I came across this thread and felt obliged to give my opinion on the best way to approach starting a letting agency. First of all, Amanda, you say its impossible to run an online letting agency. This isnt true as the need for a high street office to offer a letting service isnt a must anymore due to the internet and to counter your concerns about having somewhere to meet clients, an online letting agent can meet a landlord/tenant at the rental property in question. If a tenant decides that they want a property following a viewing, the online agent can either meet back at the property to let or simply email the application forms back to the tenant and give instructions on how to pay their deposit via online banking.
There is an online agent called Upad.co.uk who are the largest online letting agent in the UK who manage this perfectly.
It was mentioned by JFAN84 of the business packages. I had a look at both you mentioned Letting Vision and Lettings Opportunity. If you didnt know already, there is another called Letting4success which you could also consider. I only looked in detail at the ones you mentioned though. Its quite interesting. They both make sense to me. Why spend thousands on a franchise when you can set up for such little cost and offer anything that any other agent is offering but without a shop front office. Just work it from home. People buy off people in this industry and thats why the bigger agents are running scared.
I think they both look pretty good. Letting Vision gives off the better vibe and looks to be more modern in what if offers, which is important for presentation, although Lettings Opportunity seem to have been around longer and has the success stories to back it up, probably because they have been around longer. Having said that, I did look at the two letting agents who offer the packages. Antony and Co (letting vision) are nationally approved and are bigger, appearing on all the portals i.e. Rightmove and Findaproperty etc whereas Soutchourt (lettingsopportunity) do not appear on any of them, so Im a little confused as this isnt typical of an agency thats been around for as long as they claim. This especially as they promote the portal software on the lettings opportunity website. Is it possible they are using Southcourt as just a front to say, look, it worked for us and so it can work for you too? A bit disingenuous if I am right, but if it works it works I guess. I may be completely wrong though. You will have to search the portals yourself as I may not have done enough digging. In any case, they both appear to offer great value and do the same thing, i.e. giving you what you need to get going and giving you support etc. Be assured that the support you will receive is good however and ask for references.
Regarding software, it doesnt really matter in the beginning stages which software you use, so long as the software primarily caters for letting agents and it does the job you need. I.e. stores your property details and images, landlord and tenant details and accounts for landlords and suppliers money and calculates your fees etc, so you will need to check with these packages which software they offer. As you get bigger, you can look at alternative software solutions if you feel the need. Gemini, cfp and vebra are very good software solutions you should consider.
For people who are starting a letting agency, i think if you have a zero portfolio, your business model should not include the high expense of an office and you should work proactively to bring on new business. i.e. ring around the private ads, ring landlords, ring developers, make your services known. Find a few good landlords and start from there. In a lot of cases landlords will own more than a few properties anyway, so you dont necessarily need a large client base to make a living out of it. To find tenants in this market is easy. You have all of the free portals at your disposal, pay per lead site options and the main subscription sites for larger agents such as Rightmove and findaproperty. Landlords will use your services if they are inexperienced i.e. first timers, want to save time doing it all themselves if they have a large portfolio or if they live abroad. This is your target market.
You are offering landlords a nothing to lose service at the end of the day, so it shouldnt be too difficult to be given a chance. you of course need to know what you are doing and ultimately find a good tenant to place in one of your landlord's property.
I know from experience that the larger agents are worried about the increase in new letting agents starting a letting agency. Competition is a good thing!!! You will notice that a lot of agents, especially the bigger ones are trying to scare landlords into not going with newer less experienced agents because they may not be a member of ARLA or NALS. What they dont say is that when they first started they werent accredited either and that even if you are accredited, it doesnt stop agents being naughty when it comes to clients money, as Martin and Co have recently experienced with NALS. All you need is professional indemnity insurance to protect clients money and if for extra re-assurance, to become members of the property ombudsman which anyone can do.
It annoys me actually, because the agents who preach about regulation, in most cases probably dont care about a landlords well being, but only want the regulation to deter or limit new competition joining a growing market place and taking a slice of their already and potential future market share.
Dont forget that a lot of the larger agents cant sell. Before the internet changed the way letting agents source business, it was just about who had the cash to set up a fancy high street office, sit at their desk and wait for business to come through the door and offer the best selection of property. Thanks to the internet, its not who has the most money anymore, its who is the best people person and most proactive with clients.
To conclude, it is definitely possible to set up a letting agency online and work from home, and if you feel you have what it takes, give it a go. You have to try in this world to get anywhere. Nothing is going to come to you easy and there are no such things as get rich schemes.
I hope my input has been useful.
Ill be signing off now.
C
