Sustainable practices are becoming increasingly important in almost all industries. Using digital solutions in the lettings agency would not only help to protect the future of the industry but also protect the future of our planet.
Incorporating sustainable practices into your lettings agency can help you to lower costs and increase your profitability by saving time and making your processes more efficient.
There are many ways in which letting agents can play a role in protecting the future. The world of digitalisation has opened the doors to innovative processes that have sustainability at their core. Implementing sustainable practices will help your business stay one step ahead of the competition and maximise profitability.
Digital Documents
Documents for various stakeholders are still often physically printed multiple times. However, documents can be made and sent digitally to tenants and other stakeholders to view.
Digital documents reduce paper usage and reduce paper costs. Documents often need to be modified and updated which leads to a lot of wasted paper, consequently wasting your business’ valuable time and money. If they are stored electronically, however, they can be swiftly modified for the specific person digitally.
By eliminating the need to print and physically send documents, any incurred costs, such as postage and paper, will be minimised as documents can be sent from one platform to another at the click of a button.
Furthermore, when documents are stored digitally rather than physically everything will be more trackable as the data is all easily accessible and in one place, which saves immeasurable amounts of time when producing reports and ensuring their accuracy.
Virtual Viewings
Virtual viewings can help your business increase its profitability by saving on transport costs of travelling to properties. With a 360 virtual viewing available online, prospective tenants and letting agents do not have to travel to the physical site as much. A lower amount of travel results in lower emissions that are detrimental to our planet.
Additionally, online viewings give a more accurate view of the property, ensuring that only more interested tenants will commit to doing in-person viewings as they can be more sure that the property suits them. This eliminates wasted time on in-person viewings that do not result in deals.
Introducing virtual viewings that show an accurate representation of the properties will help your letting agency to decrease voids, find suitable tenants more rapidly and in turn, increase profitability.
E-signatures
Contracts are usually the most common types of documents that letting agents will have to physically send to stakeholders. However, this is both time-consuming and inefficient. By posting contracts or waiting for a suitable time for a tenant to visit the branch and sign in person, you are increasing the chance of tenants pulling out before the contract is signed and the length of time your property remains unoccupied.
E-signatures maximise sustainability as there is no need for physical travel, paper documents or storing the documents physically. CO2 emissions will be reduced, paper usage will be minimised and any costs associated with inefficient document storage or human error will be saved.
Using software such as Signable, contracts can be sent and signed digitally. The ability to send a contract and have it signed within seconds allows your agency to save time and resources whilst also minimising the risk of deals falling through. Consequently, your agency will be able to focus on core activities in the business rather than wasting time on activities that can be completed digitally.
Signable also allows you to track the status of all documents, enabling you to know which tenants need chasing or if there has been an issue, which allows you to fill your properties quicker.
Digital Property Brochures
As a letting agent, creating digital brochures rather than physical copies is a sustainable way to show properties available to be let.
As well as being a sustainable practice, using digital property brochures as well as marketing your properties primarily online will allow you to reach considerably more prospective tenants than if you just advertised properties in physical brochures. This will result in fewer void periods and higher profitability for your business.
