Not sure about lettings? Vote remain and gain!
Partnerships do come to an end, it’s only natural. Britain and the EU. Roy Hodgson and England. Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris (anyone?). But if you are thinking of ‘consciously uncoupling’ from lettings, think again. Many agents mulling over the idea of selling or closing their lettings division have gone on to reverse the thought process and actually grow the rental side of their business. How? They pass the tasks on to someone who does love lettings but they retain all the credit and the bulk of the profit.
We know about lettings. It’s complicated, complex, bound in regulation and increasingly time consuming but there are great rewards. Lettings also bring equilibrium to an agency, generating income when perhaps the sales side isn’t thriving. But lettings requires effort.
Effort to keep up with laws and legislations. Effort to recruit negotiators and property managers with the right experience. Effort expended lying in bed anticipating the ring of the on-call mobile. How about a lettings business without any effort?
It’s possible and already happening across the country. Outsourcing – choosing to share the workload with a trusted partner – has helped 100s of agents keep their lettings business alive. “Small agencies especially have a hard time keeping a lettings business ticking over efficiently due to the hoops they have to jump through and the administration burden,” says Simon Duce, the Managing Director at ARPM Outsourced Lettings Support. “Lettings is labour intensive plus there are associated costs for joining bodies like ARLA as well as employing support staff crucial to smooth lets. Outsourcing takes away all the hard work – leaving agents to enjoy the rewards or concentrate on core business.”
Outsourcing works as there’s a central office of highly skilled, specialist staff managing lets on behalf of the letting agent. The teams are focused on tenancy administration, rent collection and all aspect of property management, including maintenance.
All the letting agent needs to do is pass over the property with the details of the tenants and sit back. “We offer a white label service to our clients so they can sell a full property management and lettings service to clients under their own name. They piggyback off our industry memberships and qualifications, have the guarantee that every let is legally compliant, and only pay for the services they need – helping to balance the books,” adds Simon. “We are the ones who have invested in specialist software, staff, membership fees and premises. Our systems have been running efficiently for years – just ask about our ultra low rent arrears level. And there’s flexibility with outsourcing – agents can chose what tasks they’d like to delegate, and we can scale up or down the account according to demand and seasonal activity. It really is that simple.”
Before you make any drastic decisions to leave lettings, give outsourcing some serious consideration. A remain vote could revitalize your business, increase profits and give you a fully operational second department that will become invaluable in a volatile property, political and economic market.
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