The GOOD Landlords Campaign

by Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

11:22 AM, 13th December 2011, About 13 years ago 141

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Please leave a comment below if you think “The GOOD Landlords Campaign” is a good idea.

One of my employees has had to move her family three times in two years because her landlords wanted to move back in or sell their property. She wasn’t told this when she rented the property and certainly would have looked elsewhere if she had know this was a possibility.

I fully appreciate that circumstances can easily change and I wouldn’t advocate that either landlords or tenants enter long term tenancy agreements. Financial circumstances can change very quickly for anybody due to death, new relationships, break ups of relationships, employment etc. so flexibility and trust is key. I offer a 6 month tenancy to all new tenants but many of them continue to rent the same property for years and will vouch for me and confirm that I fix issues quickly. Landlords who intend to sell a property or move back into it don’t have such a pedigree to shout about and will not, therefore, be in the same position as me to get such testimonials.

I’m thinking about starting a GOOD Landlords Campaign where tenants can leave positive testimonials for landlords on profiles they could set up here on Property118.com

Don’t you think GOOD landlords should be recognised? I’m talking about those who fix problems quickly and have a reputation for providing quality long term accommodation to quality tenants who don’t want the hassle and expense of constantly being moved on.

What I have in mind is to create a facility for good landlords to have their own profile here on Property118.com whereby they can ask tenants to leave positive testimonials for them. Maybe it will even expand into being a full social network?

This will obviously cost time and money to set up. I’m not asking anybody to pay for it though so you can put your credit cards and cheque books away. I have made a promise that I intend to stick to – this website will NEVER charge landlords for its services. It will make its money from advertising. However, I will only commission the development of this technology if I get a minimum of 100 expressions of interest in the comments section below.

This will not be a Review Website and landlords will have the right to approve or discard all comments before they are published onto their profiles. This will prevent defamatory comments from spiteful trouble makers being shown to the world. I don’t think a review website is even necessary, what tenants really want to know is that they will have a quality property and the ability to stay in it long term if they pay their rent and respect their tenancy. They also want to know that their landlord is going to fix any problems quickly and not to sell up just as they get settled. If you are a landlord who fits this criteria, wouldn’t you want tenants to know about it? Wouldn’t you like to be able to differentiate yourself?

If such a Directory is commissioned it will work very much along the lines of how our Property Services Directory. Protection is built in to minimise the risk of the creation of fake testimonials, they would be date and time stamped and all email addresses and IP addresses would be monitored.

I am obviously hoping that thousands of landlords will register their interest by adding a comment below and that Landlord Associations, Local Councils and Property Networks will also support this initiative by promoting its existence. Maybe there is a mortgage lender, an insurance company or a property portal that would like to sponsor it? Perhaps a housing charity would like to affiliate itself with GOOD landlords as opposed to focussing only on vilifying landlords with “Rogue Landlords Campaigns”.

My longer term vision is that GOOD Landlords will be able to point prospective new tenants to their Property118.com profiles to demonstrate their integrity and professionalism. A good landlord may have just one property or a large portfolio. Size doesn’t matter, transparency does! New tenants will be able to see what existing and previous tenants have written and may even be able to contact them for independent verification. Such a Directory would enable tenants to identify those landlords who are in this business for the right reasons and the long term.

Profiles will allow landlords to add a business description so that they can share information about their time in business, their long term strategy for property ownership, their lettings and maintenance policy etc.

Hopefully the press will pick on on this as it gathers momentum.

How do you see this adding value to your business and to tenants and are there any other features you would find helpful?

Would you ask your tenants to leave you a testimonial and do you think they would? I know mine would, I have asked them 🙂

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Tags: Good Landlords, Housing Association, mortgage, Mortgage Express, Rogue landlords, Strategy, UKAR

Comments

9:17 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

Great idea, lots of bad landlord stories, all I come across
is bad tenants

I consider myself to be a good landlord, & would say
that 90% of my previous tenants have ripped me off one way or another

With 9 buy to lets, my best ever tenant has just left after
7 years, she was sorry to go, & I was very sorry to lose her, if your
scheme was up & running, I would get a at least one glowing reference if
her goodbye text is anything to go by

I don’t know about other landlords, but if I am happy with
my tenant, I rarely increase the rent, so the longer thy stay, the better for
both of us

Good Luck

Gary

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9:25 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

yes, a good landlord campaign will raise awareness and is a very positive move. I have been told i am a very good landlord, and my tenants stay years, and thank goodness, rent is always paid on time. what are the qualities of a good landlord? empathy, treating people with respect, giving them very good value, always being there to fix what needs to be fixed, being firm with good boundaries, but always kind and helpful.

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9:37 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

This is a great idea. I seem to have one flat that people only ever stay in for 6 months at a time, and I would LOVE people to stay longer. It would be great to have a recognised system whereby tenants know in advance that they are "safe" to stay as long as they want, and treat the property with respect, and the landlord with respect by paying on time and in full...

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Robert FitzHerbert

9:38 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

I think this is an excellant idea if it can be seen as a truly independant source of verification. Too often such online "reviews" are seen as manufactured. I believe that my relative success as a 'good' landlord is because my style is always to treat my tenants like valued clients. In addition, the agents that I use to find the tenants know me from experience over the years and are able to reassure prospective tenants accordingly and on a face to face basis. Not something they admit they are able to do with all their landlords!

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9:45 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

Hi
I would be worried because at some point you might want to sell your property for your own reasons so it's never completely going to be a case of "you can stay here for however long you want" - that is why people buy properties in the first place so that they have control over this. I've said to people in the past this is your home you can stay here as long as you want I'm never going to throw you out, and then in the end I had to sell as the person I had bought the house with wanted out so I had to sell the house to give her her share.
There was then a lot of bad feeling in the house (I was living there too).
I guess individual landlords could give tenants 5 or 10 yearly contracts with the tenant being able to leave if they wanted but the landlord tied in, if they felt they really could do this, or wanted to do this - but if you could do this you could put this in your advert in the first place as a selling point.
I let properties on an individual room basis and there are always plenty of people who need rooms and this isn't relevant to me anyway as most people are short term and those who arn't know the house might be sold at some point although some have been there for as long as 3 years, at some point I might want my daughter to have the house or something, in 10 year's time - that is the advantage you have if you own the house.
But yes I see what you mean those families who have to rent and want to put down roots it would be helpful if they knew they could be there years rather than months. They should be able to buy somewhere really - they are paying more to rent than it than they would to buy, the whole system is a bit of a nonsense isn't it.

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9:46 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

Hi we at MCL Property think this is a great idea. We specialise in Multi Lets and Room by Room rentals which as you know has a terrible reputation in the public. When people come to our properties they are so pleasantly surprised when they see the condition of our properties and how we maintain them.

Would like to hear more about what your plans are.

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9:57 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

I would fully support this concept

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10:02 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

Yes good idea.We have several properties in our local area and pride ourselves on giving our tennants a fair deal and a prompt response to any problems. This has enabled us to develop good relationship with them, which is a real benefit.to all concerned. This is in stark contrast to our son's experience in Leeds, As a student, and susequently, he has lived in a series of poor quality houses owned by landlords, whose sole interest is financial gain with the mimimun effort.
Sue anad Paul Norwich.

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10:06 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

Brilliant idea....some tenants may find it easier if there were multiple choice questions as well as an opportunity to leave their own words. In the midst of a move they may not have the time or inclination to spend time thinking how to word a testimonial. I noted that Mary latham asks her departing tenants to fill out a questionaire, that's certainly something I will do in the future!

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Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

10:09 AM, 7th January 2012, About 13 years ago

Thank you for all your comments so far. If the momentum continues in terms of comments I'm sure in will not be long before a lender, an insurance company or similar contacts me with a view to sponsoring the IT development required. We are looking at around £10k as the bulk of the work has already been done in the programming of our commercial Directory. Let's hope this vision can become a reality very soon 🙂

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