An Opportunity For Landlords To Trial A New Lifestyle For FREE

Many self-managing landlords I speak to feel tied to their business and are becoming increasingly depressed about all the new rules and regulations they need to stay on top of. Some have decided to sell up whilst others soldier on, forsaking holidays and family time.

However, those of you who have been following my blogs or my Facebook page over the last few years might be aware that in Feb 2016 my wife and I emigrated to Malta. Whilst we are gradually selling our properties after 30 years in this business, we still have a substantial property rental business of our own.

Many landlords have told me they are baffled at how we are managing our business from a distance, working on Property118 and still running our UK property rental business whilst enjoying a Mediterranean lifestyle that many people can only dream of. You might also know, the founders of Property118 invested into a hybrid letting agency some years ago, which has done rather well and now has 100% national coverage.

In this article I am going to share a few secrets of how my wife and I structure our lives and also let you know how you can trial our methods for three months at no cost.

Before I do that, please take a few minutes to consider how you would spend extra time if you had plenty of it:-

• Maybe you would take a round the world trip?
• Perhaps you would spend 3 months laying on a beach?
• Maybe you want to write that book you know you have inside you?
• Perhaps there is another start up business project you would like to focus on?

I now have more time than ever before to do more of what I enjoy.  This includes spending more time networking online at Property118 with other landlords. I also really enjoy helping other people to solve problems, especially tax related. Part of my freed up time has been used to do more landlord tax consultations, which is both intellectually stimulating and financially rewarding. I think I could even go as far as to say this could be my definition of ‘retirement’.

My wife has taken up art, drama and flower arranging and is getting very good at all of them because she now has so much more time to devote to her hobbies. Last year she won a National competition in Malta. She’s also been doing some been doing some interpreting for several Ministers, Mayors, been on Maltese National TV an even interpreted for the President. She’s a natural offline networker, but what she does now is very different to when she was working in the UK as a Chartered Management Accountant. She now works for intellectual stimulation when it suits her it do so.

Before writing this article I spoke to Chris Sheldon, Managing Director of LettingSupermarket.com (the business we invested into). I explained to Chris that many of my tax consultation clients manage their own rental property businesses and how they have been feeling of late. Between us we came up with an offer that I think many of them (and YOU) might well find too good to refuse.

Here’s the deal:-

You simply hand over the day to day co-ordination of your property rental business to LettingSupermarket.com for three months and they will not charge you a penny.

Chris and I are both so confident that you will enjoy your new found freedom that we are prepared to take it on the chin if you tell us after three months you want to take everything back to the way it was before. On the other hand, and far more likely we hope, you will continue with the service and continue to take the opportunity to re-shape your lifestyle for the better.

During the three month trial period LettingSupermarket.com will take over:-

• Rent collection from tenants and remittance of payments to you weekly
• Re-letting your property if your existing tenants serve notice (including viewings, tenant referencing, right to rent checks, producing inventories, tenancy agreements etc. and dealing with all related compliance matters including deposit protection) all at no extra charge
• Dealing with calls from tenants and reporting to you via email
• Contacting contractors to look into any maintenance issues reported by your tenants and obtaining quotes for any necessary remedial works (happy to work with your existing contractors)
• Any other general ‘problem solving’

Please don’t, for one minute, think you will be able to forget about your rental property business.

You won’t!

You will receive emails reporting issues and asking you what you want doing.

For example;

• Mr X at xxx Street has reported that he has no hot water, what would you like us to do?
• Your tenant at zzzzzz Road has given notice, would you like us to advertise to re-let or to sell the property?
• Mr and Mrs Z would like to rent zzzzzz Road and are ready to go ahead with referencing. Their credentials are ……………, are you happy for us to proceed?
• Mr and Mrs Y have passed referencing and qualify for Rent Guarantee Insurance and legal fees protection which will cost you £10 a month for 12 months, do you want to buy that?
• The engineer who visited xxx Street has reported that a ….. needs replacing. He has said this will cost you £xxxx. Would you like to proceed with that and deduct the cost from your rent

The beauty of this is that somebody else is doing all the heavy lifting for you. You are simply responding to emails on a daily basis, at a time which is convenient for you.

Naturally, this deal cuts both ways. If you don’t respond to emails within a reasonable period LettingSupermarket.com have the right to end their relationship with you.

You will also need to continue to do your own book-keeping etc. but at the end of your tax year you can even get a full breakdown of all your income and expenditure.

For my wife and I, the difference has been that what seemed like a 24/7 job can can now be dealt with from our iPhones whilst we are doing other things and flitting between our homes in Malta, Russia and Florida. Be under no illusion though, we still spend a minimum of 20 hours a week each working on our business. The difference is that we are now working on our business as opposed to feeling trapped within it.

We also like the online document storage systems used by LettingSupermarket.com because this means we can check everything they are doing at any time of the day or night.

Once you have completed the initial three month FREE trial period described above you will only have to pay 5% of your gross rents received (+ VAT) to extend the service. There are no ‘tie-ins’ whatsoever.

To arrange a telephone call with Chris Sheldon, MD of LettingSupermarket.com please complete the contact form below.

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