The pay as you go management idea is BRILLIANT!

Please persuade Ajay to expand this idea in to CEE, he will gets lots of willing clients :-).

Mike

I thought that the Housing Act 2004 was brought in with the intention of removing landlords like this from the market. He claims not to be a slum landlord yet buys only in depressed areas from distressed sellers and prides himself on spending nothing on them... money, money and bugger the social responsibility.

The Carsberg report has made a number of recommendations amongst which is licensing for Lettings Agents AND Landlords.

Should his 'Agents' look after "any element of managing a property, from doing an inventory, finding a tenant, conducting credit checks, drawing up the AST, taking meter readings and so on when the tenant moves in (and out), repairs, maintenance, evictions if necessary - the works!" then they presumbly have Professional Indemnity Insurance and a comprehensive knowledge of Lettings Law.

Nobody works for nothing - I pay a Lettings Agent to do Tenant Find which includes all of the above besides repairs and maintenance all for 50% of the first months rent. They are experts at what they do - pay peanuts get monkeys.

So Ajay has set up a Franchise - Franchise fees typically start at 10% of gross turnover payable to the franchisor, good work if you can get it.

Whilst the headline of this article is certainly eye-catching and appeals to the basic money making instinct of all BTL landlords (I mean, how could you POSSIBLY not want to own hundreds of properties, RIGHT?). I found myself examining a lot of my own beliefs as I read through Ajay's operating principles.

A few years ago, when I was a tenant at the mercy of landlords who treated me and my family like dirt, I decided one thing; If I ever found myself in the lucky position of being a landlord in the future, I would actually treat my tenants with respect and dignity and try to understand their social/physical needs as well as my own need to make money.

Well...a few years on, thank God fortune did smile upon me and I now have a decent sized portfolio in the UK and abroad. Whilst I pay management agents to look after day-to-day matters (I choose good ones to work with and sack them if they don't deliver), I also communicate with tenants, send them X-mas cards and try to be flexible (within reason) when problems occur.

I am sure Ajay is spluttering into his coffee reading the above, but I can honestly say I have not suffered any major set backs using the above approach. I think, as landlords, we should all ask ourselves the question: "Am I in this to make money at ANY expense or do I see the bigger picture and realise that I have a social responsibility towards people less fortunate than me?"

For the above reasons, I hope you will excuse me if I don't rush to emulate Ajay's 'success'.

As a footnote...a couple of years ago, I travelled from Saudi Arabia (where I live) to the Essex home of Ajay Ahuja just to spend 60 minutes in his company (a privilege for which I happily paid up front). It was certainly an interesting conversation - but the really interesting thing was that I left his home without being offered so much as a single glass of water - isn't it a shame when we are so blinded by money making that we forget the basics of human interaction?

For the record,

I hope no one took my original post as an endorsment of Ajay's priciples or practices. It was merely a tongue-in-cheek poke at my current property managers.

Mike