Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Hamilton smith on March 31, 2009, 03:37:04 pm
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Anyone got any top tips for getting in with letting agents? Been in to see lots but they seem only interested in fixed (dirt cheap) price lists ie 1 room £25.00 2 rooms £45.00 etc. Same with nursing homes they seem to just price shop.
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Well, if you been to see lots and all they want is cheap cleans - perhaps speaks for itself.
You either keep trying till you find one that want jobs done at real prices, or you do the cheap ones, or you give up asking letting agents.
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Hi Hamilton and welcome to the forum. If you put a bit more info on yourself up then you'll find we are a more friendly bunch.
You'll also find other threads about this if you do a search.
Not knowing how long you've been in business you could try offering to do a job for free to demonstrate the quality of your work and service but explaining to them that if they like what you can achieve they will have to pay your proper rates.
If your work is better than whoever they are presently using then you may find that they will agree to this as after all in most cases it is not the agency that is ultimately paying you.
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I find alot of letting agents are not worth the bother for the exact reasons mentioned.
Having said that I do have 3 or 4 on my books and I have to say they are my best clients.
As for approaching them I have also tried without success. The good ones I do have all came to me because we had a good reputation and they were interested in an ongoing working relationship.
As for pricing they do it themselves. Most properties will be roughly the same and I gave them a per room price list which is by no means cheap. I advised for the first few jobs until they priced correctly and now I just go to the job do it and bill them.
When the right ones come your way look after them. Last summer they were giving us nearly ten thousand a month between them and they were all spray and rinse jobs in empty properties. :D
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wow, jon, £2500 a week just in rental work, i have 7 letting agents that i do work for and i wish they would give me anything like that a month!
keep them sweet,
colin ;)
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Hi Colin
Do you charge them room rates, by the metre or whole house. I am charging by the square metre (to the agent I have got in with) but it does cause some problems as the girls who ask me to do the jobs do not always visit the property- a manager has just told them to get them cleaned. What is a fair room rate??. I am based in west yorkshire and get the impression that prices charged in the south can be alot higher. Independants in my area charge £60 - £85.00 for a three piece suite if that gives an indication of prices, Chem dry etc charge £125 - £200 for the same job.
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£ 60 for a 3 piece suite !
Let them have it at that price.
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Offer a 20% Comission to the letting agent for all work passed your way, then the more it costs the better for them, bearing in mind that the bill goes to the prevous tennents or landlord.
Mark
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You will find the suites from leeting agents will be the most trashed i would charge 100 at least ???
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When I used to do letting agent work I don't think I ever cleaned a suite, I don't entertain letting agents as they want cheap work next day with the dirtiest of properties and late payments, IMO I can't build my business that way.
Shaun
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Shaun
Totally agree there and you will never get a decent living from them,,used to do some grotty eot and even the bedrooms took me ages just to clear up the mess ::)
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Got a love hate relation ship with mine, give a quote today a week or two later call can you do it today and can you pick up the keys on the way though 30mile round trip, really glad it not my client from Grimsby
Shaun
I do up some up market min value home 2.5mil ;D
Len
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Len
Did you do the job :) ???
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Len we don't get rental properties of 2.5 million may be 2.5p.
Shaun
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I had a letting agent call me last week - they needed a cleaner as their guy was out of action for a while with a broken arm.
I was interested in covering their work until they told me I would have to price match the other guys rate of £ 1.95m2 !
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For rental work that is good money I would have done it if they gave me multiple carpets at one venue 100 sq metres in a house is £195 , there's one guy round my area that has most of the letting agents and charges £60 for a 3 bed house, he must be reasonable or maybe good as they keep using him.
Shaun
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must admit, if the agency could give me 2 or 3 jobs a week and the properties were empty and they paid when i dropped the keys off, then i'd snatch there hand off for £1.95 a sq meter. no vac, prespray, extract, no edging, do a 3 bed house in an hour.
derek
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Hi Hamilton
I have contracts with 3 letting agents. Charge by the Sq M. Good rates.
It works brilliantly for me as i collect keys and fit it around my schedule to suit me, often ends up evening work though.
50 /50 split on heavy soiled carpets and ones tenants have had a go themselves and failed! Easy work though - all empty rooms, spray with Mpower or Blitz and rinse.
The agents i work for have it written into tenancy agreement that carpets to be cleaned on vacating.
Also if they have had pets i sanitise and spray insectide to treat potental fleas. (this also written into tenancy agreement)
So given the fact it is relatively easy work and regular, at good rates with value added bits, plus referrals it is a winner for me!
Payment always at end of calendar month - no probs..
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Derek
Yes it sounds good on paper - but the reality is, minging carpets, lots of running around picking up and dropping back keys and 30 days payment.
Thats been my experience so far, I'm sure other guys have better experiences.
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I had two agencies giving me work. The actual area of carpet cleaned in many of the properties amounted to two small double bedrooms, say 24m square in total.
The agency took 20% commission but I was charging £180 gross per property or roughly £7.50 per square metre.
The reason I charged so much was that I had to travel for 20 minutes, pick up the keys, travel a further 20 to 40 minutes to the block of flats. Find somewhere legal to park, trundle my gear upto 300 metres to the property, try and find the apartment in the newbuild with no numbers on the apartments, then finally enter the property.
Cleaning the carpets was the easy bit.
Then the whole procedure was reversed.
I admit I made handsome profits as I charged it on a time basis and if I got 2 properties in the same block or very near then I was coining it in.
I don't work for those agencies any longer and although my prices may have had something to do with it I believe there were other political reasons going on behind the scene.
To some extent it was mutual anyway as I did give them a red carpet/top dollar service but it did impact upon my other clients and my social life and from a business point of view I didn't want to have too much work tied up with one supplier. That is bad business practice. So I was relieved when they stopped using me.
BTW they did always pay me promptly.
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I have a few letting agents that i do work for and i find it easy money ,maybe because they don.t want to lose their deposit ,must admit though don.t do a lot of upholstery for them.The prices you guys charge up North are a lot dearer than down Sarf.
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I’m cheap spread over three blocks 6 two bed flats @ £95 each same type flats 2 halls only & £50 each, home by 1400 trying to get the communal areas.
Clinton
I always do but can be a few days later, if they walk they walk; I know they wont because I’m the best and they know it! ;)
Shaun
Hard times down south all them bankers out of work and renting their property out.
Len
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Len ;D
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Doctor Carpet - Reading your post is exactly whats happening to us we provide the red carpet treatment too, flexible with payment (still awaiting one from 30th Jan) now been told well we have to get other prices can you do it at £xxxx per hour :o. As you say the cleaning is the easiest part it's all the other bits that goes with it.
Oh well - we can always get more customers!!
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Barbara
Thats a long wait from letting agents 2 months ::)
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I would have been on the phone middle of March asking wheres me money - Im hungry.
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can only speak for myself but i have only one agent who pays late, the others are good, i do clean furniture for some of them, i don't charge as much as i generally charge domestics but then i do 'whiz' over them in double quick time, they are always pleased with the results. as for the carpets, ok they might be sometimes trashed but extra prespray of blitz or whatever and they usually look great, as someone else has said, they are generally empty or not much furniture so a 3-bed is normally less than 1½ hours work, £2 a sq mtr comes to serious money if you have a couple or three to do in a day, especially in these times.
steve, a 20 minute drive + another 20 minutes? that's on the doorstep!! you don't want them to bring the carpets to you do you?
colin
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Joe
Eat cake as Josephine once said. ;D
Len
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Thought that was Marie Antoinette, Len but you're 600 miles closer to France than me so your " local" knowledge will be better.
I " sacked "my last letting agent last year. Got fed up with; -
No electricity
Walking into s**it heaps which their cleaners had supposedly cleaned
Climbing 3 or 4 flights of stairs too often, etc.
If there was a super duper light weight machine I would probably still be doing them as the steady flow of money was good.
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Don't worry I was on the phone chasing after 4 weeks, then at 6 weeks and so on. They said there was a lot to pay out of the deposit on that one and we now have to wait for the 2nd months rent to come in. Cheeky! I'm expecting it in the next few days
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City Centre living did it for me, not the fact that the TM can't reach but the fact that I needed to pay for parking and find the flat in a warren of corridors that weren't straight lined they were all on different levels like carparks and then the agent would only want the 'cream carpet cleaning' in the lounge as most of apartment was tiled.
Shaun
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Do work for a number of Letting Agents. Like Colin Thomas, regard this as easy turnover. Found the secret is to get in with their management side & tell them how it has to work ( they are not usually the sharpest tools in the box).
Also liase closely with their general cleaners. I like to get in to do the carpets last thing after all other cleaning/maintenance work has been done, so can usually plan ahead to fit it in with the rest of my work.
Charge normal domestic rates. Why should I cut for a Letting Agent. After all they don't foot the bill: the outgoing tenant (out of his depost) or landlord does.
Payments normally 30 - 45 days. Not unusual for commercial market. If this causes cash flow problems to some then guess commercial should be steered clear of
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Robert
Just testing, it’s funny how eagerly one can forget late/bad payers, can’t complain but some keep changing the goal posts, I prefer rounders hate cricket!
Len
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With the quality ( lack of it ) in Scottish football nowadays I could be talked into watching just about any other sport even cricket !