitive. I would actually think hard about going with a letting agent that have lower fees. It is highly probable that the service levels will be too low to provide adequate protection for an asset, which, if miss-managed could prove to be extremely costly. (Ref. the second sentence of this paragraph) Alternatively, choosing a cheaper one, (cheap being the operative word) one may find oneself in the not too distant future looking for another agent when they no longer exist as a going concern. Anyway, based on my experience I would expect before long (if not now) NMR Lettings will be the premier letting agent in the North East. One last thing, it is early in my business relationship with Nathan and NMR Lettings so if anything were to drastically change my view (which I doubt) I will have to use a famous quote of Arnie's and say I'll be back" :-)