Landlords don’t, you just love ‘em! Most landlords are
reasonable, but some aren’t. The ones you have to bend over backwards for on
service or fee, the ones that suck up all your time. The landlord may barter
for a price so low as to remove most or all of your profit. The landlord may
agree to a price but then return to negotiate further. They may commit to
buying to fully managed service and then change their mind to tenant find half
way through (but still expect you to sort the rubbish out when they need the
help on an eviction. They may pick your brain on what to buy for the next BTL
property but then go to another agent to manage it. They may try to blag you
with tales of the incredibly low fees which one of your competitors is prepared
to offer. They may refuse or fail to pay some, or all, of their bill and feel
completely justified in doing so. To me it is clear – you
can’t please all the landlords all the time.
In this collection of Landlords there will be landlords who you
can guide to be better Landlords. If they won’t convert to being the type of
Landlord you want then you need to ‘sack the Landlord’. This means nicely
telling them that you no longer wish to deal with them. You are running a
business not a charity. Landlord excentricity does not mean doing everything
the landlord wants, you can’t afford it.
I have seen on many occasions how some Landlords can destroy
morale in your lettings agency colleagues and may be superior, coarse, impolite,
difficult, and/or unreasonable individuals who treat your employees improperly.
Too many letting agencies turn a blind eye to this as ‘the landlord is always
right’ and refuse to defend their employees, thereby killing morale and in the
end actually creating an environment of worse landlord service.
While certainly plenty of staff provide poor landlord service on
a daily basis, there are also more than a few cases in which it is the landlord
who is at fault. Refusing to side with staff when a landlord is being
unreasonable sends the message that pound notes—even one pried from the pockets
of an arrogant and stroppy human being .... matters more than the employees.
You might as well send a group email to all your staff ... ‘We don’t give a monkeys what you have to put
up with as long as we collect every pound of income obtainable.’ Besides,
isn’t it disrespectful to anyone’s basic sense of justice that the rude landlord
should receive superior service and treatment than those who are polite and
pleasant? Just think what your nice landlords would think?
All I say is this. How many of you have taken on that pain in
the ar$e landlord, with the scummy properties, that won’t do them up, that is
constantly on the phone to you, sucking you dry... and all for 5% tenant find
fees? Well my friends, when you say you haven’t got enough time to do some
landlord farming, why not do everyone a favour and sack them .. yes, sack the
landlord .. tell them to sling their hook. Your staff will love you, you will
have more time to go and get some decent landlords, who will pay you top dollar
for the service you can provide? Just
have a think.
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