The Busiest Year for Bright Star Lettings – Our Lettings in Focus

Being a letting agent over the last 2 years has been a rather complex experience; from learning how to run our business with new processes to dealing with the turbulent and fast-paced property market that has occurred since lockdown ended. As the world has returned to ‘normal’ and everyone has tried to return to the pre-COVID world, we at Bright Star Lettings are looking back at the last year and considering what 2021 has meant for Bright Star Lettings and how we move forward into 2022.

Review of the year – the COVID effect on lettings

To an extent we could say the last year has been “business as usual”. Afterall, we have still been managing rental properties, we have still been dealing with tenant changeovers, and we have still been doing all the normal letting agent tasks you would expect. Our goal when marketing rental properties has always been to find good long-term tenants for our landlords, and this has not changed either. Thankfully, this has meant we have had a lower turnover of tenants than many other letting agents, which saves time, money and stress for our landlords.

But, demand for rental properties has been huge, and still is. This has meant we have been working harder than ever on our incoming tenant services, such as property marketing and referencing. The increased demand for rental properties and limited supply has led to some difficult conversations with applicants while we manage the larger workload of enquires.

When we advertise a rental property, we are now seeing ridiculous demand, which is coming out in a number of ways:

• Volume of enquiries – still high, no matter what the property. The biggest demand is still for 3 bedrooms with garden and parking; the holy grail of rental properties! Landlords have taken advantage of increases in the property market and sold up; those tenants have to go somewhere.
• Desperation – because of the shortage of available properties, it is making people a little bit desperate. We do seem to be finding that prospective tenants are ‘forgetting’ to tell us everything initially just to get the viewing. This is really not helpful and often leads to wasted time for all involved including the prospective tenant.
• Pets – everyone seems to have a pet. Landlords do not have to accept pets (at this point) and even when legislation changes it will not be a blanket “yes” to pets; there will still be a large number of properties where pets can still be not accepted due to other regulations in place (lease restrictions, etc.).

So, in some way our year has been the same as any other, but in many ways it has also been quite stressful. We would love to be able to help everyone, but it is simply not possible: we only have so many landlords who only have so many properties available and not all those properties are suitable for every tenant. We have met some amazing prospective tenants who just missed out on a property for whatever reason, often to equally deserving and amazing tenants.

But it also has to be said that some tenants do not help themselves. Although many prospective tenants have been understanding, kind and generally amazing, others have been so desperate for a property they have been extremely aggressive and difficult and some have chosen simply not to turn up for arranged viewings without explanation. None of these behaviours will help them to be considered for properties in the future.

So, what have we learnt over 2021?

• That we can’t help everyone – as much as we would love to
• Some people don’t want to be helped – we can only try to help people so much
• When in doubt say “no” – sometimes we simply aren’t able to accommodate a specific request or need
• That there are some lovely people out there

Feedback for tenants

We know many tenants will have had a complex couple of years, either due to personal circumstances, the need to move or other factors. Our top advice for tenants both looking for property and working with lettings agents or landlords is to be honest. Honesty is the best policy and if you are upfront about any concerns, possible issues or specific needs then it is much easier for us to help you find the most suitable rental property. Too often we deal with tenants who have omitted to tell us about pets, children or specific needs such as access. This has even led to prospective tenants showing up to view a property which is completely unsuitable for their needs.

We also want to assure all tenants that we are trying our best; as letting agents we want to help you find an ideal property. We also want our landlords to find great tenants. But at the end of the day, we are only human; we can’t magic up an extra property if the one you liked has been taken, but if you are open and honest with us, we can advocate for you with our landlords.

At the end of the day, the landlord gets the final say on what happens to his or her property. We can advise landlords and, where we feel appropriate, we can advocate for tenants, but is it the landlord who has the final word.

Feedback for landlords

With demand being so high for rental properties, most landlords have not been struggling to fill their vacant properties. However, the huge number of enquires can be a daunting undertaking, which is why at Bright Star we create a pre-assessed shortlist of candidates to view a property of 5–10 applicants which is then presented to the landlord with our advice and recommendations.

However, the huge demand has led to some landlords become particularly picky regarding their requirements and preferences for the “perfect tenant”. We like to get a good understanding of a landlord’s needs and wants when trying to match the ideal tenant with the ideal landlord and the ideal property. It’s a bit like a dating service in that way. But just like a dating service, if a landlord becomes too picky they can miss out on ideal tenants while looking for the unicorn or perfect tenant that doesn’t exist. So, our advice is to listen to your letting agent and remember you can be choosy but keep it sensible.

Once that ideal tenant is in the property your ultimate goal is that they are going to stay and be a long-term tenant. Key to this is creating a good relationship with the tenant. This requires good communication, in both directions. Landlords also need to remember that although it is your property it the tenant’s home. We often find that tenants who feel empowered to make the property homely for them, whether that involves some light decoration or having some say in how the garden is maintain, tend to stay in the property longer and look after the property as if it was their own.

Key to attracting the right tenants, keeping those tenants and ensuring your property reaches its full potential is to keep on top of maintenance. By scheduling regular updates on maintenance issues and having good communication with your tenants you can ensure that little niggles never become big nightmares.

What to expect in the lettings market for 2022?

We are expecting demand to remain high. Many landlords have decided to sell following the pandemic for a number of reasons, including the high property sale values, wishing to retire, changes in circumstances due to the pandemic or changes in rental and tenancy legislation. The tenants of these landlords still need somewhere to live and so demand for rental property is still far higher than the supply.

We may see rents rise in some areas due to this large demand. However, we think there will be a cap on how high rents get and they will stabilise over time. One of the issues we are seeing is landlords who haven’t increased their rents significantly for many years now face having to give their tenants a large rent hike to maintain the viability of their rental property. This has meant some of these landlords are having to lose tenants, which can be difficult for those who have had tenants in a property for a long time. If you are a landlord in this position, we recommend speaking to a letting agent to get them involved in the process early on so they can make the change as smooth for you as possible. If you would like our help, contact us here.