I read somewhere that said whilst the number of rental properties has doubled over the last twenty years, the number of letting agents has tripled. It’s really hard work being a letting agent in 2015.

Here are four reasons why I think it’s harder and some solutions to make it easier for you.

1. Have you ever wondered by landlords stay with rubbish letting agents? Those landlords should be dissatisfied, but they are not. In fact, I bet most of those landlords don’t even know that there are better agents out there who could produce much better results. Some of those landlords don’t believe that better results are possible. A good chunk of them are complacent, happy to keep the mediocre status quo. If a landlord doesn’t believe that change is required, there is no reason to change. This is the biggest problem letting agents face .. apathy. Just like you can’t be bothered to swap banks even through you don’t like them, it’s the same with landlords and their letting agents. In fact, I would go so far as to say this

is the most harmful problem facing letting agents.

2. Risk and the Fear of Change: Plenty of landlords know that they need to change. But they are afraid to change agents. Changing agents brings risk. What if swapping agents doesn’t work? What if swapping agents makes things worse? What if I look a prat by changing agents? If I swap agents, how painful will it be? The bottom line is landlords want to be certain the swap will be smooth, without hassle or trouble.

3. Too many letting agents in town who all look the same: You don't have to like competition in order to understand that it exists. Your fair share isn't going to be yours unless you give the landlord a reason to pick you. For most of you, there will be heaps of letting agents in your town. You might not think so, but to the landlords in the town, we look and sound the same. It’s difficult for those potential landlords we want to swap to us know which agent is worth spending time and effort with and who isn’t. Landlords think all letting agents are the same, just like we think all travel agents are the same or all the banks. We know we are different – but how do you expect a landlord to know? We all merge into the background, part of a haze of agents in your town, they think we are all the same with our shiny suited wide boy grab the cash quick attitudes of the 80’s. Take a look at every letting (and estate) agents’ website. The websites bend over backwards to be just like all the others. You can't identify one agents’ website from another if you delete the name of the agent. Sometimes, we try so hard to fit in we give landlords no choice but to seek out the cheapest. After all, if everything is the same, why not buy what's cheap and easy?

4. Cheap Fees and talking of cheap, some landlords think the only thing that matters is cheap fees. They believe that they can have faster, better and cheaper. Then there are those landlords who aren’t even willing to have the free val, if the letting agent won’t surrender to the fact that they will try to meet or beat their current cheap as chips fee they have with their current agent.

So what are my thoughts on all these things......... listen to the podcast

In lettings or estate agency, your honesty, your truthfulness and your trustworthiness allow you to secure the listing. Whether you are a letting agent with the portfolio landlord or the estate agent with that realistic vendor with the top draw three bed semi in the best street in area, both that landlord and vendor have to trust that you, as an agent, are honest, truthful and trustworthy, in order to use your agency. Think about it fellow agents, nobody uses anyone if they don’t have these three things?

Only 3% to 4% of landlords, when making the decision of which agent to use, state this …. the lowest fee is the ONLY consideration on choosing an agent.

This is fact .. Look at every report the wonderful people at Property Academy write for the last 5+ years .. that figure never changes (and they have asked in excess of 10,000 landlords!)

In today’s post, we discuss the excuses Valuers use when they dont gain the instruction…. and how some peope who write the articles/newsletters about the property market to attract landlords …… see their free vals for sales unexpectedly rise as well!

PODCAST ( 9mins 18 secs long)

Getting landlords to swap letting agents ...

Have you ever wondered how the agent down the road, the one that offers an appalling service to both their tenants and landlords, the one that doesn’t pay their landlords for months on end, doesn’t do quarterly inspections, the one who thinks a tenant reference is just the need for a note from the tenant’s Mum saying, ‘Please give Johnny a home ‘cause he needs it’ .. how the hell do you they keep their landlords?

You think - I could look after that landlord like a King or Queen. I could help them with their challenges , their problems and most importantly, their opportunities to the point which you create a level of such awesome value that is literally unrivalled and without compare! It gets better because you have more positive testimonials from other landlords than the best hotel on TripAdvisor, you have a cast iron, Kevlar coated, 100% guaranteed lettings service. You can produce graphs from RM and Board Count companies proving you are the Agent of Choice. If you stacked up your ESTAS and Sunday Times Awards, they would span your local Ring Road. Simply .. you are the Daddy Letting Agent in your town ... so why the hell aren’t landlords swapping to you?

Listen to the Podcast to find why

99% of agents marketing is so focused on getitngthe free val - because the free val is so important to the agent. Its vital weak link of the chain – the free val /appraisal. To you, the agent, the free val / appraisal is the most important thing ...hence your marketing messages

BUT ITS NOT IMPORTANT TO THE POTENTIAL VENDOR / LANDLORD

Your job, Mr(s) Agent is not to make a sale with your advertising and marketing messages. Selling is just one option in a range of things you can do to further drive him or her down the sales funnel. People don’t wake up one day and decide to sell their house – they look for one to buy for months. During that looking, they aren’t ready to have that free val TODAY – so your constant USE US FOR A FREE VALUATION messages are simply wasted.

However, if you talk about what is of interest to a landlord or homeowner during those months, you can engage in a dialogue (by social media, blogging, newsletters, newspaper articles) that takes place over time and avoids the all-or-nothing cliff of "buy now or go away forever". You can further inform or entertain, all in the service of your goal of increasing the interest, education and value of this prospective landlord or vendor

They call it the sales funnel (Dummies Guide to Sales Funnel)

Its all about getting people from the top of the funnel to come through the funnel and out the bottom to become customers. By engaging with landlords and potential vendors months before THEY need YOU, talking about something that interests them, you then refine the traffic in the funnel to the point that when the landlord/vendor needs you, they are already at the bottom of the funnel, ready to have that free val.;.l,l./;,

Look again at the message you are portraying .. USE ME NOW FOR A FREE VAL .. again, that’s just saying "buy now or go away forever". Acceptance of the funnel changes the way you treat people and treating different people differently is what people (customers so be definition landlords and vendors) demand.

Apple, the Ice Bucket Challenge, Candy Crush, No Make Up Monday, Tinder, Angry Birds, Virgin, Aldi, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter ... all them, be they social movement, website, app, brand or company have all grown at massive rates over the last five to ten years because people have chosen to talk about them.

None of them have spent millions on advertising, none of them have daft TV adverts, none of them have gimmicks. They have just done something different to get where they are today but there is a common thread that runs through the heart of all of them .... all their real growth has come from one thing ...

People decided to tell other people.

Isnt it funny, we as a nation are obsessed about property, we as agents are at the centre of that obsession, and all we talk about is ourselves, our services and our need for free valuations. No potential landlord or potential vendor could give a $h*t about that ... that isn’t interesting and you certainly wont get a landlord to say to another landlord down the pub ..”Eh up Jim, I had a leaflet chucked through my door the other day William H. Your Connells Baerstows Move Agents saying that landlords were wanted, they could help me get things off my mind and the fact they outstanding internet coverage”

... but you do know what a landlord or potential vendor is interested in ... THEIR LOCAL PROPERTY MARKET .. so just talk about that.

Thought i would share with the gang

A PODCAST about the two things that turn on a landlord (and no its isnt s8 or s21 notices)

4 min 50 sec Podcast on Why dont landlords swap letting agents?