North Staffordshire estate and lettings agency Belvoir has doubled the number of rental homes it manages to 300 under the guidance of property expert and entrepreneur Ramona Hirschi.

Nationally times are tough for landlords and letting agents but Belvoir Stoke-on-Trent, Biddulph and Leek continues to buck the trends and increase its property portfolio.

Ramona said: “We now have 300 homes under full management, and I believe that’s largely down to our strong reputation amongst landlords. Our lettings team are experts, and we continually add to our knowledge with all staff undergoing training.

“The most recent training success saw Charlie Bowron gain her PropertyMark Level 3 qualification in lettings and property management.

PropertyMark state that letting agents and property managers have to navigate more than 160 separate laws in safely managing tenancies and contracts, so knowledge is vital to our work.

“We invest in our team. In property management there are no compulsory qualifications, but I am a firm believer in lifelong learning and everyone in our team is encouraged to go through training as we continually look to improve performance.

“In turn, this pays off as we have loyal customers and these become advocates, recommending us to other landlords. Our customer retention rate is extremely high.”

A fully managed lettings service is one where the agent is responsible for all aspects of the tenancy on behalf of the landlord, including advertising the property, finding suitable tenants, carrying out credit and reference checks, preparing tenancy agreements, collecting rent and security deposits, handling all tenant communications, dealing with any maintenance needs and ensuring the landlords’ safety and compliance obligations are all up to date.

Nationally, the housing market has been hit by landlords leaving the market due to increased regulation and economic pressures.

When Ramona took on the Belvoir franchise for Stoke-on-Trent, Biddulph and Leek in 2017 they had 150 fully managed properties on their books and have consistently increased that number year on year.

Based in Albion Street, Hanley, the franchise now has a staff of nine, an increase of six, in seven years.

ENDS

To find out more about Belvoir, please see www.belvoir.co.uk/stoke-on-trent-estate-agents.

For media enquiries please contact Nigel Howle by telephone on 0776 2043436 or by email at [email protected].

With pic: Charlie Bowron with Property Mark certificate for Level 3 lettings and property management.