Letting and estate agents need to be looking at doing things faster and smarter to keep up with high tenant demand, so here are 8 ways that agents can save time.
Tenant demand is showing no sign of abating, with rents in August 2023 up 10% on August 2022, and void period lengths at only 13 days on average, according to Goodlord's Rental Index. Letting and estate agents will have to look for new ways to save time so they have more to spend on winning and retaining landlords.
1. Filter tenants and make viewings more efficient
At the moment, there's no shortage of tenant demand, but that only means that filtering to find the best tenant becomes even more difficult.
Video marketing doesn't have to be the full professional set up, but can be a simple phone video posted on social media. If you share video clips when marketing a property, you'll find that more tenants will take themselves out the running before they view it in person, saving you the job.
Pre-qualifying your tenants, or even asking a few simple questions when they request a viewing, can help you filter out unsuitable tenants early on, before the full referencing process.
You could also organise block viewings, make sure you only attend confirmed viewings, and use your time on property visits wisely.
Read more about the 7 ways to filter tenants and get through viewings fast
2. Strengthen compliance with tech that remembers for you
The tasks that help keep you compliant are very important, which means you can't cut corners. It could be the difference between regaining possession of your landlords' property or not - or it could result in hefty fines.
Just as landlords rely on agents to understand and stay compliant with legislation, technology can support agents too, in a time-effective way.
The right solution can help automate some of that compliance and remove human error, making it a much simpler, safer, and faster process.
3. Stop wasting time on paperwork
Even ignoring the fact that filling out a vast amount of paperwork takes time, have you considered how long it takes to post contracts - and to find any misplaced records?
Moving to an online platform can give everyone access to the same information instantaneously, help avoid human error, and make it easier to progress your lets.
Providers like Goodlord that use open banking, bank-grade facial recognition, and other tech solutions in referencing - or in other steps in the lettings process - will be able to get references back to you more quickly too, without the need for lots of paper documents.
4. Consolidate suppliers with one, streamlined platform
One of our agents once said that Goodlord helped alleviate "dashboard fatigue" - the hassle of jumping between platforms to complete a simple task.
Choosing a supplier that integrates with various technologies - or has simply built its own solution so you only see one smooth journey - will make life easier for you and help your agency save money too, without the need to pay multiple suppliers.
5. Outsource rent collection to take a hands off approach
The emails, the back and forth, the hunt for the right payments - collecting rent can take up a lot of time.
Choosing a provider to help is a simple step but takes a lot of hassle off your plate - and helps keep your landlords happy too with prompt rent payments.
Goodlord Rent Collection has seen 97% of rental payments made within 7 days of the due date with its automated chasing, for example.
6. Surpass your tenants' expectations without lifting a finger
A lot of the previous time-saving tips will benefit your tenants too - such as speedy tech solutions in referencing - but you can easily go a step further.
Many lettings suppliers can offer extra services to your tenants, such as move-in services or tenants insurance.
You'll meet your tenants' expectations, your supplier will do the hard work of proposing services to your tenants, and your agency gets time back to focus on other tasks.
7. Automate your claims process to reduce data entry
Do you offer your landlords rent protection? If yes, you already help protect their rent and your agency's income.
If you have to go through the process of submitting a claim yourself, it can be time consuming. Alternatively, you could choose rent protection with a claims process that's linked to your existing lettings platform, pulling in relevant information without you having to hunt for it.
Just one factor to consider when choosing a policy for your landlords.
8. Become agile to pivot quickly
Being agile is a mindset that your whole business would need to embrace, and involves constantly evaluating your work and making fast decisions, to pivot and stay ahead of your competition.
This can help ensure your team doesn't waste time on projects that will see limited success, as the constant process of analysing and improving will help everyone see where best to concentrate your efforts.
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