2. Know everything about the property on their books, down to broadband speed, mobile phone signal, upload signal, satellite capability ….
3. Because of No. 2 (above), they will not waste time showing properties that do not fit the prospective tenant’s criteria.
4. They will understand that transparency of information brings them a better qualified prospective tenant and reduces time on wasted viewings. They will embrace transparency, not fear it.
5. They will used digital products, tech, and social web tools to better serve and communicate with their landlords and tenants. Some suggestions:
Walkscore – free site that allows you to identify amenities within walking distance of a property.
CFP Software – the market leading lettings and property management software.
6. They will understand and embrace the power of video.
7. They will be a member of a regulatory body such as NALS or ARLA.
8. They will understand the importance of client money protection and become a SAFEagent.
9. They will attend events, learn, and grow as business people. They will network on-line for the same reason, and to reach out to more prospective tenants and landlords.
10. They will understand that people demand instant gratuity, and will answer their phones within three rings, reply to emails within 2 hours, reply to tweets within 1 hour. They will employ a Digital Marketing & Web Assets Manager to take them to the next level.
11. They will understand that tenants work during the day, and will therefore facilitate viewings in the evenings and at weekends.
12. They will get to know their landlords and tenants with a view to a long term relationship.
13. They will use systems to manage their properties, viewings, maintenance etc to ensure efficiency.
14. They will collect data at every interaction with a prospective tenant and build a mailing list.
15. They will have a social cause, showing that they care and want to give back … perhaps supporting a charity like Shelter or a community project in their local area.
16. They will have a Complaints Procedure in place and deal with complaints in an amicable and professional manner, listening and learning from any negative feedback, not ignoring it in the hope that it will go away.
17. They will develop an on-line brand, reputation, and following that will add value to the business, should they decide to sell in the future.
18. They will support novice landlords in making good choices, giving free advice.
I used to think that you could never learn less, but whilst being applied to listening to ‘experts’, but I’m not so sure now.
My reason for this is rather cynical, I conceded to that, but the logic is based on a reality.
Property: There is and are many ways of getting involved in property and now (2012) there are still many ways and many more being ‘touted’ on a daily basis. To understand these ‘systems’ there are many people that will have you believe that they are the ‘font of knowledge’, and they might be, they might be vaguely knowledgeable, they may be very good speakers but they also may be stealing your time.
We have: Rent to rent, lease options, sandwich options, delayed completion, assisted sale, contract trading (these are a few of the more creative applications) also are you doing standard BTL, houses or flats, student lets, multi-lets, holiday lets, HMO’s, development (there is probably more). None of these methods or applications are easy, none of them can be done without a huge application of time and energy – and that’s just to run the business. If you add into that the time it takes to listen to the ‘bank of experts’, decipher what they say and put it into action, it could be a long time – even with no guarantee that it’s either the right thing for your plan, you can fit it in to your life or it’s legal!
Time is a finite commodity, time cannot be replaced and time belongs to you. An investment in anything dictates time as well as money, and there is nothing wrong with this BUT investing your time in what ‘appears’ to be a clever investment could take you away from what you ‘should/can’ be doing.
One thing is for sure, only you can decide where you put your time, and another sure thing is that some people want to use your time to supplement theirs. The ego of the guru, as insecure as it is, will always want to devour your time.
You can always learn less if what you thought you were learning wastes your time.
Nick is delighted to have been invited to speak at the third Annual NALS Conference on October 4th 2012 in London. (National Approved Lettings Scheme).
He attended last year and thought the quality of the speakers was excellent – from representatives of government to industry leaders – so he feels privileged to share the same stage.
It’s always interesting to discuss how estate and lettings agents use & optimise the social web.
People talk of twitter and FaceBook as if they are some kind of Holy Grail … to collect as many followers and “likes” as you can.
Personally, I cannot see a great deal of value in that and certainly not any kind of tangible ROI (return on investment).
A twitter follow or a FaceBook “like” is akin to someone passing a restaurant and saying “that food smells nice” but not actually going in and buying something! It might work in a marketing context, but not in a social proof or commercial context.
When people are looking to rent or buy a property, they are looking for information about the area … the best schools, the crime rate, local facilities and amenities, transport facilities, commute times to cities etc.
They are looking for information on the area, not which estate agent has the best properties, because, at this stage, they almost certainly have not decided where exactly they are going to live.
At the moment, prospective buyers and renters have to visit a multitude of different sites around the web to get this information.
Therefore, I am of the view, that the agent who curates all this information in one place will be more find-able on the web, and prospectives customers will find them through all this curated information, and this will attract them to the agent by default.
I would love to see an agent listing everything from broadband speed in the area to mobile phone service in the area, along with WalkScore , commute times, leisure amenities, schools, crime rates, etc etc etc. For instance, I recently heard from a lettings agent that people will turn down their dream home if the mobile phone signal is poor. If they knew this in advance from the property listing … (This would have the added benefit of not wasting time on viewings, as the client would already know that the property had poor mobile phone signal).
Once the prospective buyer or renter has this information at their fingertips, in one place, they will then drill down to specific properties that meet their needs.
I believe that the agent who curates all this information in their listings will be a winner for both sales and lettings as they capture the client at an earlier stage in the process of searching for property.
The agent who supplies and curates that kind of information will be found by buyers via google, rather than using the web to go and look for buyers, which is much more time consuming.
It all boils down to your information being relevant on the social web. Where what you have merges with what a buyer needs, at the exact moment in time they are seeking it, you ignite the power of relevance. You have solved the buyer’s problem and captured their attention.
Agents can demonstrate their knowledge of the area through blogs, build social proof through networks, and build relationships by answering questions about their locale. They can show that they are part of the fabric of the community, plugged in to the pulse of the area. Web contributions can all be signed off with a “call to action”, which will drive traffic to their website, a particular property that is relevant to the conversation, or encourage the reader to pick up the phone or connect to start a dialogue.
Have a look at the blog I produce for Phillips and Stubbs in Rye to get a flavour of how I think a blog can drive sales & lettings.
From a sellers & Landlords perspective, an estate agent with a strong social web presence will be an attractive proposition, as they will potentially have more marketing reach. Due to the transparency of the web, buyers and sellers will be looking at who has a “following” on the web as well.
I have also advocated the use of video to many lettings and estate agents, but have yet to see any agency truly embracing video.
A video tour of the property adds google juice, ignites interest, and, if you are a lettings agent, keeps the Landlord tied in with you as you created a video as a marketing tool for their property.
Our new Property Tribes forum is sponsored by Belvoir Lettings. One of the things we are doing as part of that sponsorship is to create video ”Location Guides” with Belvoir franchisees, giving information to Landlords about where to invest. This gives Belvoir visibility in the Landlord community by providing information and value.
With so many free tools out there on the web, I wonder why lettings and sales agents are so slow to embrace “social power”. Any ideas anyone? I suspect it is because they are jaded with talks of twitter followers and FaceBook likes … and I don’t blame them as it is hard to see the value in that and the commerical ROI.
Vanessa Warwick is a former TV presenter, turned professional Landlord, consultant, and speaker. Along with her husband Nick Tadd, she founded Property Tribes, which is now the U.K.’s busiest on-line Landlord and investor community. Nick and Vanessa have just launched their new tech product, Yulpa, an on-line “property office/filo-fax” that helps you organise and manage your entire property life in one place. It comes with an iPhone app that does auto due diligence on any property being considered for purchase.
Vanessa and Nick advocate the use of technology and digital and social communications in property, and speak at events all over the U.K. as well as consulting for the BBC on property. They invest mainly in flats London and family houses in the South East and are also big advocates of holiday lets, having two upmarket holiday lets on the South Coast that achieve above-average occupancy thanks to the couple’s web efforts and vertical marketing strategies.
Remember postcards showing far away exotic destinations, with the caption “Wish you were here?” … and we did …
What a great marketing strategy, and so simple.
When it comes to property investment, I believe that we are only as good as our marketing strategies!
Without a tenant in our property, paying the rent, and thereby servicing the mortgage debt, we actually don’t have an “asset”. We have a liability!
Therefore, as Landlords, (or, indeed, lettings & sales agents) I believe that we should wear a “marketing hat” and seek to become better marketeers by using all the tools and strategies possible to ensure that we do not experience voids. Voids are bad news for Landlords and I avoid them like the plague.
I came across an interesting article recently that will help me with future marketing strategies, so I wanted to share it here.
“… When doing a study of vacationers, the happiest people were the ones in the weeks leading up to a vacation. It was all about anticipation. Again, it looks like our brain rewards us more for working toward a goal than for actually arriving there. The study actually suggests taking more frequent, shorter vacations. You know, so you can spend more time anticipating them”.
That set a few lightbulbs off in my brain.
We should market our properties – whether it be standard BTL or holiday lets – by writing descriptions and including media that tap into “anticipation happiness”.
In other words, we want to encourage the prospective tenant to visualise what it would be like to live in (or holiday) one of our properties.
It’s well known that, the more information you supply, the easier it is for someone to come to a decision, so let’s break this down into the three media we can use: Words. Photographs. Video:
Words: You must include all the standard details of the property such as number of bedrooms and bathrooms. But how about including some lifestyle descriptions?
Example: “Imagine waking up in your clean comfy two bed apartment after a refreshing night’s sleep on our quality mattress. Step outside your front door and head over to the Starbucks across the road for your morning brew before heading down to the tube station, a mere 200 metres from your front door”.
There’s a nifty little app you can use called WalkScore.
It’s a new site that allows potential buyers to research what amenities are within walking distance of a property they are interested in renting or buying.
It lists transport links, restaurants, bars, shops, schools etc. and the distance to walk to them.
It also has an augmented reality app. although I am not sure if this is available in the U.K. yet.
This little gem could also be used to market properties, giving a “walkability” score for your property.
Just put in the postcode of the property, and you will see all the data come up, along with a map that you can add into your property marketing. A simple and free marketing tool! The higher the “WalkScore”, the more attractive your property is to rent.
Join the Landlords discussion about WalkScore on Property Tribes forum >>> here.
Photographs: These are almost more important than words when it comes to property marketing. People “buy with their eyes”, and the more quality photographs you can include, the better. Statistically, 97% of people search for property on-line and professional photos are a major marketing tool and worth the expense to help your property stand out from the crowd in a competitive marketplace.
And remember, it’s a one-off expense. You only need to take the photographs once, and then you can use them in perpetuity. Money well spent if you ask me!
In a recent discussion on Property Tribes, Landlord Glenn Ackroyd conducted a survey with different qualities of photography. The results speak for themselves. View them >>> here.
So, yes, we need good quality photos of a clean and staged property with the lights on, loo seat down, flowers etc. But what about some photos that tap into “anticipation happiness”?
For BTL properties: Photos of a near-by park, coffee shop across the road, designer shops, gardens etc.
For holiday lets: Photos of the beach, photos of country walks in the area, photos of wildlife you can expect to see.
The below photo of our holiday let, “SeaBreeze” at Camber Sands, definitely taps into “anticipation happiness”. Remember, that with holiday lets, the person’s holiday starts when they are starting to look for the holiday, andanticipating it.
Notice the bottle of wine and the welcoming fire.
And this picture of the beach across the road sells the property far more than interior photos could ever do.
Video: If a picture paints a thousand words, then a video is the equivalent of ten thousand words. Again, it is a one-off expense to produce, and you can use it in perpetuity for both BTL properties and holiday lets.
Here is an example of our holiday let video:
Let people imagine themselves in your property, enjoying their life, and they are more likely to book a viewing, or make a booking!
Finally …. Promote My Place is a new site that enables owners of holiday rental accommodation to quickly and easily create a professional quality, full featured website to promote their property online.
The great thing is that you don’t need technical knowledge or design skills to create a great looking an engaging website for your holiday accommodation and it could prove an inexpensive option for those who are self-marketing, or those holiday let owners who are wanting to augment the efforts of a holiday lets agent.
With Yulpa, you can make a live property listing and include as many descriptions, words, and videos as you like. It’s a really great marketing tool that can be aggregated via twitter, FaceBook, and other social streams. And, we’ve incorporated WalkScore into it!!
So, get creative in your marketing, tap into “anticipation happiness”, and use words, pictures, and video to full effect and you can enjoy fewer voids, more viewings, and higher occupancy. What’s not to love about that … ?
Vanessa Warwick is a former TV presenter, turned professional residential Landlord, consultant, and speaker. Along with her husband Nick Tadd, she founded Property Tribes, which is now the U.K.’s busiest on-line Landlord and investor community. Nick and Vanessa have just launched their new tech product, Yulpa, an on-line “property office/filo-fax” that helps you organise and manage your entire property life in one place. It comes with an iPhone app that does auto due diligence on any property being considered for purchase.
Vanessa and Nick advocate the use of technology and digital and social communications in property, and speak at events all over the U.K. as well as consulting for the BBC on property. They invest mainly in flats London and family houses in the South East and are also big advocates of holiday lets, having two upmarket holiday lets on the South Coast that achieve above-average occupancy thanks to the couple’s web efforts and vertical marketing strategies.
