How I grew from 950 to 1,250 Managed Properties in Two and A Half Years – One Letting Agent’s Story

As letting agents (and estate agents), much of our energy and resources are spent understanding how best to communicate our value to landlords and potential sellers.

However, many of the most successful letting and estate agents flip this thinking on its head.

If we, as agents, create things that are worthy of the time, attention and money of the landlords and homeowners we hope to serve, we don_t need to spend so much time, attention and money trying to prove their worth.

.. but what to create?

That’s the easy bit … talk about things local landlordsÿand local homeowners in your town will be fascinated about.

Listen to Daren’s story. A letting agent in Derby who started his agency in 2000. By 2009, he had grown to 900 managed properties but then things went t**ts up, and the Credit Crunch happened. All the Derby Estate Agents jumped on the Lettingsÿbandwagon. The growth he had experienced over the last 9 years evaporated … it was like hitting a brick wall. (I know many of you experienced this in the lettings industry)

By 2014, managed stock had only grown by 12 properties a year to 950… not good

So in the Spring of 2014, Daren then looked at his marketing in a different way. He stopped talking about his firm, his services and how good he was .. and started to talk about the local property market …

20 months later, ÿNovember 2015 – he had grown his managed portfolio to 1,150 and only last week (November 2016) , he told me it stood at 1,250 managed properties using a technique he called ‘Landlord Farming’

Landlord Farming – a proven marketing technique, used by over 500 lettings agents in the UK, ÿof attracting landlords to aÿlettings agency by the use of a specificÿmarketingÿand business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuableÿinformation on the local property marketÿto attract, acquire, and engage the local landlords in your town

This is an interview of Daren talking last November 2015 aboutÿwhat he did to grow his managed stock by 200 propertiesÿin 20 months ÿ..ÿit is his complete story, from starting the agency, why he started it, how he started it, the ups and downs of owning your own lettings agency. ÿThe film is 41 minutes long, so if you need to finish Candy Crush or take photos of your Dinner for facebook – this isn’t for you. Only serious letting agents whoÿare deadly serious in growing their lettings agency should watch this video ..ÿ(Below the video is a link to his awesome blog where you can see what Daren talks about in action). All you need to do is look at this video, learn from him and do it inÿyour town!

Daren’s Blog – The Derby Property Market Blog

If you are Lettings Negotiator or Property Manager and your boss keeps banging on about getting more stock .. why not email them thisÿarticle and video? It will make you look ace!

kind regards

Christopher Watkin

Ghostwriter ÿof Daren’sÿ Articles in his Blogÿ(and many other letting agents) – because he is way to busy managing 1,250 properties to write the articles

 

 

Christopher Watkin

I teach, guide, support, mentor, consult, counsel, partner many hundreds of UK Estate and Letting Agents in their quest to grow their estate and lettings agencies business. Old school techniques of touting, landlords wanted leaflets, ring us for a free valuation, we have sold this in your street leaflets don't work anymore. There are too many competitor agents .. meaning cheap fees are epidemic, overvaluing is almost a norm to get the stock and don’t even mention about the online/hybrid threat. So a few years ago, I set about looking around the UK and spotted that certain agents (not many mind you) in certain towns were still seen as the ‘go to person on property’, the person the newspaper editor rang up every week for a comment and I looked at what they did and they were doing some thing quite remarkable…. Only one thing but they were doing it so well .. and reaping the reward in terms of decent listings and decent fees, happy staff, decent sales pipeline and exchange income, managed lettings portfolios in the many hundreds .. but more importantly, they really enjoyed the job… they enjoyed getting up in the morning and people looked up to them Over 400 agents around the UK are on a mission to change the way our Estate and Lettings agency profession is perceived and looked upon, doing it town by town, city by city. I guide these 400 agents, teach them, mentor them and support them to be seen in a different light, to be seen as the ‘go to person for property’, actually be the ‘local property expert’ and prove it. Christopher Watkin 07950 147 572 christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk

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