LETTINGSnews
AWARDS Sussex Company of the Year
L-r, Martina Packham (North Laine, Brighton), Claire Weston (Sussex area manager); Demetrius Stacey (Rustington); David Thorne (Western Road, Brighton) and Jane Wilkinson (Sussex regional director).
Leaders have won the Sussex Company of the Year award at this year’s Sussex Business Awards, held in Brighton in December. Despite the snow and ice
covering Sussex, 350 businesses from across the county attended the awards ceremony, which celebrates business excellence across Sussex. The Company of the Year award was the most prestigious of 14 awards. Competition was fierce, with a
rigorous judging process. The judges considered everything from
business performance, profitability and strategy to business development, customer satisfaction and contribution to the community. Leaders’ Regional Director, Jane
Wilkinson, said, “We are absolutely thrilled to have won this award. It is a fantastic accolade and is testament to the hard work and dedication of all our employees.” Sussex Business Awards judge, Neil Harris said, “Leaders is an excellent business. Its strong strategy and excellent management have reaped benefits in a difficult economic climate.”
COMMENT
A lack of landlords really isn’t the problem... think about it
Glyn Trott of
LetMC.com explains that to combat a lack of growth, an agent
doesn’t need
a better advert – they need a new perspective. Many agents are attributing
the difficulty in growing their business as a result of a diminishing number of landlords and a lack of new rental properties. However, Cardiff based software supplier
LetMC.com has suggested that the struggles that agents may be experiencing are not due to a lack of landlords, but instead due to increasing numbers of letting agents who are all trying to appeal to the same landlord. Sounds familiar?
LetMC.com provide
The Devil is in the detail
Letting your property is no laughing matter and nor is getting your property back when your tenant has been less than careful with it. Proving the condition at the start and at the end of the tenancy is vital to being able to hold your tenant to account. Make sure you use an APIP member to prepare your Inventory and Check out report. That’ll take the smile off his face!
Always use an APIP Member. You’ll have a devil of a job proving the condition of your property if you don’t! Find your local APIP Association of Professional Inventory Providers Member at
www.apip.org.uk or call us on
01926 417 363 48 JANUARY 2011 PROPERTYdrum
residential lettings software across the UK, they gather statistics from their sister company Pinnacle Letting Agents that highlight the increase of letting agents in the Cardiff area over three consecutive years. In 2007 they estimated that around twenty five per cent of estate agents in the Cardiff area were also involved in lettings. Fast forward to 2010, Pinnacle found that in the same area there are sixty eight agents who deal in sales compared to sixty nine who deal in lettings. It is fairly safe to assume that the majority of agents who do sales now also do lettings. With a trend showing an
increase in letting agents it is easy to see why many are finding new landlords and rental properties harder to come by. It is not because there are fewer landlords but that there are more letting agents who are fighting to get a landlord’s attention. Glyn Trott, Director of
LetMC.com and owner of Pinnacle Letting Agents, says, “When presented with these figures I don’t find it surprising if an established agent tells me that they are having trouble growing their business. However, I’d argue
that it is not due to a shortage of buy to let investors or landlords in the market but because there are now twice as many agents to choose from. “When there are more
agents vying for the landlord’s attention the solution cannot be to spend more resources in advertising, since everyone else will be doing the same. Instead, a new perspective is required by chasing the landlord’s empty properties through checking the advertised properties on Rightmove and then finding the landlord’s contact information through the UK land Registry. Show the landlord how much work you have done to find them and that you have applicants for a property like theirs.”
Show the landlord how good you are! Get the property! So, with predications flying
around about the industry in 2011, how do
LetMC.com consider these statistics will affect the market? Glyn Trott says, “Many are speculating that 2011 will be a good year for landlords. The evidence that we’ve collected shows the same; landlords will have a very wide choice about who will manage their property. This sets the challenge for a letting agent to stand out from the crowd as they enter the New Year. “My recommendation is
that they stop chasing landlords through adverts and instead get their attention through chasing their empty properties.” Trading since 1997, LetMC. com is a web-based cloud computing software solution for residential lettings and property management. They provide software for 230 clients and approximately 300 branches across the United Kingdom; the software manages 120,000 tenancies and over £185 million of rent.
www.letmc.com
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