It's so
tempting to get straight to the issue, especially since you're certain that
you're right.
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You know
that many landlords don’t move agents from you, why? Is it because you are the
best most fabulous letting agent in the town? Is it because you are the friendliest?
The most professional? Your ARLA exam
results had the highest % score in the year you took them? No .. its none of those
things (well it might be for your agency .. but think it through the eyes of
all the landlords who are with the below average and rubbish agent down the
road who offers a really rubbish service and you always wonder why landlords aren’t
leaving them in their droves?)
It gets
even stranger when you think most landlords don’t really love their letting
agent, they just tolerate them (not you Mr(s) letting agent – but again think
through the eyes of the landlords on with Mr Below Average and Rubbish agent
(as above)).
If
landlords aren’t ‘easy go’ ... then they most certainly aren’t ‘easy come’.
The
challenge of getting more landlords for your lettings agency is based on
relationships (ie meeting them , building a relationship to a point they love
you more than their existing agent). You have to prove to that landlord you are
better, that you care, you are more trustworthy and offer better customer
service (and you can’t do that if you don’t have a relationship with them) and you can’t do that
unless you have their property... chicken the egg scenario.
But I say you
can prove trust and customer service without having the property.. lettings is a
people business, not a property business. You won’t prove it putting adverts
stating your are more professional and friendly and more ARLA registered and
you have more property than any other agent – everyone ignores adverts .. so
why are your lettings adverts any different?
Talk to
the landlord as a person, tell them stuff THEY are interested in. Talk about
what is happening in the local property market. It’s all about comparing and
contrasting one town’s property market against another’s, one area/housing
estate in your town verse another area/housing estate in your town or even one
street against another street. Talking about values and how they have gone up
and down in value.
Barnsley property prices rise by 35% more than Dewsbury’s
over the last 5 years
Do semis on the Chandlers Moor estate make good investments for Buy to Let?
Kingston property
prices .. the long climb back to 2007 prices
Maidenhead sees 9.3% return on investing in the rental
market
Rose Hill or Pear Tree of Bath – what is the best area?
... and how
should you write them .. a bit like this (note the names of the town and
suburbs have been changed to protect the innocent!)
One
of the final chunks of census data has recently been released by the
Government, and for those of you that like to look at the data, it is a
treasure trove of information. Information is so important when making
decisions on what (or not) to buy when investing in property.
A
few weeks ago, I was discussing the roads around Apple Hill and Pine Tree.
Today, I want to look at Churchdown on the South side of Haywards Heath. The
census data allows anyone to look at the data for housing estates, but even
better down to individual roads. Such information allows us to weigh up
potential hotspots in the rental market and show potential landlords where there
could be an opportunity.
Therefore,
I looked at Churchdown as whole. There are just over 15,000 people living in
6,203 properties in the suburb of which 43% of the property are detached
compared to the Haywards Heath average of 23%. However, it is the home
ownership percentages that really get me interested, as it is this information,
tied in with our intimate knowledge of the market, where we can match tenant
demand to an under supply of rental properties. In Churchdown, of those 6,203
households, 31% own their property without a mortgage and additional 40%
households own their property with a mortgage. Only 9.3% (or be exact 578
households) are in the private rented sector in Churchdown (compared with the Haywards
Heath average of 15.6%). With such excellent demand from tenants but a below
average percentage of available rental properties, this could be the right area
to purchase your next buy to let investment.
Therefore,
if you are considering buying a property for investment in the near future, as
I don't sell property, I am always happy to give you my considered opinion on
which property to buy (or not as the case may be) to give you what you want
from your investment. If you are a landlord, new or old, we’re certainly more than happy for you to pop in and see us at
our office's on Lets Bee Avenue for a chat or email me direct on
XXXX@XXXXXXX
or like this ..
A recent article, when we spoke about
the difference between Hemel Hempstead and High Wycombe property markets,
produced a number emails and a couple of people popped by my offices for a chat
about investing in buy to let.
Many people in our part of Buckinghamshire,
over the last few years, have seen the buy to let market
become all about nest egg investment. It is fuelled by pitiful interest rates
on building society savings. It reflects the fact that building society savings
accounts are paying half a per cent interest and pension returns are struggling
to match expectations, turning more and more people into landlords to secure
their future. So what can you expect from your
rental property investment? In the short term, rental yields are important, and
in Hemel Hempstead, the average annual yield is in the order of 3.44% per year.
However, that is based on averages, and as most landlords in Hemel Hempstead
tend to buy starter home homes, apartments and terraced houses, the majority of
which are achieving 4.5% to 6.2% per year depending on location and price in
the town.
In the long term though, the question
of capital growth is as important, if not more important (because if you have
great short term yields, but the value of the property doesn't keep up with the
rest of the market, you will have an asset that in real terms is dropping). As we mentioned in a previous article, average property values in Hemel
Hempstead currently stand at £270,300. Property values in Hemel Hempstead have
risen by 12.65% in the last 5 years. On the other hand, property investment is
a long term game, so I wanted to share with you the research I did for a couple
of Hemel Hempstead landlords. Roll the clock back 10 years to 2004, the average
value of a property in Hemel Hempstead was £206,100. 15 years to 1999 makes
interesting reading, as the average Hemel Hempstead property value was only £130,600,
30 years makes it £58,200 and just for a bit of fun, we looked at 1974 at it
was £13,050!
However, if one looks at say a 30 year
investment period, if you had put £58,200 into the stock market in 1984 instead
of buying a house in Hemel Hempstead, your shares today would be worth
£234,690. Put the same £58,200 money in a Building Society account and you
reinvested the interest back into the account, and your Building Society passbook
would have £256,070. Compare that with the property market in Hemel Hempstead
and the property would be worth £270,300 today. Not much difference to the
building society until you realise that with the rental property you would have
received in excess of £178,400 in rent over those 30 years, which wouldn’t have
received with the Building Society account!
If you would like to
discuss my thoughts on the rental markets in Hemel Hempstead, feel free to pop
into our offices on St. John Street, or pick up the phone or email me on xxxxxxx@xxxx.com
Write articles like this, email them to every landlord in your town (see previous articles on how to get most of email addresses of landlords in your town), drop them into newspaper advertorials, drop a three or four into a newsletter and deliver it to every mover and shaker in your town, drop them into a blog with some other stuff (the other stuff is very important to make people keep coming back to your blog).... and you will increase your lettings agency monthly turnover by 20%to 30% within 12 months ... how do I know this... because its been proved time and time before and if you are still thinking I am talking rubbish, take a look at my Linkedin profile and read the 44 testimonials / recommendations for my current role and my previous roleShalom my friends
(For more than 130 stories like this on getting landlords to swap agents.. please visit the blog http://how-to-grow-your-lettings-agency.blogspot.co.uk/ )