June 2012 Round Up

June 2012 Round Up

Another eventful month here at Applegate Lettings and a significant one at that – the month of June was our last before reaching our second birthday. On 1^st July 2010, Applegate Lettings was born and we’re so proud of how much we have achieved in just two short years. A lot of hard work has gone into making Applegate Lettings the company it is today and it’s certainly a company that we’re incredibly proud of. Our team, our work ethic and our levels of customer service are all key to how we are where we are today. If we continue along this path, who knows where Applegate will be in another years’ time!

Nearing birthdays aside, June 2012 was also a month which included a lot of training for the Applegate Lettings team. On 13^th June, Managing Director Amy Wray attended an ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) training seminar in York and on 18^th June Amy Wray and Senior Co-ordinator Laura Everitt headed down to London to attend a two day course with ARMA (the Association of Residential Managing Agents) at the Trafalgar Events Conference Centre. Applegate Lettings are dealing with an ever increasing amount of ‘Block Management’ projects and the Applegate team members found the course to provide a wealth of information about this area of the lettings business. It was also very helpful meeting with likeminded agents from across the UK who are keen to ensure that they are managing their residential blocks in the best possible way. There is a lot more to block management than many agents often understand, agents have a duty of care to ensure that they are acting in a professional and legal manner at all times and this course really reinforced and developed the knowledge we already had on this sector here at Applegate Lettings.

As for the statistics this month, two properties listed with Applegate were let in less than 7 days and 100% of new properties came from existing landlords recommending us. This is the highest referral rate we have ever had and it has been much cause for celebration at Applegate Lettings. Amy Wray said, 

“It means the world to me and all the team at Applegate to know that our existing landlords are recommending our services, it makes all of our hard work really worthwhile.”

Over the past few months, Applegate Lettings have taken the time to speak to our landlords and ask them what they appreciated the most from their letting agent. One answer appeared over and over again – just being kept in the loop. We discovered the vast majority of landlords were happy if they were simply kept updated, as well as being keen to understand how recent legislation was changing and how this affected them and their investment. It is because of this feedback that we have now decided to issue a magazine with various updates to all of our landlords, tenants and other interested parties. Newsletters with information for our landlords are also being looked at as something Applegate would like to provide to our landlords. We have been working closely with The Individual Agency, based in Leeds, to ensure the magazine delivers on its content and visual appearance, we are hopeful that the first issue will be published soon.

Two years old on 1^st July 2012, let’s see what we can do before our next birthday!