Melrose Road
"I think that we considered Warren’s before we left the UK and were first getting organised to rent out our flat, but then thought (hahahaha, she laughs bitterly and mirthlessly) that going with a large, national firm would be safer. As you know, we were entirely and completely mistaken. In terms of response (both details and speed of response), Warrens is head and shoulders above the competitor we initially used. The service seems an awful lot more personal too, and there hasn’t as yet been a revolving door of contacts, none of whom seem terribly interested or accountable.
The property management overall has been excellent so far – the pricing structure really attracted us at the beginning because it’s a flat, set fee, payable each month, rather than causing us to go bankrupt initially and then gradually trying to dig ourselves out of overdraft. This is quite unusual we’ve found, and a definite advantage for overseas landlords such as us. It also provides protection of a sort, because with KFH, they took everything immediately, so we had no leverage at all, and it seemed that once they had your money, they did the barest minimum possible. Once that contract was signed, they had the money and that was it! I’d definitely push this is as a selling point, it’s much fairer and very attractive to people like us. It shows that there’s good faith on both sides at the very least.
In terms of the service received, there just seems to have been real interest taken in actually looking after the property/the tenants/us on an ongoing basis in a way that we never received from the competitor. Often you will contact us on things before we have to contact you, which can be very important. Obviously we’re a long way away and it’s nice not to have to constantly chase and beg and shout to get anything at all done. We get the impression that the property is not just ignored from one year to the next, quite refreshing!
No downsides that we can see... yet ....”"