Don't let Christmas take your eye off the ball. Get the lowdown on the festive slowdown - and handy hints of how you can prepare for it.
The festive season is here, with Christmas Day just two weeks away. Although your agency may be slowing down its activities, that doesn't mean you should be complacent. Here are five top tips for letting agents to consider before you head for your winter break.
Want more help over Christmas? Go through these three resources.
- 🎅 Sean Hooker explains how to avoid the Christmas crisis
- 🎄 Take Goodlord's Christmas quiz for the chance to win an Amazon.co.uk gift card
- 🪟 Read guidance on damp and mould
1. Communicate your Christmas opening hours
If your agency is shut or operates different hours over the winter period, have you made your landlords and tenants aware? It's wise to keep them in the loop to cover you if something happens.
Remember to also provide emergency contact information so tenants and landlords know what to do in case there are any issues.
2. Stay aware of your responsibilities
Make sure you have factored in contingency plans for over Christmas. For example, do you know whether it is your agency or your landlord who is responsible for emergency repairs? And do you know what decisions you are allowed to make if your landlord is unavailable?
It's also wise to make sure you know what skilled professionals are around over the winter break, in case you need to do a call out. This may help prevent paying an excess for an emergency call out charge.
For more detail on how to avoid this particular Christmas crisis, read advice from Sean Hooker, Head of Redress at the Property Redress scheme.
3. Consider your marketing efforts
Everyone knows that agencies calm down in December. However, recent data shows there may be some value in marketing over winter. A recent report from Letting Agent Today reports that a quarter of December's leads come between the 22 and 31 December. Is there something small you could do to show you're ahead of the competition?
4. Good tidings = happy landlords
The winter holidays are a time for cheer. Consider little gestures - such as sending a Christmas card to your landlords - that may make a big difference.
By keeping up communication with your landlords, you can make sure they are happy - and in turn, they may promote your services to others.
Tenants may also be pleasantly surprised by a Christmas card from your agency, as well.
5. Work out plans to grow your portfolio
During the cooldown, this is the perfect time of year to work out how you are going to win more landlords in 2024.
We've built a page full of resources for you that will help to level up your lettings and to boost your revenue. Why not start by watching our webinar on demand 'Are landlords really selling up? And how agents can win landlords when supply is low.'
Rather listen while you're doing other things? Here's the podcast version.
