An online lettings platform claims to have launched the first “end-to-end self-service lettings platform” which could save landlords around £3,800.
Hello Neighbour operates in London and claims that conventional letting agents in the capital charge landlords around £4,000 in fees to let one property; Hello Neighbour claims the self-service platform would do it for £200.
The company says the service includes listing on Rightmove, Zoopla “and more”; a tool to manage tenant viewings; tenant enquiry management; online offer negotiations; tenant referencing via Open Banking; “comprehensive property compliance” support and advice from its team, and what it describes as ”tailoring tenancy contracts, arranging move-in’s, collecting the first month's rent and registering security deposits.”
The company says its ability to receive and evaluate multiple offers, register deposits, and take high quality open-banking references, all in one platform, is unique.
And it says as a letting process progresses, its contracts will be “automatically populated to deliver fully compliant, tenant move-in’s.”
The company will also offer landlords a full service letting option for £1,200.
Richard Jenkins, company founder and chief executive, comments: "We have spent four years and millions of pounds developing technology that makes letting a property simple, efficient and fully compliant. It has enabled us to successfully find thousands of tenants for landlords who have trusted us to let their properties. And it has done that in a way that has delighted both.
“I set up Hello Neighbour to change lettings for good, and by enabling any landlord to use our technology, we are doing just that. This brings simple to use, intuitive and powerful online tools to an often cumbersome and challenging process.
“We know landlords will enjoy using our platform to let their own property, and to make sure that is the case, our experienced team will always be there to help. We are incredibly excited by what we believe is a huge change for landlords and a giant step in our ambition to change lettings for good.”
The firm’s website is here.
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So here's the thing, the landlords that pay a premium for a full-service offering don't WANT to do it themselves. They value their time (both professional and personal) too highly and know that they don't know what they need to know.
If the offering is so good, why offer it so cheap? Again, like sales, our % fees in this country are woeful to many others where 20% is very commonplace.
£200 every 4 years- I'd love to see where the margins are- and who oversees compliance between the initial let and when the tenant vacates (on average 4 years later).
Who is going to educate the landlord on the changes implemented via the RRB- and how are they going to be able to update their systems to be fully compliant?
The messaging of- we don't have shops and neg's so we can be cheap- doesn't wash. You need offices for your dev, support and marketing teams, devs in London cost around £80k a pop, the cost to acquire a landlord is substantial- in fact I'd argue that a digital agency is more expensive to run than a 'traditional' one- if our industry averages a 16% profit margin, you cant undercut that and be commercially viable long term.
Also, good luck unseating OpenRent's dominance in the self-let landlord market.
This is very good Kristjan.
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