Letting Agents: Don't Forget To Mine Your Databases

Every year, the Property Academy's Home Moving Trends survey of active landlords, tenants and home sellers reveals that almost 1 in 5 existing EA sales clients are landlords.

Therefore, if an estate agency office has been open for 5 years and achieved 100 completions a year they will have at least 100 landlords in their sales records. And 54% of landlords have more than one property, indeed 29% have 3 or more - which means, in other words, that most estate agents’ databases are a treasure chest of opportunity.

For some reason, agents seem to prefer to go hunting for fresh opportunities rather than farm and nurture those they've already got which, to my mind, is crazy for a number of reasons. Not only are their existing customers easier to contact, but speaking with and converting new prospects takes more time, resources and man power.

To help make the most of existing databases, start with the following:

1. Combine the sales and lettings databases into one and treat clients as "four dimensional" sellers, (buyer, landlord and tenant), and treat them all the same too.
2. Have a dedicated person or team from lettings call every new sales client.
3. Have the same team call all the sellers and buyers from the last 3-5 years to explore their position regarding investment properties.

This guest post has been written by Peter Knight, founder of Property Academy and the Best Estate Agent Guide which will be announced at eamasters.co.uk on the 22nd September.

Interested in more great tips? Download Fixflo's free eBook 'How To Find Landlords in 2017'