"Part of using Goodlord was for our agency's benefit, and part of it was for the landlord's benefits - it's part of our offering to them," says Matthew Wilkinson, Partner at Maidenhead-based Wilkinson Estates. "If I go on a valuation now, I make a point of saying that we use Goodlord's system because it's all under one roof and works brilliantly."
The property management and lettings agency initially struggled with keeping on top of all the compliance involved in lettings activities, but Goodlord's platform can help agents to manage this, ensuring all documents are sent out at the right time, and regularly updated.
"We use four or five different tenancy agreements, which was becoming completely unmanageable with all the legislative changes on what should and shouldn't be in an agreement," says Matthew. "We're not big enough to have a compliance department, so that was one of the big reasons for going down the Goodlord route, to house all that on one platform."
Referencing was another reason to sign up to the Goodlord platform. "We've been through half a dozen referencing agencies over the years but it's quite attractive to have referencing under the same roof as the contracts, as is the case with Goodlord."
The agency hopes that, along with all the other areas where its invests to improve its processes, its landlords will recognise the value that it provides. "With our videos and photography and all the extras, we aim to reduce void time. And then, everything we do for a landlord, all the contractors we pay, is at cost - full stop."
And looking ahead to 2021, Matthew says that this will translate to landlords seeing "what we can do for them, how we can do it for them. The trust that they can have in us."