Lettings & Sales FAQ's

There isn’t one letting agent that will be right for every landlord. We think the things that really matter are the quality of the tenants they find, how well they look after your property, how quickly they deal with problems, rent arrears, void periods and whether you can actually get hold of someone when you need them.

Lancasters Estate Agents is an independent Isle of Wight estate and letting agent, established in the late 1990s and under Ben Hollis's ownership since 2011. We manage hundreds of rental properties across the whole Isle of Wight.

At the time of writing we have zero rent arrears across our managed portfolio and an average void period of around two days between tenancies.

We personally meet and thoroughly assess prospective tenants, regularly inspect the properties we manage and have a dedicated in-house property management team.

If your priorities are good tenants, a well looked-after property and knowing it is in safe hands, we think Lancasters should be high on your shortlist.

A good fully managed letting agent should do much more than collect the rent.

At Lancasters, our fully managed service is designed for landlords who want their property properly looked after without having to manage the day-to-day problems themselves.

Sarah and Alexis are our dedicated property managers, so our landlords deal with the same people rather than being passed around a call centre. Stella looks after landlord accounts, rent payments and contractor payments, and every landlord also has direct access to Ben, the owner of the business, if something needs escalating.

We inspect a new tenancy after the first month, again three months later and, assuming everything is being looked after properly, every six months thereafter. Landlords receive a report after each inspection.

We use trusted, vetted local contractors whose performance we continually reassess, and our out-of-hours telephone service operates from 8am until midnight.

We manage properties throughout the Isle of Wight, not just Cowes. Our team is travelling across the Island every day.

In simple terms: good tenants, proper inspections, real people answering the phone and somebody taking responsibility for your property.

For us, finding the right tenant is probably the single most important part of property management.

Referencing and credit checks matter, but we don't believe they tell you everything.

At Lancasters we personally meet prospective tenants. We look carefully at affordability, employment and income, previous landlord references, credit history, Right to Rent requirements and the circumstances behind the application.

We also use something less scientific but equally important: experience.

Our team meets tenants every day and we want to understand who is going to be living in a landlord's property before recommending them. We aren't interested in simply filling a property as quickly as possible. We are going to be managing the tenancy afterwards, so we don't want to manage a problem tenant any more than the landlord does.

That approach is reflected in our results. As of September 2026, our managed portfolio currently has zero rent arrears and our average void between tenancies is around two days.

Our aim isn't just to find a tenant. It is to find a good tenant who pays the rent, looks after the property and hopefully stays.

Lancasters charges £250 + VAT to set up a new fully managed property and then 12% + VAT of the monthly rent for ongoing full management.

That includes marketing the property, accompanied viewings, tenant selection and referencing, tenancy paperwork, move-in, rent collection, regular property inspections, landlord communication and the day-to-day management of the tenancy.

We also coordinate repairs and maintenance using trusted local contractors and help landlords keep on top of the practical and compliance responsibilities that come with letting a property.

There will always be agents offering different fee structures, and we wouldn't suggest choosing a letting agent purely because they are the cheapest.

For most landlords, one bad tenant, a long empty period or a property that isn't being properly looked after will cost considerably more than the difference between two agents' management fees.

Our job is to make owning a rental property easier while protecting the property and the income it produces.

Not necessarily for everyone.

If you enjoy dealing with tenants, organising repairs, keeping up with legislation, carrying out inspections and handling problems yourself, you may only need an agent to find and reference a tenant.

But if you want your rental property to behave more like an investment and less like a second job, good full management can be worth every penny.

Lancasters manages hundreds of rental properties across the Isle of Wight. We collect the rent, deal directly with tenants, inspect properties, coordinate maintenance, manage contractors and deal with the everyday issues that inevitably arise during a tenancy.

Our property managers Sarah and Alexis look after the day-to-day management, Stella handles the financial side and our landlords can contact Ben directly if something needs taking further.

We also provide an out-of-hours telephone service until midnight.

The objective is pretty straightforward: you own the property; you shouldn't have to run the tenancy.

We do that for you.

Yes. Having a tenant living in your property does not normally mean you have to stay with the same letting agent for the remainder of the tenancy.

You will need to check the terms and notice period in your existing management agreement, but changing managing agents during a tenancy is perfectly possible.

In fact, a significant number of the landlords who approach Lancasters already have tenants in their properties, and we help manage a smooth transition to Lancasters.

Typical reasons include poor communication, concerns about property inspections or maintenance, rent collection problems or simply feeling that nobody is properly taking responsibility for their property.

The important part is making the handover organised and straightforward. The tenancy, deposit information, compliance documentation, rent records, keys and property information all need to be dealt with properly.

If you're considering moving the management of an existing Isle of Wight rental property to Lancasters, speak to us first. We'll look at your current arrangements and explain what would need to happen.

Changing agent is often considerably less complicated than landlords imagine.

Don't automatically choose the estate agent who gives you the highest valuation or the lowest fee.

Choose the one you believe will present your home properly, reach the most buyers, negotiate well, communicate with you and tell you the truth when you need to hear it.

Lancasters Estate Agents sells property throughout the Isle of Wight from our office in Cowes.

Every property we market receives professional presentation and video marketing, exposure on Rightmove and Zoopla, and access to an audience of more than 50,000 people across our social media channels.

Our current sales figures show that we achieve an average of 98.8% of asking price for our sellers.

But we're probably better known for something less measurable.

We don't believe in estate-agent schmooze. If we think your house is worth £300,000, we'll tell you £300,000 rather than promise £350,000 just to win the instruction, only to watch the price tumble £325,000... £315,000... £300,000... £285,000... over months.

Good marketing gets people through the door. Good advice and negotiation get the sale over the line.

That's the job.

Most Island agents will tell you they offer a personal service. We'd rather show you.

Every property we list, whether it's a £150,000 flat or a £2m period home, gets professional photography, a full video tour and in-house drone footage as standard, not as something you pay extra for. That's filmed and edited by our own team, not outsourced to a template supplier.

The other difference is reach. We have an audience of more than 50,000 people across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, built up over years rather than bought. A new listing doesn't just sit on Rightmove waiting to be found, it gets pushed out to people who are already looking at Island property.

None of that replaces good advice, straight talking and knowing the local market, which is still the bulk of the job. It just means the marketing behind it doesn't let the rest of the work down.

Most don't. Some do as a paid extra. At Lancasters it's standard, on every listing.

We have in-house licensed drone pilots, so there's no waiting on an external contractor's diary or paying a separate invoice to get a property filmed properly. The same goes for video tours: every property gets one, not just the higher-value instructions.

It matters because most buyers are scrolling before they're calling. A property that shows well on video gets more of the right enquiries and fewer time-wasting viewings.

In our opinion, 100% yes. We don't say that just because we do it, we do it because it works.

People buy with their eyes.

We achieve an average of 98.8% of asking price across our sales. We can't prove marketing alone accounts for that, honest pricing and good negotiation do plenty of the work too, but strong presentation is what gets a property in front of more serious buyers in the first place, which gives good negotiation something to work with.

What we're confident of is this: a property photographed on a phone and listed with no video is starting from behind, regardless of how good the house is.

By following numbers, Lancasters, with more than 50,000 combined across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

People can't buy (or let) something if they don't know its for sale (or to let).

Ours has grown from filming properties properly and posting them consistently, not from a one-off ad spend. We'd rather have 50,000 people who actually watch the videos than 200,000 who don't.

Does social media sell/rent houses? Genuinely yes, but probably not in the way people think. It is not monkey-see, monkey-do. It is building a strong organic following of relevant followers who learn to know, like, and trust Lancasters so much they wouldn't think of looking elsewhere.

(Want to know more, we have a blog just on this subject)

Realistically, that depends more on how it's priced than how it's marketed.

An overpriced house with excellent photography still sits. A well-priced house with poor presentation still undersells or takes longer than it should. Getting both right is what moves things along: honest, informed pricing from 20+ years of Island market experience, backed by photography, video and drone coverage on every listing and exposure to our social audience from day one.

We won't promise a timeframe on a first call, because anyone who does without knowing your property and the current local market is guessing. What we can promise is that your listing won't be the reason it takes longer than it should.

It varies a lot more than people expect on an Island this size.

Plenty still work the traditional way: a photographer for stills, no video, minimal social media beyond the odd Facebook post. That's not necessarily bad practice, but it's a smaller net.

Lancasters has built in-house video, drone and social media capability rather than treating it as something to outsource occasionally. It sits alongside, not instead of, the fundamentals: knowing the Island, valuing accurately and negotiating properly. Marketing gets attention. It's the rest of the job that gets the sale agreed.

(PS. If you were to ask Ben, he'd say most agents nationally are dinosaurs!)

The same standard applies on the lettings side, it just gets less attention because people assume marketing is a sales-only thing. Many agencies treat Lettings like second class compared to Sales - not at Lancasters.

Rental listings get professional photography and video too, which shortens void periods by getting good tenants looking sooner rather than scrolling past a handful of dark phone photos. Our average void between tenancies currently sits at around two days, and presentation is part of why.

It also means landlords aren't paying separately for photography or video as an add-on. It's built into how we market a rental property from the first listing, the same as it is for a sale.