A new PropTech tool says it will help agents maximise their chances of handling the sales of properties being disposed of by landlords quitting the rental sector.

A string of reports from Propertymark and the National Residential Landlords Association have chronicled how many landlords are exiting the sector because of increased regulation and significantly higher taxation. Only today our sister publication – Landlord Today – is reporting a survey by London lettings agency Benham and Reeves which says 10 per cent of its landlords plan to exit the sector due to a lack of government incentives to remain.

Now online valuation service The ValPal Network has developed what it calls “an innovative new feature, called Connect, to provide agents with instant access to sales leads.”

TVPN director Craig Vile says: “When prospective vendors or landlords come across your agency, they’ll use ValPal to fill in their property details and personal information to get their online valuation. Connect will automatically call your office telling you that you have a new lead. 

“The call will announce the lead source, the name, the postcode and the valuation. It will then ask if you want speak to them. Agency staff have only to accept the call to be immediately connected. You don’t have to do anything more than pick up the phone.”

TVPN’s own research has revealed that speed is vital when it comes to converting sales leads into instructions.

Responding within the first minute of a lead being generated increases the chances of conversion by 391 per cent; a response within five minutes is still 21 times more effective than taking action after 30 minutes.

But after that five minute window, the odds of qualifying a lead drop by 80 per cent.

“Our data demonstrates quite clearly that speed to lead is key – that’s why we’ve developed Connect. In a world where we increasingly demand an instant response and same-day delivery, speed to lead has never been more important:” explains Vile.

Connect is free to existing TVPN customers, and if those customers use the lead nurturing tool MovePal they will automatically receive an email prompt after speaking to the lead asking them where it should be placed: Valuation Booked, Nurturing or Unsubscribe. Connect will also call the office when a client engages while being nurtured by MovePal.

The ValPal Network is owned by Angels Media, publisher of Letting Agent Today and other Today industry news websites.