Owning property to let out to tourists in the South of France can be a great investment. It’s also a lot of work. Every French holiday home needs proper attention and care, and there are important things to consider such as routine maintenance and administrative work. To make your life considerably easier, you need estate management for your properties in the South of France.
This blog will provide an overview of what estate management is and what sort of services you can expect from holiday home management and property management companies.
Estate Management in the South of France
If you’ve one or more properties you’re renting out in Southern France, it’s good to know what types of services properties management companies offer.
The truth is, a good holiday property manager will help you with nearly everything you need when it comes to managing French property rentals. Let’s take a look at the various estate management services you should look for when selecting a provider to take care of your properties in the South of France.
Keyholding and Security Checks
A good estate management service will look after the keys to your properties and regularly provide security checks to remove all worry from long-distance ownership and letting.
Energy and Water Usage
Property management companies will also visit your properties to read the gas, electricity, and water meters. This not only provides a useful audit trail, but ensures that any out-of-the-ordinary usage that might indicate a problem or a leak is spotted promptly.
Callouts and Emergency Callouts
When guests are staying at your property, they may need assistance from time to time – perhaps with lost keys, leaks, or faulty equipment, etc. A good estate management will provide a callout service to assist guests with any problems they may encounter, and can organise tradespeople to come and fix any larger issues.
In addition, the estate management service provider will also offer an emergency callout service in case of fire, flood, break-ins, etc.
Caretaking and Property Maintenance
Estate management teams will take good care of your property, performing regular maintenance tasks, as well as any minor fixes, repairs, and decorating. Gardening work will also be organised on your behalf, as well as chimney sweeping if necessary.
For more major fixes, the estate management company will organise the work with outside contractors, liaising with you throughout the whole process to ensure it all runs smoothly.
Swimming Pool Management
If you own a luxury property, you may well have a swimming pool to worry about. Luxury estate management companies will take this worry out of your hands, cleaning, filling, and testing for chemical balance on a weekly basis.
To maintain a clean pool, a weekly visit should include a thorough clean and vacuum, with skimmer baskets emptied, filters cleaned, and chemicals tested and adjusted.
Administrative Assistance
Managing your properties naturally involves a lot of emails and paperwork – which can be tricky and time-consuming, particularly if you don’t speak French.
A good estate management company solves these issues. With local contacts and bilingual teams, the provider will assist when dealing with utilities, insurance, obtaining planning permissions, and getting documents legally translated.
The team should also collect organise post forwarding services, or open and answer mail and email on your behalf.
Guest Booking Management
For all those potential guests looking at renting a villa in the South of France, an estate management company can take care of all the hard work for you. From advertising and marketing your property to setting pricing strategies, organising bookings, welcoming guest to your property, and providing customer service, a good property management company looks after it all.
Charles Mackintosh – South of France Property Surveyor
Owning holiday property in the South of France can be an outstanding investment. If you’re looking to start or expand your portfolio, get in touch with Charles Mackintosh. With over 30 years’ experience living and operating in the region, Charles provides highly regarded English language property surveys and advice for overseas buyers.