Friends come and go but foes and detractors accumulate. It’s much easier and less expensive to serve existing landlords than to get new ones. Your existing landlords are the number one asset you have. Here’s a story about a lettings agency that’s has never figured that out.
A friend of mine in Round Table owns a couple of Bacon
Lettuce and Tomato’s properties (a play on acronyms ...BLT’s is close enough to
BTL (Buy to Let). He was telling me over a pint of the refreshing stuff he had
owned these properties for years and gave both properties to this one agency,
as the girl at the office was a top draw. Anyway, it transpires she had been
poached by one of the corporate’s a couple of years ago, he told me they
started to have problems, small to begin with, but steadily getting worse. Not
returning phone calls turned into sloppy admin, turned into missed quarterly
inspections to cocking up the inventory so most of the deposit had to be
returned even though the tenant was clearly at fault.
He spoke to the current property manager, who apologised for
the inconvenience and said she would help. But the problems didn’t go away. So
he decided to go above her. He sent the MD some very angry emails. The only response:
a voice mail from the property manager, who offered to help again.He then started to get bulk emails and even a flyer from
this same lettings company, inviting him to use their lettings agency
(obviously a bought in list of landlords that they failed to cross reference
against their own database). Clearly whoever sent this mailing did not know he
was already a customer, and a narked off one at that! He was furious and called
the lettings agency, gave notice and switched agents.
Meanwhile the direct mail pieces still kept coming and to
rub salt into the wound they said "Our landlords are 100% happy"
which was a blatant lie because my friend was far far from a happy bunny.
Even after he gave notice and left, they continued to email him
stuff via the eshot system and even tried to take a direct debit for landlord
insurance four months after leaving them. It took more emails and phone calls
to straighten that out! And he still gets mail from them every few months. As
the second pint slipped down, he said every time he gets anything from them it
makes him mad, and he swearshe will never, ever do business with them again.
Now here’s a letting agency company with good marketing,
good use of direct mail, and good (though otherwise dishonest) advertising, who
doesn’t know how to keep a landlord happy. They only know how to replace angry landlords
with ignorant ones. (not stupid – ignorant only because they won’t realise what
they are letting themselves in for).
Very, very dumb and very expensive. We all know it would
cost these agents a lot less money to do a good job for their existing landlords
than to acquire new ones.. It was certainly a major hassle for my friend to
change and start over with a new letting agent.
You see, I would say that you shouldn’t lose a landlord over
incompetence and apathy. Friends come and go, but foes and detractors
accumulate. You can’t afford to lose a friend, especially over incompetence and
apathy, so fellow letting agents, don’t let this happen to you. Take good care
of your landlords and maintain a personal relationship with them – remember
Doctor Watkin’s lettings mantra LETTINGS
IS A PEOPLE BUSINESS NOT A PROPERTY
BUSINESS . If you do a bad job at this, all the great marketing in the world
will just put you out of business faster. Common sense dictates good agents
know better than to treat landlords this way, but it’s still worth saying again:
In your rush to get new landlords, don’t forget the old ones.
(Want proof? Here is a link to all my Linkedin testimonials placed in to once document - they can also be seen on Linkedin profile as well... and I challenge you to pick the phone up and ask them yourself .. these arent made up) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0d59TaH3c33RXNiTjhNdXVOU2s/edit?usp=sharing and examples of the sort of articles that I write for you here ... https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0d59TaH3c33MWVEMjdZQllzZ1k/edit?usp=sharing )
Am I expensive? .. Yes, but remember price and value are not
the same .... price is what you pay yet value is what you get. But what would
be the value TO YOU of organically growing your lettings agency by 15% to 20%
(in some exceptional cases 30% in a year?). I can help you grow your lettings
agency, but only if you are prepared to put the hard work in as well, have
patience and play lettings for the long game. Only agents with open minds need
apply. My email is christopher@chrstopherwatkin.co.uk
, my website www.christopherwatkin.co.uk
and my mobile 07950 147 572.
For more articles like this, in fact over 160 articles on how to attract landlords to yuor lettings agency .. click here .. http://how-to-grow-your-lettings-agency.blogspot.co.uk/
For more articles like this, in fact over 160 articles on how to attract landlords to yuor lettings agency .. click here .. http://how-to-grow-your-lettings-agency.blogspot.co.uk/
Photography by ~ *hiro008