Beat the fee ban – make savings across your business with PropCo+
The Draft Tenants’ Fees Bill, outlined in the Queen’s Speech, will ban landlords and agents from requiring tenants to pay any fees.
As a result, there is suggestion from agents that the ban will affect the industry by impacting tenants with increased rents and also impact Landlord fees as agents try to recuperate their direct loss in income.
How will this impact to your agency and what are your options?
1. Increase rents – Raising rent levels may provide a few extra pounds in management fees or letting fees which are taken on a percentage basis and help offset any additional fees you need to charge your landlords. However, tip above market level and you risk your tenants deferring to alternative agents or renting privately at a lower rent.
2. Increase Landlord fees – Landlords will not be happy to see increased fees because of this for providing the same service that you used to provide. Some Landlords may seek cheaper alternatives, competitors, online agents, for example, or to go it alone, thereby lowering your market share.
We feel that while both the above options may provide a short term solution, but are not plausible in the longer term to sustain a growing profitable business.
The average amount paid in tenant fees is currently £223 per let, according to government figures.
This does not include fees charged mid-tenancy or at exit. The housing charity Shelter says 14% of renters pay more than £500.
Whatever you charge, this vital revenue will be lost.
With tenant fees helping you cover your time and administration and costs for: tenancy agreement preparation; referencing; Right to Rent; tenancy negotiations and the application process; inventory preparation and check in and guarantor referencing and agreements the team at Propco understand this is a considerable time and expense for each agent.
ARLA surveyed 1,008 agents to ask what they charge for and how long it takes them to do each task. The result show that on an average week letting agents spend:
8
HOURS
Over eight hours on credit checks
8
HOURS
Nearly eight hours on viewings and references as separate tasks
7.5
HOURS
Seven and half hours on administration
7+
HOURS
Over seven hours on application and set-up
This leaves little time for new business generation, sales and vital customer service, all essential for growing your business and client retention.
PropCo can offer you a solution.
PropCo+ is a comprehensiveservice offering both the technology and teams to streamiline your business, improving both efficiency and cost by using the smartest technology and low cost back office organisation.
Increase efficiency with software
With Propco+ we propose to save your business both time and money so you won’t feel the pinch by:
Introducing smart functionality to your lettings and property management software:
– DocuSign – for quick and easy electronic document signatures
– Postcode lookup
– Tenant maintenance reporting
– Deposit registration process – for quick and easy file transfer
– Diary and task management – maximise your office time management
– Simple mass mail merge for marketing, client letters and documents
– Eliminate repetitive, labour intensive and complex tasks with powerful workflow automation
We calculate on these items alone your business could save in excess of 2.5 hours per staff member, per office, per week*. Gain over 1 month per year for new business generation!
Save time and money across your business with Outsourcing
Do you have great sales people in your office but they lack admin skills? Do you need to spend more time on customer service but are swamped with paperwork? Want to employ another account negotiator/lister/relationship manager but don’t have the extra money?
You may not be aware PropCo not only offer you the best software for your business needs, but we also provide outsourcing, both for front office, call handling and property management, but also for back office administration and accounts. You pay only for time used, thereby freeing up important time for your negotiators, listers or admin team for your priority money making tasks.
We know that 1 negotiator spending 2 hours per day of focused time can gain up to 3 new appraisals, 5 quality viewings, 1 application and 1 new listing! So why not try our outsourcing and re-focus your teams?
Read more about outsourcing
Supplement your income with referrals.
PropCo can help you supplement your current income with new revenue streams from 3rd party introductions to USwitch, Virgin Media, Hallmark. PropCo can also provide the ability to feed referral data to your chosen insurance company or referencing agency – with no need for additional forms to be completed.
Let’s presume a commission from these companies of 10% per sale. For a large agent this could be a significant increase in revenue from cross-sales.
To summarise, make these gains with PropCo+:
- > 1 month refocussed business generation time by using PropCo software smart technology and functionality
- Grow your business weekly by choosing from our outsourcing options
- Easily boost your revenue with additional commission from referrals
Why wouldn’t you want these great additions to your business?
Give us a call today to find out more and discuss your options!
Source
1. htp://www.arla.co.uk/media/1045478/arla-proposal-on-banning-letting-fees.pdf
*based on 5 minutes spent on each of the above tasks using manual processes on a daily basis.
