The GOOD Landlords Campaign

The GOOD Landlords Campaign

11:22 AM, 13th December 2011, About 12 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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Comments

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

11:44 AM, 13th December 2011, About 12 years ago

PS - if you are a business that would be interested in sponsoring the development of the technology for "The GOOD Landlords Campaign" please email me - mark@property118.com

15:25 PM, 13th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Very good idea and something we would be interested in as long as there is no cost.
Too many times it is the bad tenant experiences that are published so it would be nice for some positive testimonials to be available. Please send more details when you are ready.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

15:31 PM, 13th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Hi Jill

You have my assurance that you will be kept informed so long as you continue to follow this thread. I can absolutely guarantee that there will be no cost to landlords if this project does go ahead. The plan is to support it though sponsored advertisements from large companies that want to connect with landlords and tenants, e.g. insurance or mortgage providers. That's why I need to get a decent level of support for the project before we launch it. No advertiser will support it without traffic to the profile pages. If you know of any other landlords who might be interested please share this article with them.

Samii Boyd

19:34 PM, 13th December 2011, About 12 years ago

All of us at LandlordReferencing think this is an excellent idea and will definitely support the campaign!!

I'll spread the word amongst out community of good landlords! :-))

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

19:40 PM, 13th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Thanks Samii, please ask them to leave a comment here. I need 100 commentors to get started.

19:46 PM, 13th December 2011, About 12 years ago

I think it's an excellent idea. It's what this industry needs. GOOD tenants, GOOD landlords and GOOD agents.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

20:41 PM, 13th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Thanks Damien, remember "Sharing is Caring". Please tell others.

17:16 PM, 14th December 2011, About 12 years ago

A good idea which may help tenants to decide on renting a certain property knowing there will probably be good rapport. Will help let property more quickly.
I respond promptly to my tenants and have good relationships so I believe they would be willing to give me a good reference, as I would for them.

17:40 PM, 14th December 2011, About 12 years ago

I think it's an excellent idea....I am sick of the councils/media making us out to be the cruel and greedy landlords of the past!!!

22:13 PM, 14th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Great idea Mark!

I believe strongly in these types of initiatives, anything that helps make the process of letting transparent. Tenants have a right to know if they are dealing with a good or bad landlords.

Also it is a nice bonus to all of us (landlords) who do our best for our fellow tenants.

On our website (lettinglinks.com) landlord profiles have feedback and rating systems built in and I would be more than happy to provide a landlord testimonial link to your site on each profile linking to the appropriate landlord page on your site, to supplement the feature we have.

Let me know if you are interested

Cheers

James

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