The past year has been pretty tumultuous for landlords, and despite a ban on evictions, many are selling their portfolios to free up capital and move into other areas. As a letting agent, finding new landlords to join your books is one of the best ways to build your business and grow your revenues, but with research showing that more landlords than ever are choosing to self-manage their properties to cut costs, you have to work hard to impress them. Below, we’ve put together some of the best ways to attract new landlord customers.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to attract new landlords or just want to retain your existing customers - it’s vital that you’re up to speed on what’s happening in the property market and offer solutions that appeal to landlords. Give your staff time to research the latest developments, keep an eye on your competitors and the local rental market, and speak to current and prospective tenants about what they’re looking for in properties.
The more clued up you are, the more likely your firm is to be taken seriously by landlords.
In today’s uber-competitive market, you need to do more than simply exist to appeal to new landlords and tenants - find new ways to stand out, such as by offering regular inspections of the property, offering dedicated account management, rental insurance, and fast reference checks, and make sure you have red-hot testimonials from your current satisfied customers.
A good letting agent will get to know landlords and understand what they’re looking for. As we’ve all witnessed over the past year, the industry and market can change overnight, and it’s vital that you’re getting under the skin of landlords and identifying their pain points, fears, and motivations. If you know landlords in your area are concerned about nightmare tenants or non-payment of rent, make renters insurance and tenant referencing a key selling point.
A “no-nonsense approach” could help you win disgruntled landlords from other agencies.
Another way to bolster your revenue is to turn let-only landlords into full property management customers. After all, it’s much more expensive and time-consuming to find new landlord clients than retain existing ones. You don’t need to be overly pushy or use sales pitches every day, but you should look for opportunities to upsell your services to clients.
For example, an accidental landlord might get in touch for help finding a new tenant, and you can turn that into an opportunity to sell your management service, stressing the benefits of it and the risks of self-management. Not every landlord will bite, but if even 10% do, that could result in thousands of pounds in additional revenue every year, with little additional workload.
It’s no longer to tell a landlord that you’ll get back to them within 48 hours or close for the weekend - modern tenants and landlords expect professional, timely communication. Good communication is one of the most important elements in property management, and if you can’t demonstrate that to landlords from day one, they’re not going to stick around.
Make sure it’s easy to get in touch outside of opening hours, embrace modern methods like live chat, WhatsApp, and FaceTime, and consider offering a 24/7 support service, leaning on your existing staff to take calls outside of work, compensating them fairly for their time.
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