Over 98 per cent of property managers fail to follow up on initial enquiries made by prospective landlords, research has shown.
In a study performed by Real Estate Dynamics, it was found that just two per cent of property managers followed up on enquiries.
The research was obtained between January and April 2013 by conducting a mystery shop, whereby a ‘prospective landlord’ contacted 138 agencies across 29 different regions of Australia. The prospective landlord asked a series of questions to assess the customer service of different property management departments.
The mystery shop also produced other startling results, such as 85.6 per cent of property managers agreed to cut their commission immediately over the phone. It was also found that only 6.5 per cent of property managers asked basic questions about the prospective landlord or the property.
Nathan Brett, director at Real Estate Dynamics, stated that the purpose of the mystery shop was to examine the industry and help property management heads. He said the results were very surprising.
“I think it’s a very sobering experience for anyone who’s selling property management services and I think there’s a lot of work to do in the area to get it right,” he told Residential Property Manager at the recent ARPM Conference in Sydney.
He recommended that all principal licensees should perform their own mystery shop on their agency.
Given the interest the results have caused in the industry, it's likely Real Estate Dynamics will be repeating this type of research on an annual basis.
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