Conscious of the above, we visited a number of countries and examined their real estate industry. We were particularly impressed by the quality of service provided by the realtors, as they call the estate agents in USA. We found that they have a good reputation and are treated more as a trusted consultant than a salesperson. To start with , they created a very good rapport, then they spent time understanding our property needs, they would not waste our time showing us properties that did not match our requirements, and instead of pushing us in an aggressive or manipulative way at every viewing to buy that property, they would participate with us in examining if we should buy that property or not, giving us the time and space to consider the pros and cons of that particular property and to make an informed decision, advising us on the need to compromise on minor factors, and generally creating an atmosphere of trust. You’ll be surprised how much more we were influenced by their guidance comparing to the aggressive salesmanship in UK Lettings: We ended up buying an investment property even though that was not the plan, a decision that we are very happy with today.

Funny thing is that in England letting agents charge the Landlord for the Fee but show an applicant (Someone applying to become a tenant) 3 to 10 properties in one or two viewing tours. They are looking to find a property for the applicant in that way. They should really charge the applicant a fee. Charging the landlord a fee for us means that we should show our Landlord’s property to 10 people, not the other way round. So when an applicant enquires about a property, we do not ask what are they looking for generally, but we try to establish if our landlord’s property is a good solution for them. The difference is that we talk to ten applicants about a landlord’s property; we choose three amongst them who would be most likely to rent that property, and only show that one property to those three applicants. The result is that those viewings are highly effective. So many times we get a remark like; “Ah finally, I am seeing a flat much closer to what I am looking for.”

Showing one property to one applicant means that we have time to spend with the applicant during the viewing, discuss any objections that they might have about the property and explore if there are any solutions to those objections, and if the solutions are satisfactory to consider if they should rent the property. All our letting consultants are fully trained using our in house training program developed after visiting USA. This way is much more to the benefit of our landlords than showing one applicant many properties.

That is why in our office, all the properties available for rental in a particular area are allocated to one letting consultant. In all other letting agencies, the office has a number of letting negotiators who are all trying to let the same property at the same time. They share the properties for rental, but they do not share the applicants. Each applicant is only allocated to one negotiator, whereas each property is allocated to many negotiators. In this system, the negotiator focuses on finding his applicant, who is solely allocated to him, a property, that is any property on their register or in other agencies register. Again this is what we call giving more importance to the applicant as opposed to the landlord or the paying client. Our letting consultants, not sharing properties with other consultants, are much more familiar with the properties they are in charge of and create much better rapport with the landlords. On the other hand we share applicants. So our letting consultant has access to many more applicants to call and to find out if our landlord’s property is a good solution for them, pick up the few amongst them that might rent our landlord’s property and arrange the viewing.

The presentation of our landlord’s properties quickly and professionally on internet is of paramount importance. Most properties in Central London are let to people working in the City of London, the financial district. That is why we have our own in house floor planner/photographer who will take professional photos of the property and draw the floor plan for every letting property, be it a £5,000 per week rental or a £200 per week one, on site using a handheld computer and a digital device. As a result, we are able to upload a new instruction’s photos and floor plan on the same day the photographs are taken.

Proper valuation and regular updating of landlords are again key factors in our service. Many many years ago, I was selling my flat through the leading estate agent in central London. (Coutts de lisle is a letting only specialist agency and does not act in selling properties). It was valued at £285K. I thought the valuation was too high. The agent told me that it is the correct valuation, without showing me any comparables, that he will sell it at that price within two months and that every week I will get an update on the number of viewings and comments made by the buyers. The agent started marketing. After a month, having heard nothing back from the agent, I called and reminded him of his promise to update me every week. He said what the point of useless statistics was if he has no offers. I explained to him that I want to know how many viewings have been generated for my property, how many people have called, what the response was during the viewing, so that I can make an informed decision about the asking price, which I thought was too high. I told him that I want to sell my property, that I don’t want my property to stay empty on market and just be happy about a high asking price. Feeling the pressure from me, the agent sent me an e-mail extracted from Google software showing that my property on their website has been visited by 700 people. So how many viewings I asked? Three was the answer. The next day, I received a call with an offer of £245K. I said it was too low. I received another call a day later informing me that the same buyers had increased their offer to £255K. I said that was acceptable but I needed to see the offer in writing. I got a letter confirming an offer at £250K instead of £255K??? The next day the offer was mysteriously withdrawn. I had enough and gave notice to end the sole agency. At Coutts de Lisle, we value the rental price of properties based on comparables, by showing the landlord details of similar properties let in that vicinity, and then depending on market condition advise the landlord on a value equal to or higher than the comparable prices. We don’t overvalue the property, as in the case above, just to get the landlord’s instruction. Once the property is on market, our landlords get a weekly written e-mail informing them on the number of people we have talked to about his property and the number of viewings in that week. This e-mail is followed by a telephone call to inform the landlord about the applicant’s comments during the viewing. We get the impression that our landlords really appreciate this kind of feedback.

In short, high quality of service is what we hope our landlords experience with Coutts de Lisle. Why not call us and arrange a valuation and experience a different letting agency service. Of course the same way we don’t compromise on our quality of service, we don’t comprise on our fees. I am sure that we all want a high quality of service at the lowest price possible. But I am also sure that we all agree that you get what you pay for. We do keep our fees competitive, but we keep them high enough to be able to deliver a high quality of service.
Coutts de Lisle has been established since 1990