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In this episode of Good Landlording, Richard Jackson and Suzanne Smith share lots of practical tips to help landlords manage their buy to lets successfully themselves, without using letting agents.

Richard and Suzanne are both very well qualified to talk about this subject. Suzanne has always self-managed her properties, even with her first as an accidental landlord, and Richard self manages many of his properties.

They discuss what self-managing involves, whether landlords need training or accreditation, what the benefits of self-managing are and lots of practical tips for landlords.

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Overview of self-managing rental properties

There’s a lot of scaremongering on the part of letting agents, to try and put landlords off managing their properties themselves. They make out that it’s really complicated, and something best left to agents.

For some landlords, using a letting agent might be the right approach. They might not have the time or inclination to do it themselves. For guidance on how to choose good letting agents, you can listen to the Good Landlording episode GL #3: Guide to selecting good letting agents .

However, if you’re considering self managing your properties, it’s really not as difficult as you might think. There are lots of useful tools that landlords can use to automate much of the day-to-day tasks, or you can do it manually, using spreadsheets and calendar reminders.

Also, self managing doesn’t always mean you have to do it yourself. Many landlords with larger portfolios use property VAs (virtual assistants). VAs aren’t AI, but are specialist admin assistants who provide remote support to landlords. Some landlords employ family members to help, which can be a good way to bring the next generation into the business.

It’s possible for landlords to start by using letting agents to find tenants on a “let only” basis and set up the tenancy, and hand over management as soon as the tenants move in. This is what Suzanne did when she first started as an accidental landlord. She didn’t start finding tenants herself for three years.

Self-management is the opposite of the “passive income” mindset, that some landlords strive for. It’s also something that landlords need to go into with their eyes open, and make sure they understand all their legal and practical obligations.

>> Blog post: The Independent Landlord – How to Self-Manage your Buy to Let

What does self-management involve for landlords?

Self-management means different things to different landlords. However, these are the three key aspects of managing your own property portfolio yourself:

• Property management. Looking after the property, which means doing or arranging repairs, maintenance, general upkeep and inspections. This includes arranging the annual gas safety certificate, boiler service, the 5-yearly EICR, PAT testing and managing suppliers, esp the trades.


• Financial. Keeping tabs on the various costs that the landlord incurs, and the income due, ie rent. (See Good Landlording episode GL#7: How to manage rent arrears for tips on what to do to minimise the risk of rent arrears.


• Tenant management. Looking after tenants after they move in, good communications, annual rent increases (See Good Landlording episode GL#6: What landlords need to know about rent

Some landlords outsource repairs and maintenance to third party suppliers, others do a lot themselves and landlords with large portfolios often employ a team to do repairs, maintenance and even cleaning, in the case of HMOs. This may lead to them setting up a property maintenance company.

Suzanne has recently done courses at Able Skills in Kent to learn basic plumbing and tiling so that she can take on more of the maintenance tasks herself.

Most landlords do a mixture of DIY repairs and outsourcing to the trades.

Do landlords need accreditation to manage their own rental properties?

No, there is no legal requirement for landlords to undergo training or accreditation to manage their own properties in England. (Unless this is a requirement in a licence). This is the same as for letting agents, who, surprisingly, do not need any qualifications to set up in business as a letting agent.

That said, Suzanne recommends that all self-managing landlords take the Landlord Fundamentals course of the NRLA to become an accredited landlord member. Local authorities typically give a discount on selective or HMO licence fees if the landlord is accredited. She includes the NRLA Accredited logo on her website and mentions the accreditation when advertising her properties for letting.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img decoding="async" width="474" height="482" src="https://goodlandlording.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/NRLA-Accreditation-Logo.png" alt="nrla accredited member logo" class="wp-image-1596" sty