There’s a second each letting agent dreads. A landlord calls and, after a number of well mannered niceties, says the phrases: “I feel I’m going to promote.” It’s tempting to sigh, provide the gross sales staff’s quantity, and transfer on. However that is perhaps one of many largest errors an company could make.
The reality is, landlords aren’t simply promoting due to new laws. They’re promoting as a result of they’ve misplaced confidence – and confidence is one thing unbiased brokers might help rebuild. The mainstream media has achieved a positive job of convincing landlords that being within the non-public rented sector is a one-way ticket to emphasize and sleepless nights. Each headline appears to spell catastrophe: new legal guidelines, greater taxes, and a picture of landlords as public enemy primary.
However once you have a look at the info, the image isn’t so black and white. The Voice of an Agent 2025 and wider trade surveys present that one in three letting brokers have seen extra landlords promoting up this 12 months, whereas a staggering 93% frightened about dropping shoppers altogether. This exodus is essentially made up of small “unintentional” landlords – these with one or two properties who by no means noticed themselves as enterprise house owners. For them, a nasty headline, an enormous restore invoice or one other layer of pink tape is sufficient to push them over the sting.
And that’s precisely the place brokers ought to step in – not with panic or a gross sales referral, however with perspective. If a landlord telephones to say they’re pondering of promoting, step one shouldn’t be handy them over to the gross sales staff. It must be to take a seat down and undergo the numbers. Has the lease saved tempo with the native market? How a lot fairness has constructed up through the years? What’s the true yield as soon as prices, tax and mortgage curiosity are factored in? For a lot of, the maths will present the property nonetheless performs effectively – they only haven’t been managing it like a enterprise.
In fact, typically promoting is the precise choice. Maybe the property has been uncared for or sits in a location the place values have peaked. However that’s a conclusion finest reached by way of calm, knowledgeable recommendation – not knee-jerk worry. A fast chat with a educated agent can flip a “get me out” dialog right into a plan to re-let, refurbish or refinance as an alternative.
This implies lettings groups must be correctly geared up to have these conversations. Not each negotiator or property supervisor feels assured discussing yields, tax or return on funding – however they need to. These are the conversations that retain shoppers. Coaching your staff to identify the distinction between a landlord searching for assist and one searching for an escape route is crucial. Arm workers with yield calculators, up-to-date market knowledge and examples of lease evaluations which have improved returns. A letting agent who can clearly show the worth of staying invested turns into an adviser, not only a service supplier – and that’s the place actual loyalty is constructed.
Training additionally performs an enormous half. The companies with the most effective landlord retention charges are those that educate proactively. Meaning newsletters that truly clarify what the Renters’ Rights Act means in plain English, landlord webinars that minimize by way of social-media myths, and one-to-one check-ins to assessment property efficiency.
The aim is easy: to turn out to be the primary particular person a landlord calls earlier than they decide, not after. When landlords really feel knowledgeable, they cease reacting emotionally to headlines and begin responding rationally to recommendation. In immediately’s local weather, that’s half the battle gained.
Even when a landlord does resolve to promote, it doesn’t need to be the tip of the connection. Many buyers promote one property solely to purchase one other, usually in a special space or market sector. Some hand the keys to new house owners who will nonetheless want a managing agent. If dealt with effectively, a departing consumer can turn out to be a referral supply or a returning investor. It’s all about protecting the dialogue open quite than closing the file.
Landlords have extra challenges and extra causes to stroll away than ever earlier than. However in addition they have a determined want for steering. Impartial brokers, with our native information and private contact, are completely positioned to offer that. We simply have to cease pondering of ourselves as middlemen and begin appearing like enterprise companions.
The “landlord loyalty check” isn’t handed by locking shoppers into contracts. It’s handed by incomes their belief, proving our price and exhibiting them that we’re a part of their funding staff – not simply those who gather the lease. As a result of if we get that proper, the subsequent time a landlord rings to say they’re pondering of promoting, the dialog may simply finish with, “Really, I’ve modified my thoughts.”
Sophie Lang is co-founder of Lang Llewellyn & Co.
