UK-based out-of-hours call answering service for property managers, PropCall, is calling for a shift in the industry – advocating for a clear separation between both maintenance and lettings.
When maintenance and lettings are lumped together under a single job title of a Property Manager or Asset Manager, agents risk becoming reactive rather than strategic, limiting their potential for long-term success.
How so?
Long-term success can be jeopardised as agents risk spreading their people resources too thin. Instead of qualified asset managers driving portfolio growth, landlord relationships, and revenue generation, modern day property managers find themselves bogged down with front line emergency repairs, tenant complaints, and compliance issues.
“By redefining property management as two distinct areas—maintenance (asset and tenant issue management) and lettings (tenancy, portfolio management and client relationships) - companies can structure their teams more effectively, ensuring that both aspects receive the attention they deserve,” says Aaron Mcwilliam, Managing Director at PropCall. “This shift allows for more strategic business development while maintaining high service standards for both landlords AND tenants alike.”
Maintenance in property management
Maintenance is the backbone of property management; often consuming property managers’ time as it requires immediate attention. Not only does the issue, whether it is a boiler breaking down or leak occurring, become a priority; landlords and tenants expect fast, effective solutions regardless of the hour of day. Whilst maintenance is a fundamental part of a property manager’s role, ensuring tenant satisfaction, preserving asset value, and keeping properties legally compliant; it is often delivered at the expense of long-term business development.
As tenant issues and repairs are the most frequent and urgent aspects of daily operations, they tend to dominate the property management role. Sustaining a portfolio of well-maintained properties is a non-negotiable for property managers, ensuring they stay on top of the headaches by reducing costly emergency repairs, attracting high-quality tenants, and minimising disputes.
Additionally, if landlords experience ongoing maintenance failures, they may look elsewhere for management services due to higher vacancy rates, lower rental values or high repair spend, which can ultimately impact revenue.
Whilst dealing with front line maintenance issues is essential, business growth can be stifled as a result. Property managers who spend the majority of their working hours coordinating repairs and dealing with tenant issues often struggle to focus on strategic activities like marketing, portfolio expansion, and building relationships with landlords. This reactive approach limits long-term success and prevents businesses from scaling effectively.
Lettings in property management
While maintenance keeps operations running smoothly, lettings is what fuels business growth. It involves securing new landlords, marketing properties, managing tenancy agreements, and ensuring properties are occupied by reliable tenants, enabling revenue growth and portfolio expansion. A well-structured lettings strategy increases rental income, attracts new landlords, and strengthens client relationships, which can lead to property management firms establishing themselves as market leaders.
The urgency of maintenance issues has made them the dominant focus in many property management firms. Since problems like leaks, heating failures, and tenant complaints demand immediate action, management of the lettings aspect often takes a backseat. Many businesses find themselves stuck in a reactive cycle, prioritising maintenance over proactive efforts to grow their client base and improve service offerings.
However, neglecting lettings can be detrimental to property management firms by missing out on growth opportunities. Without a strong lettings strategy, the risk of stagnation increases, as income primarily depends on acquiring and retaining landlords. If a property management firm becomes overly reliant on existing clients, without a steady pipeline of new business, they can be placed in a vulnerable position if landlords decide to switch providers. A lack of focus on lettings can also result in outdated marketing strategies, longer void periods, and weaker relationships with landlords.
Property managers must strike the perfect balance between maintenance and lettings, as over-prioritising lettings at the expense of maintenance can create dissatisfied tenants, higher repair costs, and increased complaints. If tenant issues aren’t handled efficiently with a high quality of service, landlords may face retention problems, ultimately harming the reputation of the business, and undoing the gains made in lettings.
The case for separating maintenance & lettings
Property management businesses must strike a careful balance between maintenance and lettings to succeed. While maintenance ensures smooth operations and tenant satisfaction, lettings is what drives revenue and portfolio growth.
The most effective ways to balance both sides are to assign dedicated teams to handle either maintenance or lettings, to ensure neither area is getting neglected. By considering lettings as an ongoing priority, alongside maintenance, which requires immediate attention, it strengthens the offerings of the business.
Front line maintenance, when trained correctly, is a great way to introduce team members from out of industry into the world of property management. With effective upskilling on triage, escalation and contractor call out management, new talent can hit the ground running with no prior experience in lettings or asset management. Looking out of industry to candidates with excellent customer services skills (think hospitality!) and the ability to think on their feet to solve a problem, agents can bring new blood to an industry that’s struggled with recruitment in recent years.
Practically speaking, it is important that leaders in lettings businesses really spend time drilling down the responsibilities of each role and refining their hiring practices to suit the split between maintenance and lettings. In doing so, landlords, tenants and agents alike will all benefit from enhanced service and improved relationships. A best-in-class maintenance issue management paired with a refined lettings management strategy can rapidly breathe new life into agents who may currently feel they are drowning in problems.
“We recognised that property managers often struggle to juggle maintenance and lettings, leading to burnout and stagnation. PropCall was built to solve this—our UK-based team handles emergency maintenance calls, troubleshoots tenant issues, and coordinates the necessary actions for over 350,000 units nationwide, all in our clients’ company names,” says Mcwilliam. “By reducing unnecessary call-outs through video triage, we help streamline maintenance, while also giving property managers the freedom to focus on growing their portfolios and improving tenant retention.”
