[laurap]

Just following on from the Yellow Pages response topic, I have been contacted today by a Letting Agent who is asking if I would like to be the only Carpet Cleaner to advertise in their brochure that they hand out to tennants and Landlords.
Basically they will have a plumber, Solicitor, removal company etc and also if I pay to go in it it will be us that they recommend word of mouth.

The guy is coming out tomorrow morning to see me so at the minute I don't know how much this is going to cost, I would imagine a few hundred but havn't got a clue.

I was wondering if anyone else uses this type of thing and what the response has been like.

Thanks
Laura

[Martin_Riley]

Hi Laura
Don't do it. It's normally either a waste of money or a con. Do a search on this site or another forum and you will find other threads regarding this scam. Hope this helps.
Martin

[Doug Holloway]

Laura,

NO

Cheers,

Doug

[Dave_Lee]

Laura,
Ditto, forget it,
Dave.

[dave401uk]

and more of the same from me, dont do it,or just send me the money

Dave

[Big_Fish]

Same response.
Spend the money better elsewhere.

Nicky

[Tim Downer]

Laura

Just check the letting agent is legitamet (?spelling?!?) and is in your working area. How many lettings do they have i.e 500, 1,000,  35 etc. Do the maths and decide if it is worth doing - i.e how much is going to cost for the advert and how much work are you going to get out of it...

On a personal note, I went into something similar to this about 4 years ago, being the only cleaner in this brochure, guaranteed!! Distribution on behalf of the local council to about 60,000 tennants.....NEVER SAW THE BROCHURE, NO-ONE SAW THE BROCHURE.....AND I NEVER SAW MY MONEY AGAIN!!!!! 

Besides, if you befriend a letting agent and they are really pleased with your work, they will send you all their work FOR FREE!!
I had 3 letting agents and recieved quite a lot of work from them on a regular basis, plus all their end of tennancy cleans, and because I painted a room once for them as a favour, ended up with a lot of decorating work too!!!  ALL FOR FREE

All the best with your decision, but take note of all the comments made in the previous posts before mine.!!

Regards

Tim

[laurap]

Thanks for all the comments. 
They are quite a big company round her but as we only deal with two smaller agents at the monent, I wasn't sure if this is what all of the larger ones did .  Anyway he is coming round in an hour so might just save my time and head out of the door now.

Cheers
Laura

[adl]

Laura we have a contract with a big estate agents and lettings centre in the North west you will not get work from them by advertising in brochures, the only people you will possibly target are people letting properties from landlords, and lets face it, how many landlords let out dirty houses, none!!! 

So in real terms the only people who it is possible to target is the landlords themselves, and as most of them use big letting agencys who dont read these tatty magazines, you wont get any work from them either,

Basically what i am trying to say is that its a continuous circle of no work.

For the amount of money you will spend with these people you could instead compile a database of all letting agents and write to them direct.

Best regards

Dave ADL

[Hatem]

Hello,

Don't deal with letting agents!!!

Hatem

[The Great One]

Hi

Practically all my work since I started 16 months ago has been for the letting agents.

they can offer a constant stream of work but they can also be picky and can drop you like blind roofer.

I got offered something like this a few months ago but didn't go for it as i thought the only reason was to half their advertising bill.

Dave from ADL is spot on, money much better spent and you will get a lot more work from it.

Regards

Martin

[des]

Hi laura I do a lot of work for letting agents and one of them charges me for every job, so at the end of the month i get a bill but as they have already paid me its ok So i would suggest that you offer to pay them a small comission and remember
 NEAVER PUT ALL YOUR EGG,S IN ONE BASKET  i was dropped by a letting agent and i had a quite time until i put myself around des at mister clean

[Gavin Reardon]

Hi Laura

A mate of mine did this, he is a plumber he thinks it was a rip off I agree with the rest don't do it

regards Gavin

[john rees]

don't do it! letting agents are just big grief anyway
                                            john

[The Great One]

Hi

Depends on the letting agent, some of my cliets are sweet.

They are in the middle.

tenants give them earache, landlords give them earache. some can be pedantic, some aren't.

You cannot generalise.

Regards

Martin

[Karl Wildey]

Avoid this.
The letting agents will probably have a cc they used. Either he/she is not interested in going in brochure, or has not even been contcted by brochure rep.
I have never made any money from any type of these brochures. Their only purpose is, looking good for the letting agents and keeping the brochure rep and printers in business.

Mail shot all the local letting agents yourself and get the work that way.

[laurap]

Thanks for all your advice.

The guy called me to say that his car had been broken into and could he come out on Friday.  I thought that I would see what it was & how much.
Anyway, he came out and I fired a load of questions at him.  How long had he worked for them,  He was a bit vaque on this and I think that he actually works for the publishers!  He said that initially they would be sending out 3000 leaflets so I asked what the split was Landlords/tennants.  He said that they had about 80/100 landlords,  they must be doing well if they own 2800 houses between them!!!!!
Anyway he reckons it would cost me £175.  That will buy a lot of stamps when I start my mailing to the other letting agents this week

Regards Laura

[beau4021]

tell him to go away!!
and save your money fro a rainy day
brian