Referencing – top of the landlord’s priority list

Any management book will give you the basic guidance about prioritising the important stuff. But when you’re putting your to-do list in order, you need to look at things from different angles or you could end up losing out.

As a letting agent, you might think the most important thing is a responsive, attractive website that gets plenty of hits and steady traffic. You might think a clear pricing structure and competitive rates are essential, but unless you look at what your customers have as their top priority, you’re only getting part of the picture.

In a recent survey carried out by Hunters Estate Agents, 70% of landlords said that ensuring potential tenants had passed referencing checks was number one on their lists. And, being blunt, if that’s the most important thing to your customer, it should be at the top of your list too. Bells, whistles and digital platforms are all well and good, but the basics have to be in place first, and they have to work well.

Sourcing a reference should be more than a box-ticking exercise. Anyone can do the minimum, but that’s not what your customer wants. A landlord who puts his trust in an agent to find the right tenant is trusting that same agent with a huge investment and his potential livelihood. We believe that referencing should be taken very seriously, whoever the landlord, whoever the potential tenant and whatever the type, or duration, of tenancy.

Offer your landlords the best referencing you can, and you’re not only abiding by industry codes of practice, but you’re also going a long way to keeping landlords safe, secure and solvent. And when your customers are doing all right, it’s more than likely that you will be. LegalforLandlords referencing is fast, affordable and comprehensive. It’s easy to manage and suitable for all types of tenant, including companies. Make it your priority to find out more – click here.