![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2010\/12\/Agent-on-the-web.jpg\" "\\"Agent")
<\/a><\/p>\nFranchise News: Renting on the web.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, I posted a Blog about the importance of web presence. \u2018Wrapped in the web\u2019 <\/span><\/a>I stand behind what I said in that post, but I have noticed just lately, that it is being suggested that it is possible to open new Letting Agencies solely using the web. This, in my opinion is not correct \u2013 not yet and certainly not for the majority of current Landlords.<\/p>\n Current Trends<\/strong><\/p>\n As Franchisor when discussing possibilities with new Franchisees, I would not recommend starting a new business, in what has become and will continue to be driven as a professional market over the last and probably the next ten years as well. It is my role to ensure that all new offices are given every opportunity to succeed and that includes the need for visibility from a business address, preferably in the centre of any operation. Even five years ago, this was not the case, but at present it definitely is!<\/p>\n Personal contact<\/strong><\/p>\n I believe that there are two main reasons for this, firstly, as a people we still prefer the ability to have \u2018meetings\u2019. The internet has not yet provided a way of assessing us technically, enabling Landlords to employ Agents without meeting. As a Landlord, distant or not, I would still wish to get a feeling for somebody through meeting them, a point which was summed up only today, by one of our Franchisees, who stated in an e-mail, \u2018meeting is the professional way to do it\u2019 well I know we would wish to stay professional!<\/p>\n No office to call home<\/strong><\/p>\n Secondly, we are a conservative nation at heart, and like our traditional methods. For Landlords, that means a Letting Agent should preferably have an office, whether it be retail or serviced, it is where we are expected to work from. I have experienced all forms of working locations in my time as a Franchisee and I know the difference it made once we had a \u2018presence\u2019 in our town. We have never looked back! So do I believe in the web, absolutely unequivocally, yes! it is just as important to have a \u2018presence\u2019 on the web, but look at it like this would you expect a legal Company who provides a service for the public which encompasses the lives of other people as well to work from an invisible address? Now tell me if I was describing a Solicitors office or a Letting Agent \u2013 they both provide the same style of service after all!<\/p>\n Crystal ball time<\/strong><\/p>\n But in the future, no doubt this will be true, as new technology spreads, we already have the ability to hold meetings across the net, no doubt soon we will have the technology to sign agreements via the net as well, but not until all of our Customers have the ability, equipment and understanding of such procedures will a true Internet based agency be supportable. For Tenants<\/a><\/span>, no doubt web based is perfect, although viewings still have to be held of course, but at the moment Tenants are not our Customers, Landlords are. In the meantime, we continue to give Tenants the information they require through the web, whilst respecting the need to give the type of servcie our Landlords expect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Steve Roulstone Franchise News: Renting on the web. Earlier this year, I posted a Blog about the importance of web presence. \u2018Wrapped in the web\u2019 I stand behind what I said in that post, but I have noticed just lately, that it is being suggested that it is possible to open new Letting Agencies …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55],"tags":[61,24,66,42,73],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1814,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions\/1814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.castle-estates.co.uk\/staffordshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}