Time to rebrand: lettings experts, not agents

Negativity. There’s a lot of it about in the lettings industry right now. Where you might see barriers, hurdles and more hoops to jump through, we actually see positives. 

The changes to our industry are presenting opportunities for lettings agents and property managers, if approached in the right way. 

The route to capitalisation is how you present yourself to landlords – potential and existing – and it might need you to rebrand your image and service.

This headline - 'more evidence that buy to let is becoming too complex' – should incite excitement, not leave you downcast. 

It relates to findings by Your Move and Reeds Rains, which showed 9% of 1,200 landlords questioned thought the growing complexity of the PRS made selling up more attractive.

We’re all familiar with the added extras – new laws regarding smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, changes to Section 21 repossessions and the handling of property maintenance requests, the new Right to Rent checks from February 2016 and the reduction of mortgage interest tax relief. 

So rather be a letting agent or property manager, the time is upon us to reposition ourselves experts. The emphasis has to be on how PRS professionals make investing in property and managing a let simple and straightforward. 

We need to sell ourselves as specialists in our field, who are up-to-date with all laws and legislation. 

We need to make it clear we are accomplished in the areas of efficient tax planning, compliance and reporting. 

Landlords need to know we are knowledgeable and able to supply accountable, transparent audit trails. They need to know lettings won’t be a headache for them.

It is a repositioning exercise, changing perceptions of what we do. We are not just people who sort broken boilers or show people around properties. We are skilled specialists in a complex industry. 

We can comfortably manage buy-to-lets for people, with the minimum of fuss and drama. We can make a first foray into the PRS simple. 

We can help career landlords maintain and even grow their portfolio without extra pressure on the landlords themselves. 

You might have to change your marketing literature or create a new campaign altogether but if landlords are worried that the PRS isn’t worth it, we need to soothe and reassure to retain business.

* Simon Duce is the Managing Director of ARPM Outsourced Lettings Support