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Interview of Calum Brannan
Written by the Landlord Today team
Calum Brannan, CEO of No Agent

Q: What is No Agent?
 
No Agent is a complete property management service. We have combined the experience of property experts with technology to create a streamlined, transparent service for landlords - at an affordable price. You get all the essential property management services - from finding a tenant right through to rent collection and managing repairs and inspections included in one flat fee of £35pm (or £55pm in London). 
 
The entire process is supervised by ARLA qualified professionals, and our 24/7 support picks up any questions and issues you or your tenants might have. 
 
Our landlords have complete visibility of their property status via the online platform, and can pick and choose what they want to do and what they want to pass on to us.
 
 
Q: Why choose No Agent?

 
Why wouldn’t you? We bring down the cost of finding you tenants and managing your property by nearly 75% and will save you many headaches in the process. 
 
And you can cancel at any time, we won’t lock you in a long term contract. But I’m pretty sure you won’t. 
 
Q: How did it all start?
 
I am a landlord myself, and after one too many disappointing experiences with a letting agent, I thought ‘there must be a better way to do this’. It turned out there wasn’t, so I set out to create it.
 
So on Christmas Eve 2015, at my dining room table, I talked my friend Tom through the idea and we started drafting a business plan. Tom was with a Big Four company at the time, and has since joined us as our Financial Director.
 
We officially started operations in June 2016. We’ve been growing very fast ever since - we managed to outgrow 3 office spaces and we’re quickly filling out the forth.
 
 
Q: What are your three unique selling points?


Price -​ our smart tech and ops model helps us keep costs as low as possible for landlords, which in turn means less costs passed on to tenants.

Customer service – ​we’re raising the bar on something that has been lacking in the rental sector for far too long.

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Flexibility – ​with us, landlords can choose exactly how much they want to control themselves and how much they want to pass on.


 
Q: How do you overcome your competitors?
 
It really isn’t that hard. The lettings sector never really caught up with technological advancements, and changing human behaviours. What has been around for too long is traditional agents doing things in the ways they always have, now with a few tech bolt-ons, but the same dire customer service. 
 
High-street lettings agents need to cover their own property rents and rates, have high marketing costs and rely on people and manual processes, so they offset their costs on landlords (and tenants). We have much lower running costs and automate most of the processes, which results in a smoother and much cheaper service. 
 
‘Online agents’ in the UK mostly focus on sales, their lettings offer is more of an afterthought. There are services that charge landlords a one-time fee to advertise their property on Rightmove and Zoopla, but  once a tenants is found, the landlord is usually left to self-manage. 
 
We see things differently: finding tenants is the easy part, which is why it is included in our service and we don’t charge for it. Property management is our main focus: our goal is to support both landlords and tenants every step of the letting journey. 
 
Q: How do you create value for your clients (how do you go above the call of duty)?
 
Our revenue model is based on a monthly fee and customers can cancel anytime so for us customer loyalty crucial.

 A No Agent customer has only one point of contact throughout the entire property management journey, and that person is a qualified property manager. They won’t get passed on through a million departments and their emails won’t get ignored, as it happens in a lot of big traditional firms. 
 
We also try to be proactive and we alert customers that might be affected by changes in legislation or when new tax law which can affect them is being passed. 
 
Even as we’ve grown the business - when landlords call, if we recognise their number, we skip them past the queue and send them right to their property manager.
 
We strive to provide great service consistently, but also really listen to customers and, whenever possible, actually incorporate their feedback in the product or service. A lot of our platform was developed that way. 
 
Q: Are you offering any special promotions?
 

For Landlord Today readers we offer a special offer: first 6 months at half price. We don’t start charging until the tenant moves in, and once they have the cost will be £27.50pcm for full property management in London and £17.50pcm anywhere else in England for the first six months. 


To take advantage of the offer create an account with no agent using this link or call us on 0330 999 1234 or email hello@noagent.co.uk and quote ‘Landlord Today Promo’ 
 
Where do you expect to be in a year?

 
We’re spearheading a revolution in the lettings industry which will make things easier and fairer for both landlords and tenants. In the next year, I fully expect us to prove this, not only in growth figures, but in shifting mentalities, so people realise they don’t have to stick to a traditional way of renting any longer. 

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