Ever wondered what our Property Managers get up to during their working day?
Well here’s a little insight that we’ve put together with Bethany this week on a typical day at the office.
9am –
Coffee fix is a must for everyone! Then it is time to check all the emails and prioritise what needs attending to first. Bethany has her own portfolio of properties to look after, but works closely with the rest of the team and all other properties looked after by the agency, so the first part of the morning is about filtering out issues and ensuring that a member of the team has enough information to move things forward. Bethany will focus on maintenance issues to ensure our tenants repairs are attended to promptly, but at the same time she will juggle incoming property enquiries and help the team schedule in viewing appointments and meetings.
10am –
Time to head out! The first of many property visits starts now, with the first property being one of our refurbished ready for marketing. Bethany heads off with everything she needs. Obviously, the camera is first on the list, but don’t forget the bedding, cushions and flowers that we use to present our properties. In such a competitive market, it is really important to spend time dressing and staging a property before taking photos, preparing the virtual tour and sketching up the floor plan.
Job done, even managed to grab some lovely photos of the terrific open views and outdoor space on offer at this lovely Dundee Terrace property.
12noon –
No time for lunch just yet, heading off to fit in a routine maintenance inspection. Our maintenance inspections are carried out every 4 months on our tenanted properties and ideally these are carried out in person at the property and luckily today it is safe to enter this property as the tenants have confirmed that they are away on holiday this week and happy for us to enter. During the Coronavirus Pandemic we are managing to carry out our inspections by video link with the tenant if it is not possible for us to visit the property safely. Our tenants are extremely helpful and happy to walk us virtually around their home, assisting us with our checks on their smoke detectors, bath/shower seals, windows, doors and all the other areas that may require attention in our properties. This particular property was affected by a small leak recently and today Bethany is delivering a dehumidifier to help dry out any moisture. The incident itself was attended to very quickly by our emergency team over the previous weekend with the tenants contacting the agent via our emergency contact details and everything being made safe within a few hours of the report being received.
Testing of smoke detectors as part of our maintenance inspections is a must
1pm – time for a bite to eat, refuel and carry on! As well as picking up keys for our new tenants on the way…
2pm –
Time to prepare an Inventory for one of our properties ready all set for new tenants moving in at the end of this week. First, Bethany has to pack up all the bedding etc. we used for staging the property and once the property is set up exactly how it should be for the tenants moving in, she can get to work on the Inventory. Our inventories take approx. 2 hours to prepare in each 1 bedroom property as we take many photos and document the condition of every item, fixture and fitting, to ensure we have an accurate record of the property for the new tenants moving in.
3pm –
A little break from the Inventory, whilst Bethany connects via video link with one of our tenants who is working from home, which makes it unsafe for us to carry out their maintenance inspection in person right now. The call goes extremely well, with Bethany and her tenant taking their time to move around the property and check all the areas of the flat, whilst notes are made to take back to the landlord.
4.30pm –
just time to get back to the office to unload all the bedding from the car and possibly upload some images and files to the PC before home time!
5pm – and that’s the end of a normal day in the life of a Property Manager!
