Blog Home Letting Agents The lettings agent of the future….

The lettings agent of the future….

250 days ago by admin 4

The lettings agent of the future will ….

1. Understand that people buy and area, not an agent.

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:

Imfuna – digital inventory app

DSSMove – the Rightmove for LHA tenants

RoomSketcher – free floorplan software

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.

Related reading:

Mystery shopping a lettings agent

Should a lettings agent be a landlord and do landlords make good lettings agents?

The Landlord of the future

The tenant of the future

admin

Mary Latham

Coincidentally I was talking to Aki of Dssmove move about this earlier today and to Jonathan of LettingAProperty yesterday. I think that we are about to see a huge change in the Letting Agency business. If Shelter manage to bring to England and Wales the changes that they have brought about in Scotland many Letting Agents will not survive because their business model is based on the income that they receive from both landlords and tenants. If the income from tenants stops there will be two options 1. Increase the charges to landlords 2. Reduce their profit margins. Many Agents run on very low margins, it is an expensive business with the overheads of their offices, systems and staff and I cannot see how they can reduce their margins. If this is the case will landlords pay more for their services?
Many landlord prefer to manage their own properties and only use LA’s to find tenants but in recent years on-line lettings agents have taken away a lot of this business as landlords realise that not only are there less people visiting LA’s offices but that the quality of the applicants who come from on line advertising is very high. The cost of letting via an on line agent is less than £100 with additional costs if a landlord chooses to use them for referencing/ASTS/inventories etc., and compared to the loss of the first months rent, typical cost of the High St Agents, this is very affordable. Many of us like to do our own viewings and to vet our own tenants and using an on-line introductions service is all that we need.
Those landlords who use an agent for full management expect to pay around 10% for their service but will agents be able to offer good services at 10% if that is their only source of income?
Over the last few years many of the well known Estate Agents have moved into the letting and management business as the sales side of their business has declined, they have relied on the income to pay both their letting and sales staff. Will a reduced income carry that overhead? Many landlords were tempted to use these agents because of their reputation as Estate Agents but I know many landlords who would say that Estate Agents do not always make good letting and managing agents and they have been disappointed with the level of skills that they have been providing. Letting and managing properties is a very different skills set to selling properites and many Estate Agents have failed as letting agents.
If there is regulation of Letting Agents including legislation to prevent them from charging tenants for their services …
My predictions are these
1. Very few Letting Agents will maintain High Street premises
2. Many landlords will turn to online letting agents for let only services
3. Landlords who need a full management service will be paying much more than 10%
4. Many landlords will not be able to afford to pay an agent to manage their properties and will begin to self manage.
Only the Agents with good systems and management skills will survive, they will need to train their staff to a very high standard including keeping up to date with all legislation and regulation, good communication skills, excellent telephone manners, good IT skills, salesmanship, negociating skills (to resolve problems not make sales), time management skills and, very important, the ability to ensure that contractors do what they say, when they say and to a good standard.
I could be wrong of course and only time will tell.
Follow me on Twitter @landlordtweets
- John Gell
  
  That’s an interesting and sobering read
  Mary, and I think you are right. There is likely to be a schism with only the
  business-like, competent and professional agents left and whose clients are
  willing to pay higher fee levels, and self-managing landlords sourcing tenants
  either themselves or through online services.
  
  The difficulty I see is that although
  there are self-managing landlords who have the skill set and knowledge to do a
  business-like and legally compliant job, there are very many who don’t. How is
  that going to be addressed? On-line forums such as this are a great source of
  advice and support but how are the less aware landlords to raise their
  capability?
M young

Give money to shelter!! Good one. These guys have been devoting a lot of time to messing about with tenant groups consisting of non-homeless risk individuals , students and young profs out fr a bit of aggro-one would think better use of their time actually helping the homeless problem at coal face. I note their retail uptake has rocketed over past 2 years. Not for profit often stands for inefficiency; simply balance a high property and wage overhead against turnover to decrease profit profile! Give money to shelter. Burn it or give it to cancer research or something local tht has a tangible positive effect, not to this shower
M young

See my comment following talks with owners of many major edinburgh players to get an idea of the equilibrium price rents and management fees are set to settle at; to paraphrase we have tenants and owners pulling from positions poles apart and only possible recourse is the traditional one; pass on the cost to ones end user. Rents have been upped by at least >20% overnight on ne and relets, forming the sugar to accompany the bitter pill of management fees requiring to be 15% subject to a minimum of say 85pm base. This is a high pressure, admin heavy(now heavier) , agent heavy on responsibility- 15 is the long standing old fashioned management rate and it is what is required to operate an agency with any sort of prescence ; accepting lesser fees is not on. Dilutes fee market for everybody , creates daft landlord expectations, and these rates are not what any of us can use to operate a decent agent with decent staff ; the bet requiring 25k pa at least if they are switched on portfolio managers rather than students and not reall property people. Stick together on fees 15%, rents will up by 20% and cushion this out. There’s an underlying feeling among agents that they must take hit on this- not so- either agent time is landlord or tenant feed , no other way to look at it if one is to really be a player, rather than a bargain basement. Owners of high quality units do associate price with quality and “7% fees – first 6 month free” signs plastered everywhere looks weak, desperate; a white flag on a sinking ship. Give it 5-6 months for tenancies to tur