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Upad is a perfectly reasonable proposition and there’ll be many that would think ‘yes please, why not’.

Being on the Board of TPO I can tell you, though, that over 60% of ‘issues’, as Upad call them, come from lettings and many of those become very emotional very quickly. They’re often about money as rental agents actually handle money (sales agents don’t) and can therefore be very real.

But as with anything in life, you get what you pay for. Renting yourself has always been possible, as has selling, and the Upad model means you supposedly have a backroom staff to help. But with 3,500 claimed lets last year nationally, that’s a lot of people spread over a small area if you want a management service.

Many landlords think they don’t want a management service even though they really need it.

To encourage a sensible long-term private rented sector, we need decent, well-maintained accommodation. D&G have been letting for over 50 years and those landlords who have been with us for all that time – and a few have – have portfolios in excellent condition because we told them when they needed to update it.

I am not sure sure client advice is top of the heap in a pile ’em high, sell ’em cheap Walmart-style outfit.

Rightmove and Primelocation recently started to allow Upad to advertise on their sites despite Upad not really being an agent, but the rules were relaxed about what constitutes an agency and they’re now on these sites.

The public find it easy to point at agents and blame property ills on us, but at a time when the rental business needs licensing and closer monitoring, for big portals and the Evening Standard to promote and support an effective free-for-all seems counter intuitive.

These portals and the Evening Standard rely on agents for a large part of their incomes and they should not rely for too long on a divide and rule policy.

The agency world is getting its act together as higher standards are sought, and these days, in part thanks to TPO having 90% of agents under one roof, we do actually communicate.

* Ed Mead is a director of Douglas & Gordon and is on the board of the Property Ombudsman scheme

Comments

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    All sectors in today's market place have to examine online models, to steamline their business to cut running costs. Many agents are introducing online tenancy sign up procedures (Foxtons etc).

    Advertising on portals is a small part of this new wave of letting agents, advertising is just advertising, Rightmove is not a guardian of the lettings industry, there to police trading practices to such a high degree. They act correctly making sure agents are registered but should not be expected to hinder progressive business practice.

    The franchise agents and larger letting companies feel they can protect their pricing by trying to influence portals, when really they should be concetrating on making themselves more competitive.

    Any High Street agent can offer a Tenant Find Service as a starting point to their range of services, and locally set it at a price under the UPAD Model...just compete.

    Online letting agents in practice probably exercise better letting standards and checks than many High Street agents, they are regularly checked by Rightmove, secret shopped, and have to comply with high standards.

    Online letting agents due to Rightmove pricing cannot trade on portal advertising only, they have to provide a full letting service to reach a workable profit.

    Where UPAD are different in my opinion from the general letting agent model is that they seem to be working towards setting themselves up as a LANDLORD PORTAL rather than just an online letting agent.

    Well what about Foxtons, Martin and Co, Belvoir etc are they not also working towards their own strong internet coverage.

    Google favours local business listings, every agent should spend more time otimising their websites on a local basis, it's not that hard, rather than spending money on fliers and other outdated advertising, start competing locally on the internet. Some agents are already pushing Rightmove and otheres out of property listings on Google, The portals don't own the internet , they just got their first, and built up a great Brand Name.

    Conclusion, don't winge, just compete

    • 26 July 2012 10:03 AM
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    Well said, I agree with all the above points. A good agent is worth every penny and landlords try to cut corners at their peril.

    • 19 June 2012 17:44 PM
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