Is it worth going back to self-managing my rental properties?

self manage. At the end of the day irrespective of whether you use and agent or not, as far as the law is concerned its your head on the chopping block.

I have used agents (indep and big chains) and the reality was I ended up questioning what they did to make sure I would be ultimately compliant/ar$e covered – to the extent I then saw they were not really doing their jobs properly.

From then on it was game over. I self manage. Yes its a ball ache, yes it means there is no rest as the tenant always calls you if there is an issue rather that using an agent as a filter, but at the same time I don’t have lazy/incompetent agents to deal with who as we all know have no real skin in the game. Are they really worried about the tenancy when it legally all comes down to you and the tenant at the end of the day?

Yes you can report an agent’s failure to the Ombudsman, but we all know the reality of that outcome.

As I understand it agents in future will be made to undergo proper & thorough training so hopefully things will improve. There is no doubt that they should be held responsible for ANY problems as it is they who get paid for managing property.

I self manage. About 15 years ago though I handed 10 of my portfolio to a local family agency as a tester so see if i could `let go`. They were perfectly nice and friendly . But i was at times rung up and asked . This has happened what do you want us to do with this . It added another layer of unwanted bureaucracy. I had to manage the managers and pay 10% for the privilege. I didn’t like the loss of control and loss of decision making . Also a simple £70 maintenance issue became a £100 + VAT issue. .
Its not everybody’s cup of tea to self manage and I get that but dont kid yourself the agents know the rules inside out themselves . A couple when i interviewed them clearly were not up to speed. And that was the line managers . The 22 yr old trainees sometimes really didn’t know jack. But the Landlord remains liable still
Once set up properly self managing is relatively easy. I took mine back from them after a year and never regretted it. I delegate stuff i don’t want to do to a few selected self employed individuals What I don’t want for my portfolio is to pay someone 24/7/365 for 25 years when the chances are that between 12am and 8am i am sleeping, the tenant is sleeping and the managing agent is sleeping. That passive rental income I want in my pocket not the agents

I self manage and use Landlord Vision software to keep on top of everything it has the added benefits of accounting, legal documents, service desks basically everything in one place. In fact agents would use this or similar anyway.

I have used agents before and don’t have a problem if you truly want to be passive or distant.

For me I use agents for properties that are out of my travel area and self manage properties I can easily travel to.