Private Landlords, And How To Target Them

Around a 30% of all landlords choose to manage their own property. This mean that one third of our industry either don’t see value in, or don’t trust a property manager to manage their investment property.

Private landlords are never permanently classified a private or self managed landlords. Private management is just another segment of our marketplace. People can move from being a private landlord to a managed one and back again, depending on their experiences. As a generalization, about 25-30% of these landlords churn out of the self managed space to having their property managed by a property manager and vice versa, the same churn away from property managers because they aren’t seeing the value they expect. This leaves the door open as fertile ground when planing your growth strategy.

As a generalization, about 25-30% of these landlords churn out of the self managed space to having their property managed by a property manager and vice versa, the same churn away from property managers because they aren’t seeing the value they expect.

How do we focus on identifying the private landlords in the marketplace and developing a long-term plan to engage with them and encourage those landlords back into the managed space?

We have seen enough case studies to know that there’s definitely value in finding ways to deliver some small services to private landlords. That foothold can be used to build a better and more meaningful relationship over time. As the relationship deepens and trust is developed, private landlords will become genuine new business opportunities for the agency.

As the relationship deepens and trust is developed, private landlords will become genuine new business opportunities for the agency.

Often targeting these landlords is more about rebuilding trust, so a hard and fast phone call generally won’t get your over the line. It’s often about them seeing you as an expert in your area and seeding them with services and information that build knowledge and trust.

Often targeting these landlords is more about rebuilding trust, so a hard and fast phone call generally won’t get your over the line.

Some ideas include, working through private listings on the internet and offering landlords some free advice on how the property might be better presented or priced to meet the market. Perhaps offering lettings-only services as part of a broader effort or holding landlord nights and highlighting new laws or investment risks that are best managed by agencies. Try making video and blog content available about key ideas on maximizing returns on their investment. These will all tweak the interest of a private landlord on the expectation of building a relationship of trust, which will soon turn them into your customer.

Perhaps offering lettings-only services as part of a broader effort or holding landlord nights and highlighting new laws or investment risks that are best managed by agencies.

I’m confident that when an agent engages with a private landlord, in the correct way, there’s a greater chance that the private landlord will become a longer term customer.