Revealed: How best to convert landlords to ‘fully managed’

What objections are you hearing when you try and convert let-only landlords to fully-managed?

Because the latest figures show just 18% of rental properties fall into the latter category which means all-too-often these conversations either aren’t happening or aren’t having the right effect.

Do your landlords even understand the benefits?

They may feel the only reason that they need an agent is to market their properties, find tenants and complete references and contracts. And they could even be forgiven for thinking that this is the hardest part done – especially if they’re new to letting out properties.

TIME AND EFFORT

But as agents, we understand that tasks like inspections, carrying out routine maintenance and handling tenant enquiries can take up time and effort.

So how can you effectively share the benefits of a fully managed service with your clients and potential clients?

Let’s start with talking about the risk that they are taking by self-managing, such as breaching regulations, banning orders, fines or even criminal prosecution through lack of knowledge.

Help landlords understand how they’re personally at risk.”

Have a process to help landlords understand how they’re personally at risk, where you can advise them on how converting to fully managed would help.

And motivate your team by targeting them on converting let-only landlords to your fully managed service.

I know many will say that people are motivated away from risk and some are motivated towards reward. But for let-only to fully managed conversion we find moving away from risk (risks they don’t even know they are carrying) works best.

ALL THAT IS NECESSARY

Apart from the risks, it’s also worth covering the time it takes them to do all that is necessary. To do this, work out how much time you spend per week managing each property – as this can be a persuasive stat to share with landlords.

Of course, having a well-maintained property with respectful tenants in place can help things run smoothly but you can never mitigate the chance of emergencies, extreme weather or the simple fact that things sometimes break.

Landlords can obviously manage their own property if they want to – but that doesn’t mean it’s desirable, especially with over 170 pieces of legislation to fall foul of.

If they’ve got another job alongside being a landlord, then can they afford to take time off to sort out an urgent maintenance issue? If they’ve got a family, do they want to miss out on weekends and evenings because they’re too busy inspecting their properties?

If a landlord is objecting to spending extra for a fully managed service, it’s likely that they don’t believe in the value of that service.

STRONG MANAGEMENT

I find it helpful to explain the cost of a solicitor sending one letter or the fact that evictions are now taking 12 months and longer to secure. There’s a real risk of loss of rent during that time plus legal fees – all of which can be prevented by good strong management.

You can also have a conversation about how much extra time they’d have per week; how they’d not have to handle incoming calls and emails from tenants or how they wouldn’t even need to think about maintenance and inspections.

Directly asking a landlord isn’t something you can do too often. But do keep reminding them about the huge risks they are taking and the areas they likely have missed – plus the value associated with you handling everything for them.

If you keep reminding them what they stand to gain you may soon see those ‘no’ answers turning into a ‘yes’.

Sally Lawson is chief executive and founder of Agent Rainmaker

Picture: Alex Styles