When in-house isn’t always best

If you work in lettings, the last thing you want to do is rile both tenants and landlords, but it appears a leading online estate agency has done just that. How? It has taken its property management service in-house.

Until May 2018, Purplebricks outsourced its property management to High Street agents under a white label agreement. Everything was running smoothly but when the number of managed lets reached a certain scale, the online agent felt it could justify taking the portfolio in-house under its control.

As reported by a property news channel, the transition has elicited a number of complaints from both tenants and landlords who have tried – and failed – to communicate with the online agent, with unanswered calls, ignored emails and call-backs that failed to materialise.

Communication is critical in property management – poor relationships will lose you clients and that’s not what’s needed it the current lettings climate. Relationships between tenants, landlords and agents is already fragile, with PRSim – LSL’s PRS and Build to Rent consultancy – revealing in its latest annual tenant survey that 10% of renters were concerned about how their letting agent or landlord communicated – which is a rise of 3%.

If a client – tenant or landlord – is ignored, they feel undervalued and will question your professional integrity. A landlord may weigh up whether your service justifies the fee and a tenant may be quick to leave negative reviews online, damaging your brand along the way. It’s highly likely that you’re actually a competent property manager or letting agent who’s over worked, under resourced and has merely taken your eye off the ball.

Today’s consumers are used to instant gratification thanks to live online chat facilities and messenger services. Lettings, however, is somewhat behind the curve. If you can’t respond to emails and calls in normal working hours – let alone evenings and weekends – the perception of your business is altered forever.

If you know communication is your weak spot – perhaps you don’t have enough staff to keep in regular contact with clients or your opening hours restrict when you can respond to queries – outsourcing will bring your level of communication up to a professional and expected level, as long as you partner with the right company.

Partner with ARPM Outsourced Lettings and we will give you the reassurance that a team – working under your agency name as part of our white label service – is always available to answer questions, deal with emergencies and pacify clients. We offer a 24/7 emergency maintenance helpline and a fully staffed centralised office that’s never compromised by sickness, annual leave, Bank Holidays or under resourcing. Outsourcing worked for Purplebricks and it can work for you, so contact us today.

EAN Content

Content shared by this account is either news shared free by third parties or sponsored (paid for) content from third parties. Please be advised that links to third party websites are not endorsed by Estate Agent Networking - Please do your own research before committing to any third party business promoted on our website. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

UK monthly property transactions for May 2025

Headline statistics from the latest transactions data include: the provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of the number of UK residential transactions in May 2025 is 81,470, 12% lower than May 2024 and 25% higher than April 2025 the provisional non-seasonally adjusted estimate of the number of UK residential transactions in May 2025 is 80,530, 13% lower than May 2024 and…
Read More
Breaking News

Construction Skills Mission Board (CSMB) shows the Government has a plan

The Construction Skills Mission Board (CSMB) held its first board meeting today (26 June 2025), where it set out a roadmap for recruiting 100,000 more construction workers a year by the end of Parliament. Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “The Construction Skills Mission Board (CSMB) is a recognition…
Read More
Paint Stripper Tools
Estate Agent Talk

5 Strategies to Optimise Your Warehouse for Real Estate

The term fixer-upper can mean many things, from ‘slap some paint on the walls and it looks brand new’ to ‘will this building collapse if we open the front door?’ Indeed, in the dicey world of commercial property acquisition, each warehouse you buy will probably fall into both camps. Thinking about the viability of warehouses…
Read More
Breaking News

HMOs sell for up to 50% above market average

New research from Excellion Capital, the boutique debt advisory and investment firm, reveals that HMOs sell for as much as 50% above the average house price, further increasing their investment potential after it was revealed that HMOs also create rental yields of up to 12.5%. After previous research from Excellion Capital recently showed that the…
Read More
Breaking News

UK buyers struggle while 50,000 homes sit empty

As the UK housing crisis deepens, new analysis by Open Property Group exposes a worrying surge in so-called “zombie homes”- properties that sit unoccupied and deteriorating while millions struggle to access affordable housing. Key insights: 50,000+ long-term vacant homes in England alone 23,000+ of these have been empty for more than two years Estimated £13.6…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 26/06/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   The UK is Europe’s second most distressed market despite headline GDP growth Retail and Consumers Goods has emerged as the most distressed sector in Europe, with distress levels now the highest since the global financial crisis, according to the latest Weil European Distress Index (WEDI). The…
Read More