Letting agent - Finding landlords

[HomesWarehouse]

Looking for some marketing help really

next year I will be starting out as a high street letting agent, I have my own portfolio and currently manage everything myself, (currently 17 properties) if i'm honest it does not take up much of my time so intend to turn it into a full time job by opening a storefront (more than one in the future) specialising in lettings, not so much sales at the moment. I have all the info for tenant finding as that's the easy bit, I usually have people fighting over properties in the current market, i'm also fully aware of legislation, contracts and inventories etc and manage all maintenance and rent collections already

my main issue is finding landlords to use my service, I have all the credentials, always find good tenants, keep on top of maintenance and paperwork and have a history of high occupancy

but how do I reach out? I know having a highstreet presence is good but where else? facebook I actually hate, I have a presence on there for tenant finding and that works ok but I don't see it as a place for landlords to hang out, can anyone recommend roadside billboards? paying for a presence at local auctions or in newspapers? and advice would be great

Thanks

 

[TomJ83]

It sounds interesting that you will open a letting shop. To find landlords you should focus much on building a strong online presence. Google is the no1 search engine so make sure that you add your business to Google places and invest some money on advertising on Google using adwords. Then when landlords search for potential letting agents to rent their property, they will find your letting agency when they search "letting agency yourcityhere".

You could also source landlords by doing leaflet drops on new developments.

 

[HomesWarehouse]

I will 100% be on google and maps for searchability and will have a free yell listing and the rest of the free ads etc,
Personally I don't really rate google ad-words, I've used with a different business before and didn't see returns as good as elsewhere and found it very expensive, will do some research as this is a different business and market, Thanks

 

[TomJ83]

Will you be on Zoopla?

 

[HomesWarehouse]

Will you be on Zoopla?

will be on rightmove and zoopla and possibly a few more,

 

[TomJ83]

will be on rightmove and zoopla and possibly a few more,

You have a lot of experience and knowledge already as you have 17 properties currently that you manage yourself. I'm sure that you will succeed in taking this one step further

 

[Newchodge]

Roughly which part of the country will you operate in?

 

[BTON Agency]

Honest answer is it is not easy.

I would also give it serious consideration if you were to take this on.

I have an estate agency and focus mostly on sales. but have started lettings in the last 18 months.

Before we look at lettings remember, You have the MINIMUM costs.

1. Member of a redress scheme
2. PI cover
3. Premises
4. Rates / Utilities
5. Rightmove (circa £600 pm for lettings plus VAT)
6. Zoopla (Circa £250 pm for lettings plus VAT)
7. Website which needs to clearly layout all fees.
8. You need to do your research on what the tenants need (and sign for) otherwise you may have an expensive job getting them out.
9. Software programme that lets you reconcile rents and produce statements
10. Additional Advertising.

You will be looking best case scenario 2k per month before staff costs.

You will be between 5-10% fully managed - What will be your average house price to let? £1000? at 7% that is £70 per month. That's almost 30 properties to break even.

So how do you build a property portfolio of at least 30 in a short amount of time?

Could increase your advertising budget.
As stated above lots of door drops
Could buy out an existing letting agent

I think you will find it a lot harder than you feel it maybe.

Feel free to ask questions, be happy to help but it is not easy.

 

[HomesWarehouse]

You have a lot of experience and knowledge already as you have 17 properties currently that you manage yourself. I'm sure that you will succeed in taking this one step further

thanks tom

Roughly which part of the country will you operate in?

south wales

Honest answer is it is not easy.

I would also give it serious consideration if you were to take this on.

I have an estate agency and focus mostly on sales. but have started lettings in the last 18 months.

Before we look at lettings remember, You have the MINIMUM costs.

1. Member of a redress scheme
2. PI cover
3. Premises
4. Rates / Utilities
5. Rightmove (circa £600 pm for lettings plus VAT)
6. Zoopla (Circa £250 pm for lettings plus VAT)
7. Website which needs to clearly layout all fees.
8. You need to do your research on what the tenants need (and sign for) otherwise you may have an expensive job getting them out.
9. Software programme that lets you reconcile rents and produce statements
10. Additional Advertising.

You will be looking best case scenario 2k per month before staff costs.

You will be between 5-10% fully managed - What will be your average house price to let? £1000? at 7% that is £70 per month. That's almost 30 properties to break even.

So how do you build a property portfolio of at least 30 in a short amount of time?

Could increase your advertising budget.
As stated above lots of door drops
Could buy out an existing letting agent

I think you will find it a lot harder than you feel it maybe.

Feel free to ask questions, be happy to help but it is not easy.

thanks for the breakdown, much appreciated
my main costs (in my head ) are a premises, which i intend to buy at auction with residential upper floors, meaning it wont cost me anything as the upper floors will pay the finance in excess, also my website will be almost free as i have friends in that sector, my costs would be a few hundred quid for their time and about 10 a month for hosting on their servers

aside from being on right move and possibly zoopla my adverising costs will be 6-800 a month

my local area is rather cheap so i can see £50 a month to be the average charged per property for management but also 50%+ tenant finders fee so my workings of a few tenant finds a week and hopefully 10+ properties on the books after a few months make me a starting figure of £1k+ takings and £6-800 costs,

from this point development would be needed to get more on the books and more regularly paying tenant finders fees etc

a software program would come further along the timeline as its realy not hard to manage 20-30 properties on a well made spreadsheet, which i already have

thoughts on the above welcome

 

[BTON Agency]

Do not forget fees chargeable to tenants will not be allowed in the very near future so you will not get that income and have to cover the referencing and set up costs unless you are able to push onto the landlord.

I am not saying you will not be a success, but it think you will find it a lot harder than you anticipate, also look at your area, you maybe lucky with very little competition but my experience is all sales agents now offer it and the threat of the 'Onliners' makes it a very crowded market place to enter.

 

[Krprop]

Hi,
I just want to say it would be a good idea to run your landlord properties from software from the beginning, I wish I did.

We use Arthur which charges about 50p per tenancy per month.

We can easily log maintenance, log viewings, produce landlord statements, keep track of Gas Safes, EPCs, inspections etc, and run reports and the click of a button.

For example we have landlords asking things like how much rent have I received since a certain date or a breakdown of commissions etc

It's such a time saver, if you don't do it from the beginning you'll end up spending hours transferring all the data and figures over to software when your ready.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Join the NLA (National Landlord Association)...

They offer so much to Landlords - you'll meet like minded Landlords and you'll find Landlords that want to use your services...

 

[BTON Agency]

Hi,
I just want to say it would be a good idea to run your landlord properties from software from the beginning, I wish I did.

We use Arthur which charges about 50p per tenancy per month.

We can easily log maintenance, log viewings, produce landlord statements, keep track of Gas Safes, EPCs, inspections etc, and run reports and the click of a button.

For example we have landlords asking things like how much rent have I received since a certain date or a breakdown of commissions etc

It's such a time saver, if you don't do it from the beginning you'll end up spending hours transferring all the data and figures over to software when your ready.

Looking at your profile you are in PR and marketing, an obvious plug for a company.

In my opinion, Artur is expensive and below par, many others are available cheaper and better. Feel free to PM me if you want some real alternatives.

 

[ethical PR]

thanks tom



south wales



thanks for the breakdown, much appreciated
my main costs (in my head ) are a premises, which i intend to buy at auction with residential upper floors, meaning it wont cost me anything as the upper floors will pay the finance in excess, also my website will be almost free as i have friends in that sector, my costs would be a few hundred quid for their time and about 10 a month for hosting on their servers

aside from being on right move and possibly zoopla my adverising costs will be 6-800 a month

my local area is rather cheap so i can see £50 a month to be the average charged per property for management but also 50%+ tenant finders fee so my workings of a few tenant finds a week and hopefully 10+ properties on the books after a few months make me a starting figure of £1k+ takings and £6-800 costs,

from this point development would be needed to get more on the books and more regularly paying tenant finders fees etc

a software program would come further along the timeline as its realy not hard to manage 20-30 properties on a well made spreadsheet, which i already have

thoughts on the above welcome

What about insurance, wages, car, marketing. If you have friends who are great web designers and copywriters they will charge you a lot more than a few hundred pounds, to design, develop and write content for a website.

 

[HomesWarehouse]

What about insurance, wages, car, marketing. If you have friends who are great web designers and copywriters they will charge you a lot more than a few hundred pounds, to design, develop and write content for a website.

Friends are there for favours, I can assure you that I will not get charged more than a few hundred pounds for my web design or my marketing material at all, much like the time I fitted a kitchen for absolutely nothing for one of the friends in question, not sure what kind of friends you have tho

also insurance and car I already have one member of office staff on minimum wage wont realy hurt the bank balance,

all anyone has done so far is make a list of costs and problems for me but hardly anybody has actually answered my question on how to find potential landlords what is this site coming too

 

[BTON Agency]

all anyone has done so far is make a list of costs and problems for me but hardly anybody has actually answered my question on how to find potential landlords what is this site coming too

Sorry if you feel like people have not helped, I think you have had a lot of help.

As I have said above it's not easy getting new landlords.

If you want the blunt answer it's doing a consistent shed load of marketing with a clear message you can get across.

Newspapers, PPC, enhanced marketing on the portals, leaflet drops, Network meetings, seo on your website, social media, sponsoring school fairs,

About 5k per month should generate you £500.

After 12 months and you have a few boards up and you have managed to set yourself apart on photographs and marketing. you maybe able to reduce this figure.

It's probably not the answer you want but that is the cold hard truth. If you find another way I am all ears. But after 20 years in agency I would be shocked to hear something new.

** I have re-read the thread. I know you are against people pointing out issues but you are not wanting to use an industry specific CRM system, instead you will use spread sheets .... how do you plan to upload properties to portals?

 

[HomesWarehouse]

Sorry if you feel like people have not helped, I think you have had a lot of help.

As I have said above it's not easy getting new landlords.

If you want the blunt answer it's doing a consistent shed load of marketing with a clear message you can get across.

Newspapers, PPC, enhanced marketing on the portals, leaflet drops, Network meetings, seo on your website, social media, sponsoring school fairs,

About 5k per month should generate you £500.

After 12 months and you have a few boards up and you have managed to set yourself apart on photographs and marketing. you maybe able to reduce this figure.

It's probably not the answer you want but that is the cold hard truth. If you find another way I am all ears. But after 20 years in agency I would be shocked to hear something new.

** I have re-read the thread. I know you are against people pointing out issues but you are not wanting to use an industry specific CRM system, instead you will use spread sheets .... how do you plan to upload properties to portals?

please don't think im being ungrateful for help as that's not the case, I currently run on a spreadsheet but as I said would upgrade to a property management software package for the step of becoming an agent,
I have all info for costs eg rightmove premises website and staff ( I already have 4 staff in my development/maintenance company) my interest is of where you spend your budget for landlord finding, what methods do you find get the enquiries and signups??

 

[BTON Agency]

As mentioned above, there is no 'One magic' thing you can do to get landlords.

It is expensive and time consuming. You need a big budget and advertise across all mediums.

I would adjust your thinking around facebook and google more agents are spending money in this area ..... there is a reason why.

A purely lettings only business next door to me which is well established (circa 5 years now) has approximately 60 properties under management. They probably do as little advertising as possible but still costs them circa 3k per month. As soon as you get to the tipping point of circa 25 - 30 properties you will have a steady stream of 'issues' coming in. Meaning you have to spend more on staff to rectify the issues (Also bear in mind if you attend court on an eviction you will need a day or 2 to prep PLUS the day in court - you lose 3 days out of a staff members 20 days of that month).