It’s been a challenging few years for the lettings industry – with new legislation like the Tenants Fee Ban having a real impact on many in the industry.
Despite this, we’re delighted to announce that CJ Property has gone from strength to strength, growing our portfolio, expanding the team and cementing our position as one of the leading agencies in the region.
In this post, we’re taking stock – reviewing the past few years, since the launch of our new brand and website in April 2017.
The property portfolio grows
Over the past two years, we’ve significantly expanded our managed portfolio – welcoming new landlords and developing our relationship with existing clients.
In terms of numbers, the portfolio has grown by 11% year on year since 2017.
At the same time, we’ve continued to provide honest, expert advice to our landlords – helping them to expand their portfolios through intelligent acquisitions in the right buy to let properties. From advising on Buy to Let Hotspots, to using our understanding of the local market to find real value, we’ve helped landlords to acquire millions of pounds of property across the region.
This consistent growth has helped us to maintain our position as one of the Top 3 Letting Agents in Hull across three main categories: Lets Agreed, New Instructions and Available Stock (Rightmove June 2019).
Going social – increasing the profile
Our efforts to develop our social media presence Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin have really started to pay dividends.
In terms of the networks, we currently have more than 1000 followers on Twitter, and 500 followers on Facebook. This isn’t about vanity – these networks have proved to be valuable tools when it comes to letting properties. The vast majority of our followers are local, and it’s a ready-made pool of potential tenants we can advertise our property to.
In the past two years, the number of lettings through the platforms has grown by 75%!
Managing new legislation
As we touched upon earlier in the article – it’s been a challenging time for landlords, and the lettings industry at large.
Changes to the legislation, such as the Tenant Fees Ban and the proposed changes to Section 21 have caused significant disruption. At CJ Property, we’ve taken a proactive approach, designed to minimise the impact on our clients and our business at large.
In terms of the Tenants Fee Ban, we took the conscious decision not to pass the admin fee on to our landlords. To counterbalance the potential loss of earnings, we have invested heavily in staff training, and the latest property tech to speed up tenant credit checking and referencing.
By pushing the onus onto the tenant to handle more of their own admin, we’ve been able to save significant amounts of time – enabling us to swallow the costs, without impacting on our service.
The agency expands
In January 2019, the CJ team expanded, when we welcomed Faye Wright as our new Office Administrator. Faye is based in our Hessle office, and is responsible for looking after customer enquiries and handling the day to day admin.
The appointment was designed to strengthen our administration team for the benefit of clients – helping to ensure that our landlords and tenants benefit from the best possible levels of service.
Developing our services
Earlier in the year, we launched a new range of services for our Let Only landlords – designed for landlords who want some help managing their properties from time to time, but don’t want to commit to a fully-managed service.
From property checks and support with tenancies, to rent increases and inventories – it’s a complete menu of expert support, as and when you need it. The new services have already proved extremely popular.
Find out more about our new ‘pay as you go’ services for landlords.
Property Management in Hull From CJ Property
At CJ Property, we’re committed to looking after our tenants and landlords, and to providing the best possible levels of service and value.
Whether you’re a tenant looking for a warm and comfortable dream home, or are a property investor/landlord that wants dependable, honest and value for money professional management – our experienced, locally based team is here to help.
Call 01482 645270 today for further information, or to discuss your requirements with our team today.
