Half in disbelief, a letting agency owner recently told me that one of his top negotiators had handed in his notice to take a job in a cafe.
“They took a two grand a year pay cut, just for less stress and better hours," he said. "And I just can’t compete with that.”
I hear this kind of thing regularly. Talented staff—people who used to thrive in the fast-paced environment of lettings—are walking away from the industry for roles that offer more predictability, even if it means lower pay.
So, with retention becoming one of the toughest challenges agencies face, the question is:
How do you get top talent to stay?
The answer lies partly in a mindset shift, partly in business strategy, and partly in rethinking how you reward and recognise your people.
Arguably, the biggest reason for high employee turnover is that the gap between entry-level wages and experienced negotiators’ salaries has narrowed.
In 2015, the minimum wage for adults was £6.70 per hour, or around £14,000 annually. Meanwhile, the average salary for lettings negotiators was between £21,000 and £25,000.
Fast-forward to 2025, and the National Living Wage for adults over 21 is £12.21 per hour, or around £25,000 per year. According to Totaljobs, this is also what the average lettings negotiator earns.
Secondly, the role of an agent itself has shifted. It’s now less about the fast-paced thrill of closing deals and more about paperwork and compliance.
According to the State of the Lettings Industry Report, nearly a third of landlords (29%) cite compliance as the main reason they use a letting agent, up from just 17% in 2023. It’s a clear sign that landlords expect agents to shoulder more of the regulatory burden.
Plus, with longer tenancies post-COVID and stock becoming scarcer, fewer properties are changing hands. This means smaller commissions and fewer wins to celebrate.
If you want to keep your best people, you need to make the job worth staying for. Here are a few practical ways you can do just that 👇
When margins are tight, the default approach is to chase more landlords and grow your managed book. But sometimes, the biggest opportunities sit right under your nose—services your team could offer existing customers.
Think rent protection insurance and tenant services like broadband and utilities. These are things your landlords and tenants already need. But if your team isn’t actively upselling, chances are, those customers are simply going elsewhere for them.
And why don’t your team bring them up? Because there’s nothing in it for them. But when there’s a clearly communicated incentive, behaviour changes.
"This is money your business doesn’t currently have. It’s an upsell. It’s new revenue. So don’t be tight with it."
For instance, if you offer them £2,500 a year for hitting rent protection targets, £1,000 for utilities referrals, and another £1,000 for introducing a mortgage adviser, you’re potentially offering them a 10–50% increase in earnings, without touching their base salary.
But clarity alone isn’t enough. The incentive also has to feel fair. If a negotiator earns your agency £100 from a policy and gets a tenner in return, they won’t stick around for long.
You’ve got to understand that this is money your business doesn’t currently have. It’s an upsell. It’s new revenue. So don’t be tight with it.
Lettings isn’t like working for a tech startup. You probably can’t offer full-time remote work or a four-day week. But the idea that you can’t provide flexibility at all is outdated.
Can you give a working parent a later start or an early finish a few days a week? Can you offer weekdays off in exchange for Saturdays? Can you allow work-from-home admin days?
Getting creative and making small adjustments like these can make a big difference in staff morale and retention. And if you don’t offer some version of it, other industries will.
Flexibility isn’t all or nothing. It’s about listening to what your team needs and showing them that you see them as humans, not machines.
Your most experienced negotiators aren’t just doing the job. They’re your brand ambassadors, your compliance guardians, and often the reason a landlord sticks around.
Their value multiplies far beyond their pay slip, and if you’re only measuring their worth by move-ins, you're missing the point.
Recognition doesn’t always have to be about money. Monthly check-ins, shout-outs in team meetings, personal bios on your website’s “Meet the Team” page; it all signals that your people matter.
A £200 monthly budget for a pizza night or celebratory drinks can also go further than you think.
Training is one of the easiest yet most overlooked tools when it comes to motivating and retaining staff. And the best part?
It doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Platforms like Goodlord already offer free resources like webinars, on-demand training modules, and live coaching that you can tap into straight away.
When your team feels that their skills are being sharpened and their careers are moving forward, they’re more likely to stay engaged and give back to your business.
And with regulation like RoPA on the horizon, training isn’t a “nice to have” anymore. It’s a signal you’re future-ready, and that they will be too.
Negotiators love people, not paperwork. Yet they spend most of their days buried in forms, follow-ups and file chasing. Tech that streamlines admin can be a silent game-changer.
With the right software, you can significantly reduce admin time, freeing up your team to do what they actually enjoy: viewings, networking, closing deals.
"Negotiators love people, not paperwork. Yet they spend most of their days buried in forms, follow-ups and file chasing. Tech that streamlines admin can be a silent game-changer."
When people enjoy their work, they stay longer. And when the part they enjoy makes up more of their day, they stop looking over the fence.
This also has a knock-on effect on performance. More time in the field means more conversations. More conversations mean more deals. And more deals mean more revenue, without hiring anyone new.
If you want your team to stay motivated, incentives and recognition are only half the equation. The other half is enabling them with the right tools and support that help them achieve those goals.
That’s where partnerships can make all the difference.
Goodlord’s rent protection insurance, for instance, gives your negotiators a clear, confidence-boosting value-add when speaking to landlords, while creating a new income stream for your business.
In one agency using rent protection incentives, uptake increased by 300%. That translated to an extra £9,000 in annual profit, after incentives were paid out.
On the tenant side, services like broadband to utilities turn everyday conversations into upsell opportunities, while giving tenants a smoother move-in experience. Our team is more than happy to help you roll all of this out in your agency.
And when it comes to training, there’s no need to reinvent your training programme from scratch. Goodlord’s Newsagent blog, webinars, and live coaching can help your team sharpen their sales skills and start hitting targets with consistency.
This article is intended as a guide only and does not constitute legal advice.