Tenant Fees Banned – Is this the Silver Bullet for your Lettings Agency?

The banning of letting fees for tenants will affect your Profit and Loss… that is a fact. Tenant fees, on average, make up 12% to 18% ÿof a letting agents income, meaning many agents will turn from a profit to a loss.

That means either cut costs (ie make people redundant) or increase income.

As an industry, we have 12 to 18 months, as the Consultation Period is started, then finished – then legislation drafted and sent through Westminster until it is made law.

12 to 18 months to sort your business out, get your house in order and make it ready for no tenant fees.

.. but what should you do? Whatever happens, its going to be hard work.

..but in this 21st Century, most of us dont like hardwork – we want the quick win, the shortcut, the magic pill to make it all better .. the silver bullet?

Just think, ÿif you had silver bullet for your lettings agency .. something that with blink of an eye could replace that lost income?

Sorry to let you down, but The Silver Bullet Shop closed down in the 19th Century when Beast of G‚vaudan, a legendary gigantic werewolf, was killed by a hunter with the name of Argent (which is Latin for silver), wielding a gun loaded with silver bullets.

_ after that, there just wasn_t the demand for those silver bullets.

That is until the 1950_s when it reopened for a few years to supply The Lone Ranger with his silver bullets .. but demand waned and it closed down again as Star Trek and other such shows took over.

So what is the answer to this problem for letting agents?

The answer is quite simple –

  1. get more stock and
  2. start charging decent landlord fees.

So now that you know that there are no silver bullets in lettingsÿ.. what are you going to do to increase stock and fees .. especially when…

  1. Its really hard work to organically grow a lettings agency
  2. Will every landlord really stomach an increase in fees?

Do really think another 10,000 landlords wanted leaflets will plug the gap in income, like talked about in an article I wrote recently?ÿ(link here)

Its time to take your head out of the sand and look at yourself in the mirror.

Do you care enough aboutÿyour family, your house, your team and most importantly yourselfÿthat you are prepared to look at yourself and think .. I need to sit up, I need become accountable for myself, my agency and my team .. and I tell you …that isn_t a pretty conversation to have with yourself.

It takes guts, it takes balls to say that yourself ..and mean it?

Are you man (or lady) enough to see this new challenge as a challenge .. an opportunity ?… or will you be like an ostrich and keep your head in the sand?

Be honest, most letting agents have been free-wheeling for a few years. Are you living off past glories, past hard work as you run your lettings agency into its 10th or 15th year of operation, reaping the benefits of that slog you did in the 1990’s and early/mid 2000’s?

Be frank,ÿdo you work as hard (or as smart) as you did 10 or 15 or 20 years ago?

What do you care enough about that you’re prepared to expose yourself to fear, risk and hard work to get it sorted?

It’s time to make a choice

If you don’t care to look at the cold realityÿÿ.. carry on my friend and good luck on your journey. I wish you well.

If you do care .. you owe it yourself to open your eyes. The word has changed. That’s is not your fault. People havent changed, just with this 21st Century ‘I want it now’ culture, the way we do business has changed. What worked 10/15 years ago to get more landlords and stockÿdoesnt work as well nowadays .. again .. THAT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. .. You don’t need to change …but you do owe it to the people you care about to change the way you market yourself.

Most landlords are indifferent to their letting agents ..and are crying out for someone, an awesome letting agent like you, to look them in the eye and say, “I will care for your rental property as if it were my own”.

What is the answer?

Be self-critical, take advice, ask for advice, search out new techniques that work in this new 21st Century.

Talk to the likes of ….

  • Iain White
  • Jerry Lyons
  • Sam Ashdown
  • Richard Rawlings
  • Chris Kyriacou
  • The people at the Property Academy
  • Stephen Brown .. speak to any of them and do your homework and find out what you need to do to survive .. and then thrive.

You might even want to know what I think and believe.

I work with over 200 letting agents in the UK. I specialise in growing lettings agencies using old fashioned methods that really do work.ÿ Not estate agents – I grow letting agents. I am the UK’s No.2 Lettings Agent Growth Guru

I have recorded lots of training videos on how to grow your lettings agency. I would like you to watch them

I promise you, the technique I suggest, it works, but it requires guts, hard work, patience and persistence –

Question is – Are you prepared to listen and understand what this technique is and how it works?

… because the principles (if implemented correctly)- seldom fail to organically grow any lettingsÿagency by at least 20% to 30% within 12 to 18 months ÿ(and they also help your estate agency arm at the same time)

So to start with, three short videos on the technique, then nine agents telling how they have grown their businesses …

and here are some nine agents telling what they have achieved and how they have grown their agencys …

kind regards

Christopher

PSÿIf you are thinking there has to be a different way to attract landlords and homeowners in 2017 _ give me a call or email me. If you think _ the lad has a point but I_m not ready to ring him _ why not watch all of my videos (link below)

emailÿchristopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk
mobile 07950 147572

450+ blog posts on getting more landlords for your lettings agencyÿhttp://how-to-grow-your-lettings-agency.blogspot.co.uk

my thoughts on how toÿsucceed in UK estate/letting agency onÿvideosÿ (15+ videos)ÿhttps://goo.gl/Zzw4LN

 

 

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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