Dawn Bennett – Managing Director

Our journey started out in 1990, when our CEO Sally Lawson started her first letting agency “Lawsons”, back then a very different time and Private Rented Sector, within comparison to now, very little compliance or legislation to adhere to.

That agency grew into a franchise network “Concentric” in 2010 where the original Tenancy Management and Client accounting team grew as it took on properties from all over the UK; London, Newcastle, Liverpool, Coventry, Birmingham, Plymouth and Manchester, just to name a few of the key locations! With each portfolio came new challenges, different markets, client types, and needs to be met.  

But since 2010, working as a White Label-back end management solution for the franchise network meant that the additional element of an Agent Client, as well as the Landlord client and Tenant Consumer, changed the focus of the company and the management and service team hugely.

Over the next 7 years, the team built an impressive network of agents, portfolios under management, range of client types and mastered their expertise in multiple fields and sectors of the PRS, but also an impressive network of like minded agents and letting agency owners that regularly share ideas, network and strategise together to BUILD and GROW their businesses and get through the multiple challenges faced by agents today, which led to the next evolution of the company.

Dawn Bennett – Managing Director

Our journey started out in 1990, when our CEO Sally Lawson started her first letting agency “Lawsons”, back then a very different time and Private Rented Sector, within comparison to now, very little compliance or legislation to adhere to.

That agency grew into a franchise network “Concentric” in 2010 where the original Tenancy Management and Client accounting team grew as it took on properties from all over the UK; London, Newcastle, Liverpool, Coventry, Birmingham, Plymouth and Manchester, just to name a few of the key locations! With each portfolio came new challenges, different markets, client types, and needs to be met.  

But since 2010, working as a White Label-back end management solution for the franchise network meant that the additional element of an Agent Client, as well as the Landlord client and Tenant Consumer, changed the focus of the company and the management and service team hugely.

Over the next 7 years, the team built an impressive network of agents, portfolios under management, range of client types and mastered their expertise in multiple fields and sectors of the PRS, but also an impressive network of like minded agents and letting agency owners that regularly share ideas, network and strategise together to BUILD and GROW their businesses and get through the multiple challenges faced by agents today, which led to the next evolution of the company.

Our History

Our journey started out in 1990, when our CEO Sally Lawson started her first letting agency “Lawsons”, back then a very different time and Private Rented Sector, with in comparison to now, very little compliance or legislation to adhere to.

That agency grew into a franchise network “Concentric” in 2010 where the original Tenancy Management and Client accounting team grew as it took on properties from all over the UK; London, Newcastle, Liverpool, Coventry, Birmingham, Plymouth and Manchester, just to name a few of the key locations! With each portfolio came new challenges, different markets, client types, and needs to be met.  

But since 2010, working as a White Label-back end management solution for the franchise network meant that the additional element of an Agent Client as well as the Landlord client and Tenant Consumer, changed the focus of the company and the management and service team hugely.

Over the next 7 years, the team built an impressive network of agents, portfolios under management, range of client types and mastered their expertise in multiple fields and sectors of the PRS, but also an impressive network of likeminded agents and letting agency owners that regularly share ideas, network and strategise together to BUILD and GROW their businesses and get through the multiple challenges faced by agents today, which led to the next evolution of the company.

Working with so many agents, Sally realised that many struggled to manage the complexity and volume of the Property Management function, with so many over delivering and not charging enough, it was just dragging so many down and hampering growth, but this part of the lettings and management process, had always been her companies strength.

After a few requests from the network, this lead to the company taking on a few White Label agents as customers and then recognising the huge value this offered the independent agent, which doesn’t normally have huge head office support. Within a few months, it was obvious that the gent clients become less stressed, and as the complexity of the compliance and day-to-day management disappeared from their teams, they become front-end “sales” focused and their businesses started to explode as a result.

With the recognition that this is a service which offers so much benefit to the independent agent, allowing them the freedom to focus on their front end income generation and not the nitty gritty of the back-end, which can consume an agents day, most days, and lead to fire fighting, rather than structured working, Sally and the Senior team decided to launch the service out to the network and outside agents.

Sally the CEO and figurehead of the company has been an ARLA member since 1993, and was honoured to become part of the presidential team in 2015, and president for the year 2017-2018, and openly explains that ARLA has been at the heart of compliance and structure of her business since the beginning, explaining why the company is so heavy on compliance and safety, using processes, training, systemisation, structure and the latest software, to ensure the highest level of service is offered consistently no matter who the client type.

The company is looking to work with more high performing agents, that really want to grow their businesses and outsource their back end functions, to allow complete focus and strong sales performance as a result… working together with companies such as this secures the future growth of both the clients business and the TMHub, well into the future decades, with the TMHub providing training, compliance support, property management, client accounting and banking functions and much more besides, whilst the client agency maintaining their own brand and identity, but having the benefit of being part of a professional network and supporting functions.

Our Team

Sally and her senior team have been working together for over 10 years, which creates a great understanding of common objective and focus, with Operations and Compliance Director Dawn Bennett who joined Sally in 2007, who in turn works with her senior and qualified takeover team to settle in new clients and portfolios. The senior team keep NEW portfolios for 3 months to settle them down before they get passed to the day-to-day property management specialist team for day to day management. Dawn feels this is the most effective way to settle down any portfolio, as it allows for any queries, niggles and anomalies to be dealt with by the most senior and experienced members of the team.

The Client Accounting team is overseen by Steve Sutton. Steve has worked alongside Sally & Dawn for over 16 years, and is responsible for the handling of millions of pounds every year of client money.

The property management team, headed by 2 senior team managers, both who have been with the company for many years, oversee a full on team of property managers, each with their own specialisms, but all multi-functionally able to handle all queries, dealing with hundreds and sometimes thousands of calls every day, and taking care of all that is involved in tenancy management, such as renewals, vacates, arrears, maintenance, contractors, inspections and deposit returns, not to mention those crazy occurrences, that sometimes happen in the property management world.

Training

All our staff go through ARLA Propertymark in house training and we expect them to pass their ARLA Propertymark qualifications within 9 months, plus they have practical hands on training such as time on building sites with contractors to really understand the mechanics of a house and the work of a good contractors, as well as study of fire safety regulations, contractor health and safety requirements, LHA and HMO requirements and customer service care. This ensures that the service delivered is constantly accurate and delivered within the criteria set in current legislation, to keep you and your clients safe.

Our Network

Through our Agent Rainmaker network, we offer a wide range of training. We range from one-day taster sessions, webinars, a 3-day lead generation workshop, and 4-day Bootcamps, focused on Letting Agency structure and GROWTH, plus numerous active Facebook and Online groups, to discuss share and develop independent agent in every town. Sally also attends numerous high level strategy boards, such as ARLA and propertymark boards, to discuss policy and the PRS environment, and runs her own strategy boards, for our members to focus on their businesses and work out the best methods for them as individuals to GROW and develop. These strategies, include marketing and promotion, Valuation conversion and winning Fully Managed instruction skills, Business planning, Cost saving, focusing on the numbers that make the business work, the teams motivation and conversion skills, the overall strategy for expansion, systemisation of the back end and technology and much much more…

On top of the above, there are award ceremonies, annual conferences, and public speaker training, how to run landlord seminar training and much more available…

When an agent becomes a client of the TMHub and the AR network, a whole new world opens up and problems are shared, with solutions sought.

Why choose TMHub?

ARLA Licensed

With Sally’s companies having been ARLA members as an organisation since 1993, and as Concentric since 2010 and ARLA presidential team from 2015-2018, and Dawn being and ARLA representative since 2016, you can be safe in the knowledge that every one of our procedures is done the ARLA way, with our senior team trained and qualified by ARLA, our tenancy management and client accounting team trained by ARLA and our involvement at the highest level of the organisation, we couldn’t operate in any other way, this means you are safe and your clients are happy but more importantly you and your clients are SAFE.

Compliance Management

It’s such a feeling of safety to have someone taking care of the key aspects of the business, but to have access to your own Compliance Director is worth its weight in gold, someone to ask practical “how to” advice when you need to is invaluable, and as part of the takeover service, everything is checked to ensure we start off on the right foot.

 

When we take on a new client, the first thing we do is work with the new partner to ensure they have everything they need in place to be operating compliantly and work with them to put right  any areas that may need addressing, also with the tenancy files, these are all audited and any areas that need sorting sorted or time spent working with the business owner to rectify, dependent on the issues found, but the ultimate goal is to ensure safety and compliance for you as a client, for us as property managers, your clients as landlords and the tenants, a win-win-win all around.

CMP (Client Money Protection)

As an ARLA member we have to have CMP cover to be in line with the organisations criteria, and we carry £2,000,000 cover as a CASP provider (Client Account Service Provider) but soon ALL letting agents will have to have their own CMP cover if they hold client monies by law, so again this is something that we take care of for you, so you don’t need to.

LHA & HMO

We have specialists in-house in these highly complex areas, and have years of experience in managing 1000’s of tenancies in both these areas, along with fully licensed areas such as Liverpool, Article 4 areas such as Wolverhampton and large Student areas such as Coventry.

Access to higher support

We utilise fully two of the top legal companies via helpline access, our accreditations to ARLA, TPO, TDS, DPS, NAEA and LHA expertise organisation, plus many more besides to ensure we always have the latest in advisory content to keep our network safe.

White Label

We look like you, all the outward material coming from us, goes out as you, so we are just an extension of your team, you look bigger, more organised, we use your contractors, your letterheads and your clients have 24 hour support and online account access, you also get to promote the fact that you have a senior compliance team, accounts team and connections in high places along with all that protection… what’s not to love?

You’re happy, we’re happy

Basically, because we can’t sleep if you’re not happy, as agents ourselves, we know what the pain of bad service brings, so we will go to the ends of the earth to make sure you are happy whilst at the same time ensuring you are safe and complaint and your clients are fully serviced and feel important your tenants made to feel safe and at home.