Haart makes ANOTHER big investment in tech following partnership with lettings platform Teclet
Agency's lettings branches are to begin using the platform, which automates many of the key elements of the tenancy and property management processes.
Lettings proptech platform Teclet has landed a major coup after signing the UK’s largest independent estate agency chain, Haart, as a client.
The estate agency’s lettings branches within its 134 office network England and Wales will now use Teclet’s platform to help manage tenancy on-boarding and both ongoing tenancy and property management.
Haart doesn’t publish separate business performance details but it is part of the Spicerhaart group, which during 2018 turned over some £120 million.
In a nutshell, Teclet enables lettings agencies to automate significant chunks of the rental process and enables landlords, tenants, guarantors and agents to communicate in a compliant manner across a common platform.
“The agreement and processing of renting a property can be frustrating and complex for all parties,” says Paul Sloan, Haart’s Operations Director (left).
“Chasing signatures, performing checks, complying with legislation and taking payments securely are all burdens which grow exponentially the more people that are involved.
“We are delighted that with the introduction of Teclet to our network, Haart can cover all of these processes from one simple web platform, increasing transparency and making the process straightforward and convenient for our customers.”
Teclet’s Commercial Director John Evans claims the platform gives agents a competitive advantage over rivals,
Business hours
“With around a third of all customer interactions on the platform taking place outside of normal business hours, Teclet is enabling lettings agents to become more productive and therefore save costs,” he says.
“The platform also enables the compliant and efficient generation of additional revenue streams through its innovative API structure that works with suppliers across the industry in areas such as referencing, inventories, rent guarantee insurance, landlord and tenant insurances, safety certificates, appliance maintenance and ordering and utility management and switching.”
The investment in proptech is the second major partnership announced by Spicerhaart over the past year. In February last year it spent £6 million on ROSIE, an ‘office in your pocket’ platform.
Over the past months having had many confidential conversations with people in the c-suite of some really big organisations across the property industry: – estate agency, legals, property finance and of course proptech, it is clear that the ‘digital transformation’ of the whole sector is happening.
It is a Quiet revolution, yet I think in 2020 there will be some quantum leaps, founded on strategies put in place by forward thinking companies over 24-months ago. And the one universal factor that comes up, when tech is mentioned as a solution, is not the cost, but the financial rewards it will reap.
You would be surprised if you knew who was and who was not ‘backing’ the proptech revolution, who has poured large amounts of capital in, and who is sitting and waiting.
Now I never used to be an early adopter, and it can be financially risky to be the first in when adopting methods to automate processes and let go of legacy systems and practices. But, meeting many 20 to 35 year old digital scientists or proptech company leads, I realise that everything in the real estate space is going to change.
The good news is that like in any industry the ‘sheep’ mentality will kick in, Spicerhaart are obviously looking to be a big player in the future, others will look from the sidelines, many will be diligently following their own path to a more efficient result.
The big advantage the behemoth companies, your Countrywide’s, Sequence and Connells, etc have is their data. If you run a single office or three office concern as about 80% of agents in the UK do, you know your client to a degree.
With hundreds of branches, the big boys can if they want to still be trading in 5 years capture the data of all the activities within their company and ‘learn from it’.
Moving away from the financials as indicators of success, the amount of property sold, exchanged, listed, banked etc, and instead focusing on the ‘people’ data, the clients data – and their composition, their buying habits.
And maybe just maybe, Artificial Intelligence coupled with Machine learning will lead, (as I and Mark Burgess a visionary in his field), to the algorithm of estate agency. Think Amazon, think Google, Netflix, think game over.
Because the holder of that golden prize will be the winner and generate so much revenue it will be unstoppable.