With the ups and downs naturally associated with the real estate sales market, it is important to take care of your rental roll clients. Your rental roll clients are the ones that will (hopefully) be there through the thick and thin of the sales cycles. When sales times are low, the rental roll keeps clicking along. Just the same, when sales increase, your rent roll still needs to remain a priority.
So this month we are focusing on providing exceptional trust management service to your landlords. When times are a bit tough, we have the chance to over-service our existing clients. Retention is just as (if not more) important than new business. And it helps to pay the bills!
A key gripe of many landlords is when things go wrong with statements and payments. Lapses in data entry can quickly escalate, break your agency’s reputation and send your landlords packing to another agent.
So what can you do to ensure your rental roll holds strong for the long term?
First Class Trust Management for Landlords
Landlord Portals
Portals have been around for some time. But the latest cloud technology portals has given us unprecedented access to real time information 24/7. Even when your agency is closed. It’s a win for landlords and a win for agencies. It allows complete transparency and landlords can see everything that is happening with their property at any time (even while you are getting precious shut-eye).
Outsourcing
Outsourcing can greatly benefit both your agency and your clients. The outsourcing of Property Management can allow the generation of strong relationships with your clients whilst the other areas of the business are maintained. Tasks can include trust accounting, inspections and maintenance to name a few. You would be surprised at how cost-effective outsourcing can be. More often than not, outsourcing can cost a lot less than employing an additional staff member to perform these tasks. In the end, it is what you decide fits best for your agency.
Statements
This is the general place we hit the most snags. Landlords seem to get the most bees in their bonnets when it comes to incorrect statements or they simply have trouble understanding them. It pays off to set the record straight with statements right from the beginning. If meeting with a new client, take a dummy statement along with you to work through it. Show them how to read it and understand it. Alternatively, record a video that they can look back on to remind themselves. Websites such as Freelancer have experts that can whip you up a quick informative video or cartoon presentation as a step-by-step guide to reading statements and understanding paid to dates, credits, income and expenses.
Information Sessions
Often you may come across a landlord that asks you to do something that’s against the Act or Regulations. If this is the case, you can often spend hours explaining the rules and regulations to them. What if you could do this en masse? Hosting an information session for your existing landlords is an effective way to walk through any common issues that arise including:
- any upcoming legislative changes
- how to maintain their properties to achieve the best rent
- how to claim the most amount of money in their tax returns
- any other risks or issues they need to know about.
When acting as Property Managers, we would hold information sessions on a regular basis. You can have guest speakers such as electricians to discuss and demonstrate the importance of correct wiring. Having licensed tradespeople attend these sessions can add a lot of value and keep your landlords well-informed. For those with interstate or overseas clients, you can live stream the session or provide a video on your social pages or enewsletters.
Phone Calls
Communication is vital in any relationship, especially with your landlords. They love to be kept informed. Imagine if you had the time to call your landlords just to say hello? Just for once for the phone call to not be about rent in arrears or some required maintenance. Taking the time to do this shows that you care about your clients. That they are not just a number. You care about them, the relationship, and their property. Plus it will minimise an influx of phone calls! Once again, outsourcing could be a good way to free you up to do this.
Password Protection
With fraud on the rise, password protection has never been so important. It is especially important when we are making sensitive changes to their accounts. We’ve already seen 2 cases of properties being sold with fraudulent instructions in WA and another case in ACT – ‘When Landlords Change Their Bank Details’.
Taking those extra steps to look after your rent roll clients will see this area of your business grow and thrive. It will help you get through the tough times and buoy you up in the good.
– Jane Morgan is the Director of End of Month Angels, a consultancy firm specialising in Trust Accounting. Jane knows the legislative requirements of running a successful Real Estate office through her 20 years industry experience. Don’t trust just anyone with your trust accounting. Book an appointment with an End of Month Angel today.