Shalom my blog reading friendsIn your lettings agency, your lettings book, (your managed stock) is like
the family jewels. Some corporate will pay you two times turnover in years to
come and you can retire to the Maldives. In fact your lettings book deserves
even more reverence, security and protection than you give it credit for.
That said, it’s simply amazing how many lettings agencies are sloppy about what is arguably their most valuable piece of intellectual property: Their landlord database. That’s right, no matter what you do, what you make, or how smart you are, the most valuable thing you own is your list of landlords. And the second most valuable thing you own is your list of prospective landlords, those people who have expressed interest in your service.
Do you capture the name, address, phone number and email address of everyone who calls you? Do you stay in contact with them, letting them know what’s new and always reinforcing your lettings story every time you contact them?
It amazes me how many letting agents have most of the names and addresses of every ‘tenant find’ landlord in their town. Look at your tenant application forms, if a tenant applies for one of your properties, and they live in a tenant find property themselves, whose contact details will be on the application form? .. Yep, their landlords .. come on letting agents wake up and smell the coffee.
But what if you have just opened your lettings agency, what then? Even easier, how about a list of email addresses of most of the landlords in your town? Even better, its doesn’t cost anything to get, apart from a bit of graft and it takes a bit of time to get mind you. It doesn’t involve spending money on the Land Registry or scraping emails from newspaper classified adverts or going on to Gumtree .. in fact its so simple, you will kick yourself you never thought of it. It got one agent in Southend 23 new rental listings in one month when he sent them a interesting property market report– although 23 was exceptional as there were a few multiple landlords, but still it works
If your landlord list is the most valuable thing you have, then maintaining it and growing it should be your number one priority. Just doing a good job of this will put you head and shoulders above the rest.
Talking of valuable neigh priceless .. for those in the Joey 'The Lettings Dog' Fan club .. here is a picture for you. Been a little under the weather last few days, but feeling much better now ...
That said, it’s simply amazing how many lettings agencies are sloppy about what is arguably their most valuable piece of intellectual property: Their landlord database. That’s right, no matter what you do, what you make, or how smart you are, the most valuable thing you own is your list of landlords. And the second most valuable thing you own is your list of prospective landlords, those people who have expressed interest in your service.
Do you capture the name, address, phone number and email address of everyone who calls you? Do you stay in contact with them, letting them know what’s new and always reinforcing your lettings story every time you contact them?
It amazes me how many letting agents have most of the names and addresses of every ‘tenant find’ landlord in their town. Look at your tenant application forms, if a tenant applies for one of your properties, and they live in a tenant find property themselves, whose contact details will be on the application form? .. Yep, their landlords .. come on letting agents wake up and smell the coffee.
But what if you have just opened your lettings agency, what then? Even easier, how about a list of email addresses of most of the landlords in your town? Even better, its doesn’t cost anything to get, apart from a bit of graft and it takes a bit of time to get mind you. It doesn’t involve spending money on the Land Registry or scraping emails from newspaper classified adverts or going on to Gumtree .. in fact its so simple, you will kick yourself you never thought of it. It got one agent in Southend 23 new rental listings in one month when he sent them a interesting property market report– although 23 was exceptional as there were a few multiple landlords, but still it works
If your landlord list is the most valuable thing you have, then maintaining it and growing it should be your number one priority. Just doing a good job of this will put you head and shoulders above the rest.
Talking of valuable neigh priceless .. for those in the Joey 'The Lettings Dog' Fan club .. here is a picture for you. Been a little under the weather last few days, but feeling much better now ...