Revealed – how to increase and maximise your lettings portfolio

As a letting agent, you will often find yourself dealing directly with matters regarding tenants, the marketing of rental properties, the collection of rent, maintenance issues, and even (rarely) pursuing evictions. 

On top of all this, you will also be responsible for attracting new tenants and providing all the information they need before signing a lease.

So, how can letting agencies connect with prospective renters and turn them into qualified leads?

Below, we at The ValPal Network have provided a clear outline on how lettings portfolios can be maximised by streamlining and automating internal processes, therefore drumming up new business opportunities and increasing revenue. 

The importance of effective lead generation

Many letting agencies still rely on word-of-mouth referrals to generate business, however, that doesn’t always result in a steady flow of clients. Strong online marketing strategies such as lead generation act as an invaluable method to attract the right targeted audience and turn them into leads.

Instant valuation tools – which sit on the homepage of an agent’s website – are one excellent way of generating leads as they tap into that innate desire from landlords (a letting agent’s main target audience) to know how much they could be charging in rent.

But it’s also important to offer a more rounded approach which nurtures those leads and works out when is best to contact them (i.e. when they’re at their hottest). This is where a lead nurturing tool like MovePal really comes into its own, acting as your 12th man in the background, picking up those leads outside of office hours and then nurturing them to the point of instruction and beyond.

Additionally, useful, educational content appearing on a regular basis on your social media platforms and your website can help to position you as an authority in your local area, and mean prospective landlords turn to your agency first when seeking an agent to manage their homes.

Regular blog content is very useful in this context, as are well-timed social media posts on topical issues.

Facebook ads are a great way, too, of marketing your services and putting your agency front and centre in a consumer’s mindset.

Streamlining and automating internal processes - explained

One of the biggest barriers to growing your portfolio as a letting agent is likely to be those cumbersome, time-consuming, admin-heavy tasks, that weigh down your diary and prevent you from doing the bread-and-butter of agency – interacting with potential clients through your website, social media or in person, providing the best service to landlords and tenants alike, keeping on top of new legislation, finding new ways to grow your business, etc.

So, if you’re able to streamline and automate certain internal processes so everything runs in a far smoother and more efficient manner, then your business is only likely to benefit.

As this testimonial video from our friends at automated rental payment specialists PayProp states, automating and streamlining processes can help to save a huge amount of time, hassle and, ultimately, money lost in those missed leads and opportunities that come while carrying out laborious tasks.

David Votta, founder of Votta Sales and Lettings, says using PayProp’s automated systems enables his agency to complete tasks in a few minutes for various properties that would have taken many times longer on a more manual, individual basis.

It is finding these time-saving tech solutions that can help free up more of your staff’s time, to do the work that will really grow your business. Meanwhile, the day-to-day admin tasks are outsourced or automated so you don’t have to give them much of a thought.  

Ultimately, by embracing the latest technology to streamline and automate your processes, and generate leads in a more effective manner, you can generate more leads and successfully grow your business while not overreaching yourself.

Here at The ValPal Network, we can help you to achieve this and more. For more information on the services we provide, please contact us at team@valpal.co.uk or give us a call on 020 8663 4930.

For information on how we can help to grow your business online and generate leads effectively, you can check out our social media marketing service.