Applications and sites such as Twitter have the power to make or break a product or service and these sites are a quick way for people to get a message across to potentially thousands of people in a simple and quick way.  This of course can be excellent if they are praising you for providing a great service or endorsing a product, but as well it could have damaging effects if they are providing negative feedback.

A case has just arisen in the states where a property company is suing a former tenant for complaints made on Twitter about the state of her apartment.  The agency is suing the tenant for $50,000 which is roughly £35,000! So one simple tweet made by this tenant on Twitter has been taken and published and the Chicago lettings company have stated that the post has been replicated around the world and damaged their reputation.  In the states suing is almost as common as owning a dog and companies are often suing for the smallest of things, however, if you are a tenant it may be wise to be careful to whom or where you post your complaints in case the worst does happen.

This of course is only one single case that has occurred but could it pave the way for more legal battles as the social media platforms become ever more popular.  If you would like to view the full details of this news item then you can visit from here.

Rentright is the ultimate Property Rental Portal and has letting agents throughout the UK that advertise property for rent, so if you are a tenant searching for property then make Rentright your number one choice.

There have been recent reports that traffic has recently surged on bing.com, the Microsoft search engine that has been recently revamped.

According to Alexa.com, bing.com is ranked 16^th largest website in the Uk and 15^th globally. 

With a growth apparently this rapid, we need to ask what impact that will have on traffic that has been coming from Google to property websites. If a user switches to bing.com, is it search friendly for the property portals? Having tested it ourselves we are on the first page of bing.com, and not as a sponsored link so we must be getting things right! Two of the other property websites have sponsored links, so are obviously aware of the growing trend of new users to bing.com.

So how will this affect the property industry? It would seem that the vivid fish on the home page are attracting the traffic, and as an industry we need to utilise any opportunity we can with the search engines to attract the widest range of traffic possible.

Microsoft’s stand on SEO doesn’t appear to be all that different from Google’s. You’re not going to get the same results on both Google and Bing in many cases, but that is after all why the two can co-exist. The real difference is in how the results are presented, and not as much in how the two determine quality and relevancy. Personally I like the fish! Very eye catching.

At Rentright.co.uk a UK wide Rental Property Portal we are committed to delivering the best results to our customers and the use of a search engine is a personal choice, and as long as they are friendly to the industry then there is room for bing.com. In the US it is reported that bing.com has in fact taken over from yahoo in popularity, but it remains to be seen if this is an initial surge of interest or here for the duration.

Its a shame but many properties listed on property portals have already been let, its a way some agents get you to register with them, fortunatly there is a solution, Rentright, The ultimste Rental Property website has tools and features built into that ensures property is not left on the site indefinatly and is hidden from view until it become available again, This does depend a great deal upon the agent and the method by which they upload property to the website but it does mean that the prospective tenant can generally be more effective in searching for a rental property then many of the other websites that list property in order to have a high property count.

Rentright on the other hand cares about service to its customers and will continue to be focused on delivering quality results to its customers.

These are two very different aspects of marketing your letting agency and your portfolio and there are differences in promoting each of them.  Get it wrong on one of these counts and it could result in your letting agency failing or at the very best a reduction in business.  It is very important to engage with your market place and gain distinction between you and your competitors and the only way to do this is to promote your brand and your services and this is entirely independent from your property portfolio.

If you advertise your property in a newspaper or online is this enough to promote your brand? Possibly not, it doesn’t tell the consumer anything about your agency and why it would be better for a tenant to rent a property through you.  OK, it may show your brand (in some instances) and for many this is the mind set, as long as people see the property they will know who and what you do.  If people instantly know your brand and can associate this with quality, great service and other excellent traits then you are more likely to win more clients and have a great retention of landlords and tenants.

It is important to create a budget to both promote your agency and your brand as well as the property in your portfolio, by doing both you are going to win on both counts and gain a competitive edge over your competitors of which for most they are unlikely to be promoting themselves.  By promoting your brand you may well be attracting yourself to potential future renters and this is very important, for anyone who is looking for property for now or the future may associate your brand with that location and ultimately you will benefit.  The internet is a very important advertising mechanism and sites like Rentright allow you to promote your agency via a dedicated profile page and of course your property.  The profile page is a place where the agent can sell their agency branch, what makes you different and why and this is an essential element in promoting your two pronged advertising strategy.

For all your Rental Property needs whether you are a tenant, landlord or letting agent you need to visit rentright.co.uk

Rentright is a Lettings only portal that has chosen to stay with the method of their customers paying a set monthly amount each month for advertising, rather than on a pay per lead basis.

Websites such as Zoopla, who have bought out propertyfinder.com, have chosen the pay per lead basis as has the newer website propertyindex.com. Both sites charge £1 per lead and around £3/£4 per Landlord/Vendor enquiry. It will be interesting to see what happens with the newly acquired propertyfinder.com pricing module. Given that zoopla claim the pay per lead is the way forward, one could assume that propertyfinder.com’s pricing will change. It remains to be seen.

Anyway, which is right and which is wrong? Who are we to judge? However, we at Rentright, have been around Southampton and Portsmouth this week getting the word on the street from both existing and new customers. Very definitely the feedback, all bar one person was that a set monthly amount is much better as it allows an agent to budget their marketing spend annually. Given trying times this seems the most effective option. The one agent who seemed happy with the idea was asked “why do you feel differently to others we have asked” – response being: “I have not had a lead yet, it has cost me nothing, so I can not say”. Interesting stuff?

The main feedback has been as to how you quantify a lead. Is it a specific viewing request, more information required, or a non specific “I’m looking to Rent in Portsmouth, I’m looking to Rent in Southampton?”

Some agents have even suggested that some of the more unscrupulous counterparts would send dodgy emails to the competition. However I have been reassured there are measures in place to contest any discrepancy in charging. All well and good, but here at Rentright we feel that our time money and effort is better spent in genuine customer service, rather than arguing with an agent what is a lead or not a lead. It also helps keep our membership costs at an extremely affordable level.

As we are active in SEO, we have no need for pay per click and neither do we have a need for pay per lead. 

Visit Rentright for all UK rental properties.