How Free Tenant Referencing Businesses Are Influencing Landlords Strategies

How Free Tenant Referencing Businesses Are Influencing Landlords Strategies

14:51 PM, 19th August 2011, About 13 years ago 3

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Mark Alexander, founder of Property118.com

Mark Alexander founder of Property118.com

Mark Alexander, Property118 founder and landlord since 1989 is updating his lettings strategy to utilise two free tenant referencing services to protect his properties from bad tenants. While tenants on the whole will rent without any problems and leave the property in the state they signed for, sadly there are always going to be a minority that don’t.

To combat this, there are two companies who can help prevent private landlords from renting to bad tenants in the first place. Their names? TenantID and Landlord Referencing Service. If you already use them, please leave them a testimonial by clicking on their names.

Mark will be changing his tenancy agreements and his tenant application forms to include conditions to give him the right to register tenants details with both tenant referencing companies and to use the services of both referencing companies to check to see whether his prospective tenants have been reported by any other landlords.

Mark said “My lettings strategy and the buoyant rental market mean that I can pick and choose between potential tenants. Using these two free services adds that extra bit of ‘due diligence’ to my processes and whilst it will take a bit of extra effort on my part, if it avoids me taking on just one bad tenant it will all be worthwhile. I’m using both services to be doubly sure, why wouldn’t I, they are both free!”

What is Network Referencing?

Who are TenantID?

Lorna Rose, co-founder of TenantID said “We quickly realised that there was a gap in the market when it comes to checking a tenant and their history and we acted upon this. We believe that it is vital to know as much as possible about a tenant so that each tenancy can progress with ease and confidence. I think we all know that it would be better to know if a tenant trashed a property and left, owing money than if they had a secure job, good references and a large sum in the bank. They could be on the UK’s rich list, but it doesn’t stop them from trashing a property.

We offer a service that is much needed within the industry. We offer a service that will add value to your company and business and give you confidence when taking on a new tenant. We are working together with landlords and agencies from all over the UK & Ireland and we are growing daily.

At TenantID, we believe that vetting your next potential tenant has never been made easier and without a doubt, we believe that checking a tenant’s rental history should be the first thing you do before you progress further.”

Who are LRS?

Paul Routledge, founder of Landlord Referencing Services said “Having recovered from being stabbed in the head and left for dead after I walked in on a drug deal in one of my rental properties I knew it was time for action. LRS is used help landlords avoid cheating tenants who deceive landlords. My experience was extreme but there are far too many instances where the Police simply choose not to get involved. The tenants who cause financial and emotional havoc to landlords are a minority but those who use the law to live rent free or get away with causing damage are con artists, shysters and charlatans in my opinion. Landlords, their agents AND their good tenants had become totally defenceless against what would be considered a crime in any other business. So, I tried to initiate Landlord Referencing Services in the year 2002 but it was just not viable as the internet was nowhere near as advanced & speedy as it is today. I tried again in the summer of 2010 and now we call this a Lifestyle Reference, and best of all we offer this, along with Tenant Alerts, for free. I’d also like to stress that I have had some great tenants over the years & that good, law-abiding tenants are also looked after within our community. It is all about making sure our good tenants are safe because, believe me, there is no money or security for a landlord who keeps losing good tenants just because a bad one moves in or lives next door.”  To read Testimonials for Landlord Referencing services or to get in touch please click here 


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Paul Routledge

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15:11 PM, 21st August 2011, About 13 years ago

Hi Mark

Thank you for the mention I would like to just give your readers the opportunity to understand that LRS http://www.landlordreferencing.co.uk and Tenant ID are 2 different formats of referencing, albeit we are as you say both free we offer two totally different ways of referencing information on previous tenants.

The network of landlords and letting agents in our community at LRS is different to that of tenant ID. LRS is a Network Referencing Community partnership of some 20,000+ landlords across the UK, our information is stored and managed manually by our members own data controllers. LRs is not an automated referencing system which I believe Tenant ID is.

At LRS we are a community of landlords and letting agents that are spread out across the country who join together as a community to contact one another to talk about a previous tenants payment record, conduct and lifestyle, rather than a references which is in the format of a preloaded comment uploaded onto an automated data base.

We think that our strength is in the community and not just the automation of lists of tenants. I believe Tenantid give out a previous tenants details whereby landlord referencing only gives out the tenants previous landlord or agent. It is different and obviously a matter of choice but we believe this keeps the landlord, letting agent and tenants safer as no sensitive details are ever passed on to a third party.

But rest assured this is not a put down at how Tenantid do business, it is an example of why we are different and I think your readers would like to know the differences between us.

At LRS we fully understand that there are those who do not wish to network reference and just wish to carry out references on what the last landlord or agent has said about the tenant on an automated database. but because we network the reference can change every time the landlord is asked about a previous tenant especially if the circumstances of the tenant has changed.

We have recently integrated with Experian to offer a more comprehensive reference for those who want a Network reference + Credit and Identity reference + employers reference all from one place, which we hope helps our members and will be launched later this week.

To help your readers understand us we have a simple philosophy at LRS.

On Fri just gone for instance we had 123 members join and these will registered approx 6 tenants each as per our terms and conditions (some will add more and some less so lets say the average is 6) so by the end of the next week the network of landlords that joined on just this last Friday alone will have grown to offer their fellow landlords and agents the opportunity of checking on 738 more tenants.

It is simple maths that the more that join and network, the bigger the network and the safer they become...with a data base of over 200.000+ low score tenants it is 200.000 reasons for people to become a member and tell others to become members too.

Lets face it, as you say , we all want to stop bad tenants and 200.000 less bad tenants you may not need to take by joining a free service is a pretty good deal.

Hope that helps people with the difference between us...

Paul

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

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9:30 AM, 22nd August 2011, About 13 years ago

Hi Paul

We are honoured that you have taken the time to visit us and to highlight some of the differences, from your perspective, between the two leading providers.

There are over 1.5 million landlords in the UK now providing over 15% of all housing and this is a growing market. I very much hope that every single one of them utilises services such as yours. That way all landlords will be better protected.

I also like your advertising model which, much like our own, allows you to provide your core services to landlords without them having to pay for them. Both of our business models require landlords on mass to utilise our services to attract advertisers. To some extent that means we are both competing for a slice of their advertising budgets but that doesn’t concern me at all and I very much hope you feel the same way. There is plenty of business out there for us all and I’m sure our modern business models will soon start to impact many of the traditional, outdated advertising models out there, especially when what I refer to as “The Facebook Generation, the future of UK PLC” take over.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Regards

Mark Alexander – founder of Property118.com

Paul Routledge

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10:05 AM, 22nd August 2011, About 13 years ago

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your kind remarks.

As you say there are 1.5 million Landlords out there and I expect that if I said I shan’t put down my quest until everyone had joined I would be judged as mad, but it is truly the way I feel and especially after having run LRS for 14 months and had people in tears with horror stories that break your heart and you are too late to help them in this case.

But as I say Network Referencing it is all about simple maths. Since I got in to my office this morning between 9 and 10 I have received 2 phone calls from landlords who wanted me to explain to them about data protection and both ended up saying they were joining today and going to tell everyone they knew as well. So during those two half an hour conversations 9 members joined and again they will upload 6 tenants each and that will give our current and next landlords who join the opportunity of not taking 9 x 6 = 54 tenants that may not be up to scratch and that was in 1 hour today.

We are sending out 7 tenant alerts this morning Nationally so that another 7 bad tenants our members won’t need to take “Hooray” so I hope everyone can truly see, that, that is the strength in Community Network Referencing and in these trying and sad times in our country it is not a luxury it is a necessity

Paul

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