Some agents believe that it’s better late than never. Now I can be as guilty
as you on this subject, delaying something until tomorrow or mañana as the Spanish say. However, this can lead you to put it
off for days, a week, next month, later in the year, or worse ... forever. Instead
of postponing something, can I humbly suggest you ask yourself if you are still
interested in achieving your goals?
Now I am not one of these ‘happy valley’ motivational speakers, but a guy who knows something about helping letting agents get more properties on their books to let. Be you a letting agent (or estate agent) the bottom line is you need more properties on your books, so you can earn more money. I am not talking about Range Rovers and Ferrari’s here, but having a ‘bit of jam on top’ to enjoy the nicer things in life. People think lettings is easy .. it isn’t .. you are always at odds with either the landlord, the tenant or more often, both. You deal with problems every day and for that, you want a reward from your lettings agency, so even if you don’t want any more money, you could pay your staff more or even treat your family.
If the answer is no, I am just happy with my lot as an agent, treading water as an agent, you my friend are treading water in your life... But just treading water means you’re one leg cramp away from drowning. No matter what other agents say or think Mr(s) letting agent, or as much as others would have you believe otherwise, you can grow a lettings agency organically. It isn’t easy, but it has been proven to work many times.
So what is it to be Mr(s) letting agent .. start swimming to beach or waiting for cramp? If the answer is still no, I am happy with my lot, get out of the water before you get cramp .... choose another profession. However, if the answer is yes, I do want to better my lot, my staffs lot and my family’s lot by growing my business, but you don’t know where to begin, then can I suggest you start with something that is so small you can accomplish that step easily and start very slowly to get some momentum.
Now my techniques are different to others. Landlord farming is all about playing the long game, without hard sell or “inyerface” touting. I am not saying the techniques of landlord farming are the only method to attract landlords. In fact I would say good old fashioned ‘old boy networking’ works better than landlord farming (note I say old boy networking and not BNI type ‘overt’ networking - which does work, but not as well as old boy networking if done properly) .. but if you read this blog, which many hundreds of agents do every week, and the thought of joining the Rotary Club, Masons, Golf Club and ‘funny hand shake clubs’ turns you pale and like the subtlety of the ‘landlord farming’ technique and think it will work for you, you need to start somewhere.
So, what is the first step in landlord farming? Of course you could come on one of my training courses (I have a couple of spare slots for later in August and September), but at £500 + VAT for the day course, that could be prohibitive. So what are your other options that don’t cost as much?
Today, send out ten personalised LinkedIn connection requests to ten local people in your town. They need to live in your town (very very uber important they are local), be middle aged and have half decent jobs (all that you can tell by looking at their profile). When I say personalised, I mean remove the text that says ‘I would like to add you to my professional network’ in the 'How do you know this person screen and replace it with something like this ‘Dear James, As we are both business people in the town of xxxxxx, I wanted to ask if you would connect up with me, Kind regards, Chris’.
That is a tiny step isn’t it? Minuscule! Yep, just do that for one month, that is the only thing I want you to do, nothing else, nothing. No blogging, no writing articles, no maths, no newsletters .. just that. Do that for one month, every day without fail and trust me you will be well on your way to preparing the foundations of the landlord farming process. What should you do after a month?
Well, one step at a time... you need to prove to yourself you can do those small tasks (10 Linkedin invitations a day ..and not any old Linkedin requests (un-personalised un-targeted don’t count), 10 personalised Linkedin connection requests to 10 local business people) religiously, day in, day out. Make it a habit. You see, if you want to stop treading water you have to lose the anchor ( ie what’s going around in your head) and swim to shore. I can show you the way, the signposts .. but you have to swim there.
In a month's time, I will tell you what you need to do next
Now I am not one of these ‘happy valley’ motivational speakers, but a guy who knows something about helping letting agents get more properties on their books to let. Be you a letting agent (or estate agent) the bottom line is you need more properties on your books, so you can earn more money. I am not talking about Range Rovers and Ferrari’s here, but having a ‘bit of jam on top’ to enjoy the nicer things in life. People think lettings is easy .. it isn’t .. you are always at odds with either the landlord, the tenant or more often, both. You deal with problems every day and for that, you want a reward from your lettings agency, so even if you don’t want any more money, you could pay your staff more or even treat your family.
If the answer is no, I am just happy with my lot as an agent, treading water as an agent, you my friend are treading water in your life... But just treading water means you’re one leg cramp away from drowning. No matter what other agents say or think Mr(s) letting agent, or as much as others would have you believe otherwise, you can grow a lettings agency organically. It isn’t easy, but it has been proven to work many times.
So what is it to be Mr(s) letting agent .. start swimming to beach or waiting for cramp? If the answer is still no, I am happy with my lot, get out of the water before you get cramp .... choose another profession. However, if the answer is yes, I do want to better my lot, my staffs lot and my family’s lot by growing my business, but you don’t know where to begin, then can I suggest you start with something that is so small you can accomplish that step easily and start very slowly to get some momentum.
Now my techniques are different to others. Landlord farming is all about playing the long game, without hard sell or “inyerface” touting. I am not saying the techniques of landlord farming are the only method to attract landlords. In fact I would say good old fashioned ‘old boy networking’ works better than landlord farming (note I say old boy networking and not BNI type ‘overt’ networking - which does work, but not as well as old boy networking if done properly) .. but if you read this blog, which many hundreds of agents do every week, and the thought of joining the Rotary Club, Masons, Golf Club and ‘funny hand shake clubs’ turns you pale and like the subtlety of the ‘landlord farming’ technique and think it will work for you, you need to start somewhere.
So, what is the first step in landlord farming? Of course you could come on one of my training courses (I have a couple of spare slots for later in August and September), but at £500 + VAT for the day course, that could be prohibitive. So what are your other options that don’t cost as much?
Today, send out ten personalised LinkedIn connection requests to ten local people in your town. They need to live in your town (very very uber important they are local), be middle aged and have half decent jobs (all that you can tell by looking at their profile). When I say personalised, I mean remove the text that says ‘I would like to add you to my professional network’ in the 'How do you know this person screen and replace it with something like this ‘Dear James, As we are both business people in the town of xxxxxx, I wanted to ask if you would connect up with me, Kind regards, Chris’.
That is a tiny step isn’t it? Minuscule! Yep, just do that for one month, that is the only thing I want you to do, nothing else, nothing. No blogging, no writing articles, no maths, no newsletters .. just that. Do that for one month, every day without fail and trust me you will be well on your way to preparing the foundations of the landlord farming process. What should you do after a month?
Well, one step at a time... you need to prove to yourself you can do those small tasks (10 Linkedin invitations a day ..and not any old Linkedin requests (un-personalised un-targeted don’t count), 10 personalised Linkedin connection requests to 10 local business people) religiously, day in, day out. Make it a habit. You see, if you want to stop treading water you have to lose the anchor ( ie what’s going around in your head) and swim to shore. I can show you the way, the signposts .. but you have to swim there.
In a month's time, I will tell you what you need to do next