Cleaners, gardener maintenance?

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T-rev
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Mar 16, 2017 11:44 am

Cleaners, gardener maintenance?

Post by T-rev »

Hi we are going through buying a property near New Quay west wales, we have already had letting company assess the cottage and all is good,

We will be living in Portugal so will need cleaner gardener, maintenance people, and greeter hand keys over etc,

We did find one company in the area but they fully booked etc

Can anyone recommend how where we find these people?

Thanks
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Cymraes
Posts: 519
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:31 pm
Location: North Wales

Post by Cymraes »

Are you using the letting company?

Both the ones I approached (including the one I didn't use as it happens) gave me a list of local people/companies who they knew of.
newtimber
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Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
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Post by newtimber »

I know they charge a lot, but if you're in Portugal, isn't is simpler to let the agent manage everything?
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charles cawley
Posts: 1205
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 1:53 pm
Location: Herefordshire, Shropshire, Borders

Post by charles cawley »

We often get enquiries about this.

As there are no full service letting businesses in our area, we find changeover people and do a few bits and pieces more to make management at a distance practical. The owners pay the changeover people direct.

Automated feedback requests go some way to ensuring changeover quality and the changeover people are paid extra to inspect and, in some cases, meet and greet or shake hands on departure.

The system can work quite well. We normally advise a small retainer is paid for local eyes and ears and to deal with any emergencies such as knowing which button to reset the boiler. (Time paid on top of retainer for this).

We remain as a back-stop in case spot cleaning is required or something serious happens. Unlike some agents, smaller local ones tend to help dealing with complaints taking much of the emotional sting away and 'knowing the ropes' helps enormously. It is surprising how effective and economic this sort of arrangement can be.

This is not meant to be an advertisement- we don't cover that area, but this sort of compromise is quite common but is, usually, only available with smaller locally based booking services.
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