Time management and efficiency in the estate agent industry are even more critical as downward pressure on fees being charged, tighter regulation and challenges from online firms hits high street agents. A heightened emphasis on efficiency and service quality to increase agency commissions is required. The winners will be those that change and adapt rapidly to these challenges. For them the rewards will be great.
We will be showing you what currently slows down and eats up time in an estate agent, the impact of this, and the best ways to overcome these issues and drive and adapt for the future to give you a leading edge.
We will be showing you what currently slows down and eats up time in an estate agent, the impact of this, and the best ways to overcome these issues and drive and adapt for the future to give you a leading edge.
So What are the Biggest Time Suckers for Estate Agents and how to Overcome them?
Time spent on non-commission relevant activities create a large vacuum of inefficiency, an agent must define what are service/operational and commission focused tasks.
Agents should look to systemise or outsource non-core activities such as inventories, check in/outs, deposit estimations and referencing. These do not drive commissions and are not a specialised activity for the agent who may lack the experience or knowledge to do it well. Other estate agency outsourced compliance related activities are also being driven by other firms.
Agents should spend more time on letting valuations, following up leads, nurturing/engaging landlords and tenants. These drive commissions, improve service quality and retain clients. They are core specialist tasks for the agent that they should develop and consistently utilise.
Time spent on non-commission relevant activities create a large vacuum of inefficiency, an agent must define what are service/operational and commission focused tasks.
Agents should look to systemise or outsource non-core activities such as inventories, check in/outs, deposit estimations and referencing. These do not drive commissions and are not a specialised activity for the agent who may lack the experience or knowledge to do it well. Other estate agency outsourced compliance related activities are also being driven by other firms.
Agents should spend more time on letting valuations, following up leads, nurturing/engaging landlords and tenants. These drive commissions, improve service quality and retain clients. They are core specialist tasks for the agent that they should develop and consistently utilise.
Lets take a look at the typical time and activities of letting a property. Utilising this method we can work out the return based upon the time spent on managing a property. By doing this analysis will enable the agent to look at areas to streamline or outsource. We spoke to a couple of our clients to understand where time is spent on letting a property. This illustration is only a guide and will differ between agents, agent type and property as well as other activities.
From the above we can see that the time taken by an agent doing all the above activities per year is around 40 hours per property. In this case a 2 bed flat, larger properties may take longer. This means 1 member of staff working full time could manage around 40 to 50 properties a year doing all the above.
But if the staff member only had to concentrate on the core activities hypothetically they could then manage 80 to 100 properties per year. The benefits of doing this are increased portfolio size, better commissions, better servicing by using specialised suppliers, higher staff motivation and morale as they can focus on building the business and most importantly better time spent on nurturing Landlords and Agents to retain and grow. It is easy to lose a client but much harder to win one, so why not spend time keeping them?
Why are these Time Absorbing Activities so Important?
The lettings industry is competitive and changing rapidly. More tighter regulation and pressure catches up with agents that are not prepared, they cannot cope and service quality drops, they loose clients and the business suffers.
By refocusing on core vs non core activities as above will lead to better profitability, better client retention and growth, and better staff morale, delivering a better overall service that beats the competition.
Here is an apt quote from Seth Godin - Writer and former dotcom businessman
“There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.” – Seth Godin
Best practice tips.
Focus on the basics what is core what is not core, take a top down view, analyse, identify and execute, it’s your business it’s your opportunity and your profit!
Contact us now we can manage your whole inventory, check in, check out and inspection processes as well as enabling your deposit dispute/renegotiation process to be simpler and easier.
But if the staff member only had to concentrate on the core activities hypothetically they could then manage 80 to 100 properties per year. The benefits of doing this are increased portfolio size, better commissions, better servicing by using specialised suppliers, higher staff motivation and morale as they can focus on building the business and most importantly better time spent on nurturing Landlords and Agents to retain and grow. It is easy to lose a client but much harder to win one, so why not spend time keeping them?
Why are these Time Absorbing Activities so Important?
The lettings industry is competitive and changing rapidly. More tighter regulation and pressure catches up with agents that are not prepared, they cannot cope and service quality drops, they loose clients and the business suffers.
By refocusing on core vs non core activities as above will lead to better profitability, better client retention and growth, and better staff morale, delivering a better overall service that beats the competition.
Here is an apt quote from Seth Godin - Writer and former dotcom businessman
“There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them.” – Seth Godin
Best practice tips.
- Analyse your current lettings business based upon the time spent model above, speak to your key staff.
- Identify areas that are operational, or service oriented that do not impact the bottom line.
- Can these areas be streamlined through outsourcing to suppliers, or improving the current process?
- How much time would be saved if you did this that can be directly reallocated to profit generating and retention activities
- Translate this into actual cost of outsourcing and reengineering,
- Translate reallocated time into revenue generated and see if there is an upside to profit, servicing quality and competitive edge.
Focus on the basics what is core what is not core, take a top down view, analyse, identify and execute, it’s your business it’s your opportunity and your profit!
Contact us now we can manage your whole inventory, check in, check out and inspection processes as well as enabling your deposit dispute/renegotiation process to be simpler and easier.