Case study

How Milburys focused on managed properties by embracing change and technology

Milburys, based in South West England, is a high-street agency that focuses on a professional yet personable approach. They use Goodlord in their business and focus on turning non-managed into managed properties.

Operating across
Branches

3

Staff members

30

2

Admin hires saved

Number of new hires saved through Goodlord

Milburys agency aims to make the lettings process as seamless and enjoyable as possible for their landlords and tenants. Their high street agencies focus on a professional yet personable approach.

Originally founded 35 years ago, Milburys can now be found on the high street in South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, and Bristol. “We are quite a local business,” says Vera Rogers, Head of Administration at Milburys, but over the 20 years, the agency has now “widely spread all our offices on the high street and rely on long-term customers with local connections”.

The 30-member team integrated Goodlord and Vouch to free up the administrator’s and agent’s time, with the key goal of embracing new technology and processes while also remaining compliant. Through using the platforms, Milburys has been able to restructure its business to make sure they are as effective as possible without worrying about lengthy administrative tasks.

By using Goodlord, Milburys can now work more effectively and focus their time on managed properties with compliant tenancy agreements.

Here’s what Milburys gains from using Goodlord. 

The problem to solve: Free up time and the need for technology

As a growing business, Milburys needed a way to become as efficient as possible while also being able to free up time for agents.

“It was very time-consuming”, says Vera. “I had to do quite a lot of the admin plus some employees, like the actual negotiators, used to have to help with admin. Whereas after the integration of Goodlord, the admin tasks move mainly to me, so Milburys can manage and deal with a lot more properties with the same amount of people”.

Milburys also wanted the ability to trace communication between landlords and tenants, as Vera explained, “We had challenges before where we couldn't prove various things, we couldn't see where we've emailed or texted somewhere”. Goodlord provides clear transparency to what has been sent to their landlords and what is necessary from either the landlord or tenant to complete their tenancy agreement. 

Goodlord has taken over the admin. I just keep an eye on any updates and then free our staff to go and get new properties and new landlords.

Vera Rogers

Head of Administration, Milburys

Embracing a technology-based approach

When deciding what platform to streamline their lettings process, technology was one of the most important requirements. Milburys wanted to embrace a digital platform to become more efficient and stay ahead of competitors.

“Goodlord was by far the most advanced platform we’ve worked with. It’s a very forward-thinking team with young people who look like they want to develop all the time. We always try to be slightly in front of our competitors so we try to research and then get there”.

With the change of legislation and compliance, before Goodlord, Milburys used to have to create and edit the tenancy agreements themselves. This makes them susceptible to possible licensing fines and any other nasty surprises.

However, that is no longer a worry. Vera explains: “When there's a change in legislation, we rely on Goodlord. They know about legislation and compliance because they've got the legal team. They will change the tenancy agreements. It's on the system the next day, and I am sending contracts that are already compliant”.

From start to finish of the tenancy process, Milburys was able to stay compliant. From understanding what legally required documents are needed to avoid costly manual errors, to making sure their gas and electricity certificates are up to date. Their time now is focused on their landlords and tenants, without needing to worry about being non-compliant.

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The result

Saving time and turning non-managed properties into managed ones was a key win for Milburys. “We wanted to free more time to try and convert some of the non-managed landlords into managed, which we've achieved”, says Vera. “That's definitely because we've got more people dealing with the actual landlords and because it just takes a lot less time for us to do the admin side”.

“We're still there eight hours a day, but we feel it is a lot less time-consuming”, meaning there is more time to work on converting landlords into managed properties. Vera believes Milburys has seen an increase in managed properties, and believes it is because their agents have “more people dealing with the actual landlords and a lot less time for us to do the admin side”.

Through using Goodlord, Milburys has managed to restructure their business to become more streamlined and effective according to Vera. “We freed some of the people who previously used to do the viewings and enter the information, now can just set it up on Goodlord. So now they've got different roles as property managers and although they get slightly involved, not very much. We've decided we are going to allocate the job roles more specifically to people which we were able to do because using Goodlord is so streamlined”.

Milburys adds value with:

Tenant referencing

Milburys uses Goodlord to reference its tenants quickly and comprehensively.

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Rent Protection & Legal Expenses Insurance

Milburys protects its landlords and reduces its admin - all while getting rewarded for offering more - with Goodlord's Rent Protection Insurance.

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Lettings Accounts

Milburys manages its lettings payments in one place, from rent collection and reconciliation to one-click payouts to contractors and landlords.

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