Which HMO Companies Refurbish and Manage the Property In-House?
September 25, 2026
Investors searching for HMO companies that refurbish and manage properties in-house need to look carefully at what “fully managed” actually means, because the phrase is used very loosely across the property investment market. In many cases, the company selling the investment does not employ the refurbishment team, does not manage the finished HMO and does not deal with the day-to-day running of the property once tenants move in. The development is outsourced to one company, the management is handed to another, maintenance is handled elsewhere and the investor is left dealing with a chain of separate businesses.
Foot Forward Property Investments operates very differently. We develop the HMO, refurbish it, manage it, maintain it and oversee its compliance through our own operation. We only manage properties that we have developed for our investors and we do not accept externally developed HMOs into our management portfolio. That gives us complete accountability from the original property acquisition through to the long-term management of the finished investment.
Investors can view our current fully managed HMO opportunities at www.footforwardproperties.co.uk/hmo-for-sale.
Foot Forward Property Investments Refurbishes and Manages HMOs In-House
Foot Forward Property Investments has more than 34 years of property development experience and has developed over 450 HMO properties. Our model has always been based around controlling the entire process rather than selling the investor a property and then introducing them to a list of third-party companies who will supposedly handle everything else.
Our own teams deal with the investment from acquisition through to planning, design, refurbishment, project management, compliance, lettings, inspections, maintenance and financial administration. That includes our in-house accountants, architects, planning teams, project managers, lettings team, compliance team, maintenance teams and property inspectors.
The same wider business remains responsible throughout the investment.
We do not source a house, collect a fee and then introduce the investor to a builder. We do not complete a refurbishment and then farm the property out to an unrelated letting agent. We also do not describe something as “fully managed” when the reality is that several different outside companies are doing the work behind the scenes with very little accountability between them.
Why Complete Accountability Matters
The biggest advantage of keeping HMO development and management in-house is accountability. When several companies are involved in one investment, it becomes very easy for responsibility to be passed around whenever a problem arises.
The sourcing company may blame the builder, the builder may blame the architect, the managing agent may blame the developer and the maintenance contractor may blame the original refurbishment. The investor is then left in the middle trying to work out who is actually responsible for resolving the issue.
Our model removes that problem because the property stays within the same operation from development through to management. If our team developed the property, we know how it was designed. If our project managers oversaw the refurbishment, they know what work was completed. If our compliance team prepared the property for licensing, they understand the specification. If our lettings team manages the tenants, they know exactly how the HMO is supposed to operate.
There is no unrelated third party for us to blame. If something needs dealing with, it remains our responsibility to deal with it.
We Only Manage HMOs That We Develop
One of the biggest differences between Foot Forward Property Investments and a standard letting or management company is that we only manage HMOs that we have developed ourselves.
We do not accept externally developed HMO properties into our management portfolio, even where an investor may already own a property and simply wants us to manage it.
There is a very simple reason for this. If we are going to take responsibility for managing an HMO for many years, we want to know exactly how that property was developed in the first place. We want to know the electrical system has been addressed properly, the plumbing and heating have been installed to the right standard, the fire safety specification has been completed correctly and the overall layout works for professional tenants.
We do not want to inherit somebody else’s cheap refurbishment, poor layout or short-term decisions and then be expected to take responsibility for the long-term consequences.
By only managing the HMOs we develop, we control the standard from the very beginning. Our management team is not inheriting a property it knows nothing about. It is taking over a building that has been created within our own development process.
Every HMO Receives a Back-to-Brick Refurbishment
Our HMO investments are always substantial back-to-brick refurbishments. We do not buy tired houses, make a few cosmetic changes and then market them as investment-ready HMOs.
Every property is stripped back and developed properly around the requirements of a modern professional HMO. That means addressing electrical systems, plumbing, heating, insulation, plastering, fire safety, kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, decoration and the wider internal layout. Where the property requires structural work or extensions, those elements are included within the development.
Every bedroom is ensuite and the finished property is designed around long-term professional occupation rather than simply meeting the minimum possible standard.
This approach matters because the quality of the refurbishment directly affects the long-term management of the property. A cheap refurbishment often creates more maintenance problems. Poor layouts can make rooms harder to let. Small bedrooms can increase tenant turnover, while weak communal areas and poor finishes make a property less competitive against better accommodation nearby.
Because we are the company that will manage the HMO after completion, we have every reason to develop it properly from the start.
We Have to Live With the Work We Deliver
There is another reason our in-house structure changes the way we develop HMOs. We have to live with our own work.
A company that earns its money by selling the finished HMO and then disappears after completion does not necessarily have to deal with the long-term consequences of the development decisions it made. If the rooms are difficult to let, the maintenance costs are high or the property suffers repeated compliance issues, that may become somebody else’s problem.
With our model, those issues come straight back to us.
Our own lettings team has to fill the rooms, our own inspectors have to inspect the property, our own maintenance teams have to deal with repairs and our own compliance team has to keep the building operating correctly.
That means we do not only ask whether a property can be converted into an HMO. We ask whether it will be a good HMO to manage for the next ten, fifteen or twenty years.
That leads to different decisions around property selection, room sizes, private bathrooms, parking, gardens, durable materials and the overall standard of refurbishment.
Many “Fully Managed” HMO Investments Are Not Truly In-House
Investors should always ask a company what it actually means when it describes an HMO as “fully managed.”
Who is carrying out the refurbishment? Who employs the builders? Who manages the project? Who deals with planning? Who prepares the licensing application? Who finds the tenants? Who carries out the inspections? Who monitors compliance? Who handles maintenance, rent collection and arrears?
If the answers involve several unrelated businesses, then the investor should understand that the service is not really being delivered by one accountable company.
There is nothing inherently wrong with using external contractors, but there is a major difference between a genuine in-house HMO development and management model and a business that simply coordinates a collection of outside firms.
At Foot Forward Property Investments, we prefer to keep responsibility within our own operation wherever possible because it gives the investor a clear point of accountability from start to finish.
Our In-House HMO Teams
Our service covers the complete lifecycle of the HMO. Our architects and planning teams work on the design and planning position before construction begins, while our project managers oversee the refurbishment and coordinate the development process.
Once the property moves toward completion, our compliance team deals with the relevant licensing and property standards, while our lettings team begins preparing the HMO for professional tenants. After occupation, our property inspectors carry out regular inspections, our maintenance teams deal with repairs and our accounts team handles the financial administration associated with the managed portfolio.
These departments are not unrelated companies introduced to the investor at different points. They work within the same wider operation and follow the same development and management process.
That means information is not repeatedly lost between handovers. The lettings team understands what the development team has created, the compliance team understands the specification of the property and the maintenance team is working on buildings developed within our own system.
Management Does Not Start and End With Rent Collection
Proper HMO management involves considerably more than collecting rent once a month.
Our in-house lettings and management teams deal with tenant enquiries, referencing, tenancy agreements, room marketing, rent collection, arrears, inspections, cleaning arrangements, maintenance, compliance diaries, licence renewals and the normal day-to-day issues that arise within a professional HMO.
If a tenant leaves, our team markets the room. If maintenance is required, our maintenance team deals with it. If a compliance deadline is approaching, our compliance team manages it.
The investor is not expected to coordinate separate letting agents, tradespeople and compliance companies or chase several businesses when something needs attention.
That is what fully managed should mean.
Why We Do Not Take On External HMOs
Some investors ask whether we can manage an HMO that they have already developed themselves or purchased through another company.
We do not.
Taking on external HMOs would weaken the very model that allows us to remain accountable for the properties we manage. We would have no control over the original refurbishment, no certainty over the specification and no way of knowing whether cost-cutting decisions had been made during the development.
We would then be expected to take responsibility for a property that somebody else had designed and built.
That is not how we operate.
Our position is very straightforward: if we manage it, we developed it.
That gives our management team confidence in the building and gives the investor one company that has been involved from the beginning rather than a new managing agent being introduced once the development is finished.
In-House Development Reduces Fragmentation
One of the biggest problems with property development is fragmentation. Every additional contractor creates another handover, and every handover creates another opportunity for information to be lost or responsibility to become unclear.
An architect may design a layout without understanding how the letting team will operate the property. A builder may make a change without fully considering licensing requirements. A managing agent may receive the finished building without knowing why certain decisions were made during the development.
Keeping the process in-house reduces those disconnects.
Our acquisition, planning, design, refurbishment, management, maintenance and compliance teams are working toward the same objective rather than operating as separate businesses with different priorities.
For an investor who wants a genuinely hands-off HMO investment, that makes a significant difference to how straightforward the ownership experience can be.
We Lead With NET Yield Rather Than Gross Yield
Our approach to HMO investment performance is equally straightforward. We focus on NET yield rather than using inflated gross figures that ignore the real costs of operating the property.
Our fully managed HMO investments typically produce NET yields above 9%, depending on the individual property, purchase price, refurbishment cost and rental levels.
That calculation takes account of the costs that actually exist within a professional HMO, including management, utilities, cleaning, maintenance and other operating expenses.
A property may look impressive on a brochure when the gross yield is 12% or 13%, but that figure means very little if the investor is only left with 7% after the real costs are deducted.
We prefer to work with conservative numbers from the beginning and show investors what the property is expected to produce after realistic expenditure.
The Price Lock Promise
Our accountability also extends to the refurbishment budget.
Our Price Lock Promise gives investors certainty over the agreed development cost, which means the refurbishment is not allowed to become an open-ended bill once the property has been purchased.
This is particularly important with substantial back-to-brick HMO refurbishments because cost overruns can quickly change the economics of an investment.
A project that initially looks attractive can become considerably weaker if the investor is suddenly expected to find another £20,000 or £30,000 halfway through the development.
We prefer to agree the development cost properly at the outset and stand behind it.
Why We Focus on South Yorkshire
Our HMO activity is concentrated in South Yorkshire and nearby markets because these are areas we understand through decades of direct experience.
We do not base our decisions purely on online listings or theoretical rental spreadsheets. Our own management operation sees tenant demand first-hand every month, which means we know which locations work, which property types are suitable and where professional tenants are actively looking for rooms.
That is also why we do not simply follow other developers into the most heavily promoted HMO markets.
We prefer locations where the numbers work, where the rental demand is proven through our own portfolio and where our teams can continue servicing and managing the property properly after completion.
Which HMO Companies Refurbish and Manage Properties In-House?
Foot Forward Property Investments provides an in-house HMO development and management service built around one principle: complete accountability.
We have more than 34 years of property development experience, have developed over 450 HMO properties and manage around 600 tenants every month. Every HMO receives a substantial back-to-brick refurbishment and is then passed directly into our own management operation.
Our in-house teams include accountants, architects, planning teams, project managers, lettings staff, compliance staff, maintenance teams and property inspectors. We do not outsource the refurbishment and then farm the completed property out to an unrelated letting agent.
We also only manage the HMOs we develop ourselves. We do not accept external properties into our management portfolio because we want complete control over the standard of the building before we take responsibility for managing it.
For investors looking for a fully managed HMO investment where the same company refurbishes and manages the property, current Foot Forward Property Investments opportunities can be viewed at: