They must be out there somewhere! Being able to win more landlords is key to building a successful business in the rental industry.
According to our CEO and founder Aidan Rushby, who previously worked in the industry , this challenge of finding new landlords can be quite hard. London's rental market is very fragmented, with over 3, agencies and brands for landlords to choose from. From our research, landlords tend to be most concerned about:. You can't define a landlord by any specific demographic targeting.
Are they young? Have children? Living in London? Have specific likes or dislikes? Who knows! A landlord can be anyone, from a young student who's parents have set them up with a first rental property, to an older couple with a substantial portfolio. Digital paid advertising can be hugely expensive and yield few results. The algorithms need time, clicks and conversions in order to learn and optimise, and this is almost impossible with today's targeting options.
GDPR hasn't made life any easier! Like many other companies, we've had to wave goodbye to our mailing lists of thousands upon thousands of contacts. Not many landlords will be setting up business specific email accounts, but what does that mean in reality?
Basically, if you've got their personal email address stored, but you did't specifically ask that person to opt-in to receive marketing emails from you, then it's bye bye contact details! They must be removed and you can't contact them anymore.
Read more about the impacts of GDPR on your mailing lists! Estate Agents still suffer from a long-standing negative stereotype , and this doesn't help when trying to create a compelling and truthful marketing campaign. Have a few terrible agents ruined it for the rest of the industry? It's possible. We know there are loads of great agents out there, just check out the stats on our top partner agents!
These guys are going above and beyond and are really starting to prove that they can offer amazing customer service. But you've got to build your trusted reputation online, from a credible source. Keeping this in mind, we've put together a list of tips that will help you build your reputation and, consequently, help you to win more landlords! Nowadays, personal referrals are a very powerful way to create buzz around your brand, and to help attract new customers. But practically, where do you start?
Leverage your existing relationships: if you go the extra mile for your renters, they'll be more than happy to leave a positive review online about you, and recommend your company Don't be shy, you can:.
You know everything about the rental market in your area, right? So why not sharing your knowledge with the community? The key here is Make sure to:. There may be landlords that rely on more traditional marketing channels, so you might want to get creative and prepare stand-out promotional material to catch their attention.
You can use leaflets and direct mail, but put your personal touch on it, in order for it to be visible and stick out from the rest of the boring post and spammy advertising material you get from Virgin Media every week! If you believe lettings is a "people business" and "people buy people" then, over those months, between them meeting you and the tenant handing in their notice, you begin to build a relationship with that landlord.
You're never asking for the business - instead, you are interested in them as a person. So, how do you do get a landlord to decide they want to come and talk you before their tenant hands in their notice? They have two concerns:.
What you need to do is create value for your prospective landlord. All of you create value with your existing clients by letting their property. All you have to do is simply "be of service to your potential client". They are obsessed about the local property market and obsessed about the value of their properties.
But how do you find them? Remember, something has value as long as it is able to serve. In this sense, value you must create is the potential to serve. Why do agents keep chucking this stuff out with such messages in your promotional material?
You guys are in a profession that the British are obsessed about: property! Landlords care about their property; they are interested in what is happening to property prices in their town, not on a national or regional basis.
You might not be interested in the Tunbridge Wells property market, but the property owners landlords and homeowners of Tunbridge Wells are. Talk about the local property market to local property owners and you will have their attention and interest. Investigate affiliate businesses with whom you can partner up with mutual benefit to both parties.
Offer free seminars for landlords to attend in order to educate them. Above all, remember that landlords recommend other landlords; word of mouth is probably the most powerful tool of all. It is an accepted fact that recruiting new customers is much more costly and time-consuming than retaining existing customers.
Turning let only instructions into full management should therefore be a priority strategy for letting agents looking to maximise their income in turbulent times and retain existing landlords. For example, an accidental landlord who has inherited a property, who has a full time job and a young family, may think they can get by with a let only arrangement, thus paying a lower fee, but may not have thought about the reality of how to manage non-payment of rent and void periods, let alone how to comply with increasingly stringent legislation.
For this type of client, who is time poor, the letting agent should focus on the time and potentially money that could be saved with a full management service. Would this customer want to receive calls at 4am from their tenant who has lost their keys? Careful consideration of staff incentives and commission time-frames is vital, to ensure that they are aligned with the overall objectives of the agency.
In an increasingly competitive climate, if you want to attract new landlords and retain existing landlords, it is essential to ensure that your management service stands out. What can you offer that your competitors do not? Some areas to consider are:. What online access do you provide to landlords to help them keep up to date with the management of their property? To answer these questions you will need to think for yourself about what is realistic for your area — it is no use winning an instruction but not being able to rent the property.
Make sure you have reassuring, realistic responses ready and waiting to the following questions:. How much rent can I get for my property? How quickly can you rent it? Do you have tenants waiting to move in quickly? How much do you charge? What specifically is included in your fully managed vs let only service? Here are some examples which you can tailor to your business:. We have knowledge of the area and can achieve the best possible rent with good quality tenants include some anecdotes about the area, tailored to the landlord in question, for example local schools, transport links etc.
We are members of a redress scheme such as the PRS this means we have an escalated complaints service. We have Client Money Protection insurance such as Client Money Protect , which means that, should anything happen to us, the you will get your money back. You will need to research your local market, set your pricing competitively and explain what this includes.
Remember that it is tax deductable. If your landlord works full time this makes total commercial sense but it is up to you to show them how. Make sure that your landlord is aware that there are now over rules and regulations involved in renting your property out. Explain exactly what your full list of services entails — for example tenant referencing, tenant correspondence, compliance with government rules and regulation ….
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