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Hungry Landlords and Pirate Dogs

OK, look at my profile picture, I am not exactly thin. I like my food. However, two months ago, I did embark on this 5:2 diet (eat normal for five days and 600 calories on two days). It works I tell you. I have gone down a belt size (although walking Joey the dog 2 miles a day must help as well)

In fact here is a picture of him dressed up as a Pirate Dog .. and why are they called Pirate Dog's ... 'coz they AAARRRGGGHHH! 



Anyway, back to food. Dont you love those all you can eat buffets. I ahve talked about the m before, but I want to talk about them again, as we as letting agents can learn allot from them. You see you dont go to those all you can eat buffets and just put one thing on your plate, do you?  No no no .. that's not what they are all about. Its pile it high. Your're hungry .. you are ravenous! You see the ravenous person at the all you can eat Chinese buffet is happy to take one more item, try something new, listen to their mates when they say 'You should try this', one extra spring roll, one extra spoon of crispy chicken, so their plate  is higher than the town clock. This ravenous person doesn't spend a lot of time comparing this food to that food, or saying 'no thank you' or avoiding certain items. If it's interesting, "sure I'll try a little bit. I can always come back." You are open to anything, try anything.

 Think of the complete opposite, inward looking wont try anything, wont to talk to anyone. That's our person who shields themselves against the world, not prepared to listen, not prepared to try and most certainly doesn't want to speak to anyone. they are shielding themselves. The shielded person walking down the street avoids eye contact with the homeless person, the ‘Chugger’ (Charity Mugger), ignores a request from the petition signer and certainly doesn't help an old lady across the road.
And this is precisely the contrast, between the two things that your potential landlords are going to notice, when they see your advert, walk past your door, look/ignore your advertising campaign. Either you're selling to landlords who are ravenous for what you offer, who are open to hearing what you have to say, who are fans...Or you're selling to landlords who are actively protecting themselves, guarding against interruption or a mistake or worse.
How can you possibly have a strategy about what you're going to do next until you determine which landlord mindset you're marketing to? Here's the No.1 fact though: in any given time, in any given situation, a landlord is either ravenous or shielded. You, Mr or Mrs letting Agent, need to decide which sort of landlord you'll be telling your story to, because one approach won't work on the other type of landlord.
So, what is it to be, ‘ravenous landlords’ that hang on every word you say or ‘shielded landlords’ that have the barriers up? It has to be the first landlord type .. the ravenous one, doesn’t it? So why the hell do you letting agents chuck out stuff that isn’t remotely interesting to shielded landlords, let alone ravenous ones? Remember, landlords couldn’t give two hoots if you are a member of ARLA, 40% of deposits in the UK don’t have any form of Client Money Protection, so if the agent goes bust the landlord will have a huge bill to pay .. if 40% of landlords don’t even know that, your ARLA membership, or the fact you are the best property manager in the world mean nothing, you know the difference between a s21 and s8 notice or you go the extra mile MEANS NOTHING.

To be ravenous, they are hungry .. hungry for something .. and it isn’t your bullet pointed crap on your website .. landlords aren’t hungry for this rubbish ....( if your website or marketing material has anything like this below .. you need the firing squad)
  • Marketing on the Internet - you have exposure on all the large portals such as Rightmove.
  • Google - Being on Google is important. No other agent in XXXX matches our Google rankings. Tenants can easily find us at the top of the page when searching for property.
  • Service – XXXXX  prides itself on ensuring that we act in the best interests of our landlords and provide a comprehensive service backed by all of the appropriate insurances, as well as operating a complaints procedure, should the need arise.
  • Location – XXXXX are positioned in the city centre in a high profile location which maximises exposure for anyone doing searches on foot.
  • Staff - We have a programme of continuous staff development to ensure that the experts dealing with your asset are always up to speed with the current issues, as well as changes in legislation. We monitor our safety contractors to make sure that they have all of the required professional qualifications and memberships at all times.
  • Local Press - tactical use of various local publications helps your property stand out.
  • Database Marketing - unlike most agents we have an active database of tenants who are qualified and ready to move.
  • Social Media - always the first to embrace technology, our use of Social Media sites such as Facebook and Twitter gives you an advantage by exposing your property to a wider audience than via traditional letting agent marketing.

 No, landlords  are hungry for answers for two things and two things only ..
1.    How well is my current property performing?
2.    Where is the next one I want to buy?
Answer those questions and you will make a killing in lettings .. How do you do that ??? Put the kettle on and read all 80 posts in this blog .. I tell you in the blog exactly how to do it .. for free, or you cant be bothered to read them all, they are distilled into the two three minutes videos I posted last month ..



 Or if you want me to teach you how to do it, come on one of 1 day courses (CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS). 

 I don’t need to prove it works,  its already been proved to work. Read the 20 recommendations I have kindly been given on Linkedin .. then, my blog reading followers, decide for yourself