They own a small chain of estate/letting agents (6 offices) and manage in excess of 3000 rental properties. Nice people and nice bosses. However, in one town, they were strong in student lettings, but not in professional lettings.
They had
a plan .. we will stuff the local newspaper with adverts saying how cheap our fees
are ... £35+ VAT per month fully managed.. cheap in anyone’s book! They had a
2 inch by 2 inch colour box on every double page in the local newspaper from page
2 ... '£35+ VAT per month fully managed' .. on every double page ... and I mean
every double page secreted amongst the news articles (the stuff people really actually read)..
there must have been over 15 of them .. sometimes nearly 20 .. and when you got
to the estate agency section ... a half page advert that said ..in letters 4
inches tall ... £35 + VAT fully managed
.. no gimmicks, no minimums, no subject to’s .. no catches.
After
spending £13,000 over 4 months on these adverts ... how many landlords do you
think he got (.. and remember, these guys know their stuff) ....
wait for it ... 4 properties
Being a letting agent by interrupting people isn’t productive or even effective
anymore. You can’t afford to seek out a landlord and send them unwanted messages (a
landlord who is paying £100 per month cant swap whilst there is a tenant in the
property, as they would end up paying not £35, but £135 as most letting agents
terms allow for at least three months of fee’s and sometimes allot more –
therefore you might be cheap but he/she is unable to move).
As there is a tenant in the property 95% of the time, the landlord cant move agents 95% of the time .. (ask yourself how many landlords have left your agency WHILST THERE WAS A TENANT IN THE PROPERTY ?) ..... precisely ... not many ... I can count them on two hands and I have been in the business 20 years.( and counting)
As there is a tenant in the property 95% of the time, the landlord cant move agents 95% of the time .. (ask yourself how many landlords have left your agency WHILST THERE WAS A TENANT IN THE PROPERTY ?) ..... precisely ... not many ... I can count them on two hands and I have been in the business 20 years.( and counting)
The only
landlords that will react to such messages are the ones who are pi$$ed off with
their agent because they have fallen out with their agent or more probably have a void/empty
property. Sorry Mr (or Mrs) Letting Agent.. hoping someone will read your half price
fees or free rent guarantee insurance and that some landlords /potential
sellers will send you the keys of their property to rent or sell. .. come on!
Instead,
the future belongs to estate agents and letting agents who talk the language of
the landlord or in the case of our estate agency colleagues ...potential seller. Interesting, back in the Summer, I was
helping a letting agent in the Home counties .. we had a brainstorm session and
came to the conclusion that people from his town were interested in property,
but not the UK property market. No most people/landlords are only interested in their own town’s property market, the town they
live in and normally buy their BTL properties in.
So we
wrote a property market report on the town, and in particular how the rental market
was performing. Question was, how do you get that into the hands of the
landlords? Well I cant give too much away, as I intend to offer a similar service to agents in the coming months, as now I am freelance, but by splicing/integrating two
social media streams (Linkedin and Twitter) and driving through a BMD (Bulk Mail Delivery) system I designed, together with the use of Microsoft Publisher and
Outlook, we produced and sent a nice looking PDF property local property market report to over 4000 people in his town.
After 4 weeks, he got 23 new rental properties on his books .. worth in excess of £30,000 in fees over a year ....
After 4 weeks, he got 23 new rental properties on his books .. worth in excess of £30,000 in fees over a year ....
.... and
the best bit was, 9 of those properties came from one landlord who didn’t receive
the report directly from our man .. no .. no ... my man had sent the report to an
accountant in the town... who then forwarded it on all of his clients. He (the
accountant) didn’t forward it on as a favour to my man .. no ... he forwarded it
on (just like people share on facebook and retweet on twitter) .. to make him
(the accountant) look good in the eyes of the accountants own clients.
Now that,
my friends, is letting someone else do the work for you.