Starting a Letting Agency

[davidgilham]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post on this forum and I think it's going to be a fantastic business tool for myself in the future,

As my post title suggests I am planning on starting my own letting agency in my local town.

I have no experience in this industry but I do have exstensive customer service experience and front line sales skills.

I have been interested in this industry for a long time and have recently been thinking more and more seriously about starting in it myself (mainly after being very dissapointed after using my local sole letting agent).

I plan to start from home, getting a website put together and making my presence in the local press and other advertising means to get my name about.

I have found a lot of information at Southcourt Property Services and I am thinking of using their website option to get things up and running (aswell as purchasing their business manual) which will hopefully provide me with all the information I need legally etc.

In terms of competition there are 5-6 main player estate agents in my local area as well as the off high street sole letting agent which I have already mentioned. I am hoping to gain an advantage on better customer service and the fact my overheads will be so much lower (working from home).

I currently work full time and will continue to do so until (if) there is a time that I can move over and immerse myself full time into the business.

I understand that I need to be tenacious and get out there to get the clients on board but I am willing to put my skills with people to the test to achieve this.

Would appreciate any advice and help any of you guys can add and also any other similar situations with anybody in this industry.

Looking forward to the replies.

Regards

Dave

 

[Willself]

DAVE! Wishing you every Success!! If you can create a niche for yourself in that Market....well Simply Go for IT!!

 

[fletcher]

Make it sexy!

 

[BusinessIdeas]

Very difficult business to start from scratch, hugely time consuming and you must expect it to take a long time to get established. I experimented with this about 7 or 8 years ago as a sideline, bought the Southcourt manual, started leafleting and visiting landlords etc and found it much too time consuming to persue. Best of luck with it though - Gina

 

[bdw]

The website offer from Southcourt is very cheap. They can do this because basically they have it ready. All they have to do is plug in your details and and everyone gets essentially the same solution. The problem with this is the coding is not very well done. There are lots of HTML validation errors in their demo. These do not stop the website from functioning but they should not be there.

Also, their websites are not properly optimised to be found on the search engines. You would have to study this and do some search engine optimisation before your site would have any chance of doing well in Google's results.

What you definitely need to get this started however is a website and this needs to be optimised to get found for the appropriate search terms in your area. A website will work for you 24/7/365, never ask for a teabreak, a holiday or in fact anything in return and it's not expensive.

 

[davey995]

bdw

Before you come on here hijacking posts and slagging off other companies just to advertise your services, I suggest you get your house in order first.

Your own website home page contains 7 validation errors:

toucher.co.uk

7 errors


And from your 'portfolio' page, showing your customers websites:

nicodemus.uk.com/story.php

24 errors 4 warnings


pemms.co.uk

13 errors


Not very good for a 'professional' web design company is it?

I set up my letting agency with the Southcourt package, and they also provided my website. I have received many compliments about the website from customers, and the site appears on Google page 1 for my keywords, what more can I ask?

 

[bdw]

Not very good for a 'professional' web design company is it?

Yes, it's fine but your use of quotes around the word professional is quite offensive since you really know very little about us or for that matter what you are talking about. I am only trying trying to advise people here and I don't want any of their business as you suggest. Currently we get more enquiries than we can handle and that is a fact.

The errors are mostly caused by external scripts that we use on our websites and over which we have no control (like google analytics, etc.). If you to want call me I'll explain this to you slowly and in greater detail but I don't want to bore everyone else here with this.

I have received many compliments about the website from customers

"Many compliments", being honest, have you really received many and if so exactly how many if you don't mind me asking?

And from your 'portfolio' page, showing your customers websites:

It's bad form for you to cite other peoples websites when you clearly do not really know what you are talking about but since you raised the subject of my portfolio I suggest you try reading some of the testimonials there.

the site appears on Google page 1 for my keywords, what more can I ask?

Can I ask what keywords you mean so that I can check the veracity of your claim?

 

[BusinessIdeas]

bdw

Before you come on here hijacking posts and slagging off other companies just to advertise your services, I suggest you get your house in order first.

Your own website home page contains 7 validation errors:

toucher.co.uk

7 errors


And from your 'portfolio' page, showing your customers websites:

nicodemus.uk.com/story.php

24 errors 4 warnings


pemms.co.uk

13 errors


Not very good for a 'professional' web design company is it?

I set up my letting agency with the Southcourt package, and they also provided my website. I have received many compliments about the website from customers, and the site appears on Google page 1 for my keywords, what more can I ask?

Hmmm! first and only post from someone who joined only today and only seems interested in defending Southcourt ??? forgive my cynicism

 

[Tej]

Hmmm! first and only post from someone who joined only today and only seems interested in defending Southcourt ??? forgive my cynicism

I am not sure about the OP either... consider me a cynic too

 

[kayak]

I too started a letting agency after buying the Southcourt manual, and have mixed opinions but to be honest, it does what it says on the tin.

I took their website offer, and found it excellent value for money, partially as I was able to update my property list daily through their software, not amazing but very functional. It is worth noting that I spent a lot of time adding extra pages of information and heavily editing (through help on this site) to make it SEO and user friendly, I also got someone to add a wordpress blog onto it.

I only ran my agency for a 12 month (ish) period before selling it, but I took a reasonable wage (depending on your definition), and learnt hell of a lot. Great fun but one of the hardest things I've done.

I still work in the industry, and starting my own business has and is opening up a few good opportunities, but I imagine you can say this about getting and up going for it in any industry, not just real estate.

 

[bdw]

The Southcourt offer looks like a good one and it could be a good way of starting out. Their websites do look quite good. I have not spent any time examining the offer but as I said earlier their sites are probably not optimised to be found on the search engines. You would have to learn how to do this and do some search engine optimisation yourself before your site would have any chance of doing well in Google's results.

Coincidentally we are just completing a letting agency website and we are charging more than Southcourt. The difference is that the website we are producing is not a "shrink wrapped" solution. It is being designed specifically to do exactly what the client requires and it is being fully SEO'd for his local area. If we started offering this as a shrink wrapped solution and just changed a few things around for each client we could do it for £300 too. Perhaps that's where we should be heading ...

 

[BusinessIdeas]

bdw: Southcourt dont just provide a site though do they?
They claim to offer a complete training manual and the agreements and documents/software to go with it. I see that it has gone down in price since I bought it 8 years ago. Like I said, I found it too time consuming for me to start as a sideline, but to be fair to Southcourt they did provide what they said they would although I thought that they padded the package out a lot to make it look better value than it really is. Lots of competition among letting/estate agents and I think it would take a long time to get off the ground. I think you would need a high street presence to get it going properly and as we know that doesnt come cheap, although you might be able to persuade a shop that has spare capacity to let you use it for a consideration and to help with their rent/lease.

 

[bdw]

Yes, they do also offer the manual and instructions separately.

 

[BusinessIdeas]

I just found this on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Starting-a-Le..._B_I_Business_for_Sale_CV?hash=item439c8256ca

 

[business_pupil]

Hello Dave, I started up a letting agency after completing a degree in property management and working for some of the top agencies in London for 4 years. I have researched the Southcourt package and believe it would be of benefit to you if you have no previous experience in the industry. However, if this is the case, I woud recommend that you are VERY careful when starting up and would also say that no amount of information in the manual could replace a years work in the industry. The industry is highly competitive and you will be asked by seasoned landlords what level of previous experience you have. I will try to summarise some other points to make this more readable:

- Be aware that there is currently a large under-supply of rental properties. Many of the 'accidental landlords' who turned to renting when they were unable to sell are now returning to the sales market. This leaves you with the seasoned BTL landlord, who is both skeptical of new agents and hard to please. Not trying to pour cold water, i'm just saying these are tough times for anyone unprepared.

- Starting up from home is a great idea, you will reduce the costs and risks of the venture and this will ultimately give you more time to 'get the ball rolling'. You could even highlight the fact that you do not spend landlords money on unnecessary high-street shops and flash company cars, and instead focus on building a large databse of reputable tenants and offering landlords a cost-effective, personal service.

- The internet is the new high street for the lettings industry. 80% of tenants now use google or one of the major property portals (rightmove, findaproperty, primelocation) as their first point of search. As mentioned, spending around £500 on proper SEO will pay for itself many times over. (Our 'news and blog' section has also helped our natural listings immensely - be sure to link your sources if you decide to do this)

- Don't under-estimate the power of local advertising. Not only is it very cheap, but it provides us with around 25% of our tenant enquiries each week. By this I mean putting up posters/postcard adverts in gyms, doctors surgeries, post offices, town stores, village halls, libraries, supermarkets etc. Make sure you get to know the guys who run these outlets - word of mouth will be your most powerful marketing tool.

- Advertising boards. When starting out, get a number of 'dummy properties' for your website and put up as many 'to let' boards as you can - ask friends/family if they will let you put one up at their property. You will be surprised by the amount of enquiries this generates.

- Know your competition - inside out. You may have to enrol friends/family to help you again, but you should get a copy of each companies agency agreement, landlord fees, renewal fees, tenant costs, how much deposit they take, whether they charge a check-in/check-out fee (and whether they make this obvious to landlords/tenants), who they use for referencing, who they are accredited by, list every place they advertise and how long they have been operating for.

- Make sure you understand EVERY aspect of property/tenancy law.

- Outsource inventories. When starting out, you may be tempted to do property inventories yourself to generate another stream of income. I would advise against this and suggest you find a reliable company to outsource the work to. With the introduction of the tenancy deposit scheme, you will struggle to present your case adequately in court if there is a discrepency with the inventory and you could find yourself in trouble. Make sure the inventory clerk is accredited with the AIIC.

- Get accredited ASAP. ARLA if possible, if not then the NALS or the property ombudsman for lettings. If you search for any 'guide for landlords when choosing a letting agent', accreditation will be close to the top. This lets landlords know that not only are you in this for the long-term, but that you are accountable.

- Publish your fees! Many agents are highly secretive about exactly what their fees are, this immediately puts landlords off and makes them think the agent has something to hide. I would even recommend publishing them on your website.

- The snowball effect. Don't be put off by a slow start, letting agencies are tough to get started. But providing you have covered all aspects of your business and there is a sufficient gap in the market, the clients will come. As soon as you complete 3 or 4 lets, word of mouth will start to spread, you will begin to gain credibility, each process will become second nature and before you know it, renewals are due.

Hope this helps, i'd be interested on hearing any updates if you'd like to PM me. Would also be happy to answer any more questions.

Good luck, Leigh.

 

[accel]

Leigh

I'm in the process of researching setting up as a lettings agency in my local area.

Just wanted to thank you sincerely for an excellent post. Your hard-won experience in the real world shines through combined with your earlier industry specific ewducation shines through.

After reading this thread I decided to join this forum. Looks just what I need.

 

[business_pupil]

Hi Accel,

You're welcome, happy to have helped. Feel free to PM me as you go along and we can compare notes!

Good luck,

Leigh

p.s - Our twitter and facebook pages have been very successful marketing tools over the last couple of months. I would highly suggest settng these up and networking with everyone in your area.

 

[accel]

Thanks for great tips Leigh.

I'll be glad to take you up on your kind offer.

Have you seen the Southcourt manual? I've just sent off to amazon for a few books to learn about the game and I'm wondering whether I should add the £299 for the Southcourt manual and software to my shoping list? Your comments would be valuable to me and probably to others if you've seen it.

BTW, my first post here and I realise that I managed to mess up my grammar :redface: Sheesh! I guess I need to be better at proofreading my own stuff and not rush so much.

Rob

 

[BusinessIdeas]

- Be aware that there is currently a large under-supply of rental properties. Many of the 'accidental landlords' who turned to renting when they were unable to sell are now returning to the sales market.

I really dont think that this is true, there seems to be no shortage of properties to rent at the moment!

- Advertising boards. When starting out, get a number of 'dummy properties' for your website and put up as many 'to let' boards as you can - ask friends/family if they will let you put one up at their property. You will be surprised by the amount of enquiries this generates.

I dont think anyone I know would be very happy to have people knocking on their door trying to rent their house

- Publish your fees! Many agents are highly secretive about exactly what their fees are, this immediately puts landlords off and makes them think the agent has something to hide. I would even recommend publishing them on your website.

Sorry this doesnt seem likely, most letting agents seem quite open about their fees, do a google seach for agents in your area and you will see that their websites usually list the fees! Landlords would not sign up to an agent who didn't, and its the first thing a landlord would ask about surely!!

 

[business_pupil]

Hello 'Business Ideas', thank you for your comments. Although i'm sorry to say im a little stunned as to where you are getting your information from?!

1 I really dont think that this is true, there seems to be no shortage of properties to rent at the moment!

2 I dont think anyone I know would be very happy to have people knocking on their door trying to rent their house

3 Sorry this doesnt seem likely, most letting agents seem quite open about their fees, do a google seach for agents in your area and you will see that their websites usually list the fees! Landlords would not sign up to an agent who didn't, and its the first thing a landlord would ask about surely!!

1 I don't know quite what to say to this! Assuming you are also living in the UK, i'll just suggest you take a look at the latest piece of news from the Association of Residential Letting Agents on April 14th, entitled "Massive undersupply of rental homes". I'm not saying there are no properties to rent, but that there is a huge under-supply which is not meeting demand, partly due to the reasons stated. Therefore competition is fierce and any new competitor in the industry will have to work twice as hard to compete.

2 I do not know of anyone that has ever seen a 'to-let' board and proceeded to knock on the door of the property?! Potential tenants would either call the phone number or visit the website on the board for further information and would assume the property is either vacant or is tenanted. I've setup 3 letting agencies in different areas and have never had this issue from family/friends/tenants/landlords.

3
"Doesn't seem likely" or doesn't happen?

"Letting agents seem quite open about their fees" ????

This is all very vague and innacurate. Please do send me the name of the area you are googling as an example. I think you'll find -5% publish their fees online, this is particularly the case with the majority of well-known agencies. Agents will typically wait untill they get the landlord at the property to divulge their excessive fees in the hope that they have a better chance of justifying them face-to-face. Not to mention the number of fees (registering the deposit, compiling an inventory) that are often only made apparant to the landlord when they are deducted from the first months rent.



Please don't take offensive, but i think your comments are hugely mis-guided/uninformed.

 

[bdw]

Originally Posted by business_pupil

I do not know of anyone that has ever seen a 'to-let' board and proceeded to knock on the door of the property?!

and

Please don't take offensive, but i think your comments are hugely mis-guided/uninformed.

What you are proposing is deliberate lies and deception. I would suggest that to tell anyone to start a business based on lies and deception is very, very wrong.

 

[business_pupil]

Originally Posted by business_pupil

and

What you are proposing is deliberate lies and deception. I would suggest that to tell anyone to start a business based on lies and deception is very, very wrong.

Hello, im afraid you have mis-understood my post. I am not promoting the use of lies or deception - i am doing exactly the opposite by trying to prevent it!

I am suggesting that all agency fees are published to a website. The part of my post you quoted was intended to outline the appaling business standards used by some letting agencies today.

 

[bdw]

Advertising boards. When starting out, get a number of 'dummy properties' for your website and put up as many 'to let' boards as you can - ask friends/family if they will let you put one up at their property. You will be surprised by the amount of enquiries this generates.

Sorry, that's ^^^ what you said. 'Dummy properties' looks like lies and deception to me. If you are deliberately advertising properties to let that are not to let then that is lies and deception in my book. If you don't like 'lies and deception' try completely unethical.

 

[business_pupil]

Hi,
Ok i see your point, but i think 'lies', 'deception' and 'unethical' are a little strong? This is merely a method of advertising for a very short period of time whilst the agency is being setup - i can't see anyone being negatively affected, otherwise it would not be done.

If a potential tenant would enquire about the property, it would simply be advised that the property was no longer available and the next property that matches their requirements would be offered.

 

[WJP]

I'm not briefed in UK law regarding this, but do you not risk being accused of false advertising if people find out you're doing this? I know that the FTC in the US prohibits "deceptive acts or practices in commerce" but am not certain what would apply in the UK...

 

[bdw]

i can't see anyone being negatively affected, otherwise it would not be done.

If I manage to embezzle half a million from my bank no one would really be negatively affected in the greater scheme of things. I could then retire but that does not make it acceptable.

but do you not risk being accused of false advertising if people find out you're doing this?

Yes, of course you do and if your rivals find out you are doing this then there is more than a little chance of your getting caught and facing the consequences. Cheating is cheating and lies are lies. If this is what you do I would advise you not to advertise it on a forum.

 

[Mr B]

Hi David

Have just read your post from Jan. Have you purchased the Southcourt Package and if so what are your thoughts on this type of service

Thanks

 

[BusinessRookie]

Hi David

Have just read your post from Jan. Have you purchased the Southcourt Package and if so what are your thoughts on this type of service

Thanks

I've bought this package. The guide is really valuable and will teach you a lot about the industry, marketing etc.
The software is a basic trial which allows you to manage 10 properties on the system.
The website package is really poor and so far it's taken them nearly 6 weeks to deliver (after advising only 2 weeks to completion). It's a basic template website with CSS (could be done yourself really). The property database can be downloaded for FREE at Portal manager dot co dot uk and the hosting package is really basic and can be obtained cheaply from go daddy dot com for a similar price but better package.

Manual = yes
website = no

 

[BusinessRookie]

Sorry, that's ^^^ what you said. 'Dummy properties' looks like lies and deception to me. If you are deliberately advertising properties to let that are not to let then that is lies and deception in my book. If you don't like 'lies and deception' try completely unethical.

I agree with you completely and anybody entering this business area I would advise to qualify first before trading (even though you don't have to). Placing false advertising boards outside of properties is called Flyboarding and contravenes the Town and Country planning act 1994. Google Flyboarding and you'll ready about many cowboy agents that have received large fines from trading standards and local authorities.

 

[AlanGNW]

Hmmm! first and only post from someone who joined only today and only seems interested in defending Southcourt ??? forgive my cynicism

Reading through the thread I was just about to say the same, but you guys beat me to it. Has all the hallmarks...

 

[amanda1112]

Having worked in the property management business for six years and gaining extensive knowledge in the industry I would suggest that you do not take this approach if you are setting up. Fake property listings will bring you nothing but grief! We never ever put a fake property on our site in order to make prospective landlords/tenants believe we have more properties than we actually do. You will be renown for this. I can understand that you dont have many properties to begin with. Its not about how many you have its more about what you have, where they are and how you describe them. Do you really want the phone ringing all day from people asking about the one property you don't actually have and having to explain that it is taken. It will just take up valuable time that you could be using elsewhere.

 

[Alfpwdp]

There is a free start a letting agent guide which I am happy to supply to anyone who requests it because I helped to write it.

 

[garyk]

wow its another 'lets resurrect all the 5+ year old threads on letting agencies'