Not if you don’t use a list from your previous office. I once left an office and some 12 months later did the same, and had a heap of clients I knew previously ring me up pleased to find me again..

Good luck with it

Check your previous employment contract. I have had a few owners come to me from my previous office and I can accept their business if they come to me, however, if I was to go to them within 12 months of leaving that business I would be considered in breach of my employment contract with that company and liable to be sued!!

If you are contacting all absentee owners your previous owners will come up in the list too, send them the same material that you are sending all the others and if they remember you and want you to manage for them then they will come back to you.

I love the referral system, I’ve found it has worked for me quite well and would love to hear how it goes for you.

Good luck!

I know there is nothing in my previous contract about it as I asked to have it removed before I signed.

Thanks for the advice. Will keep you posted.

Hi Clint it isnt a bad practice but i wouldnt want to be know around town as the management pincher i would do as sarah sugested and do mail outs to all absentee landlords that way if anything was to come back on you it can be justifyed that you were canvassing the whole area not just there managements. If a client was to approach you from seeing your photo on a flyer that isnt your problem but the problem of the agency they are currently with.

I certainly wasn’t going to target just my previous clients. But there are going to be streets I am targeting where they own property.

Hi Clint, I would go for it – as you said, send the same material to all absentee owners through the information you’ve purchased / received from council or elsewhere.  How are you to know that these properties are even still managed by the same company?  If it ever gets questioned I believe you would have sufficient evidence to prove you were not targeting their properties, especially considering the cost of aquiring information and producing / sending the mass-mailouts, but I suppose at the end of the day, I’d be asking the principal to approve any decisions as it is their company performing the mailout.

Hi Clint,  Can I give you a couple of tips.

No 1 – A great place to start – ASK ALL YOUR CURRENT OWNERS FOR MORE BUSINESS – they already like you (hopefully) and you already have a relationship with them.  I have found some many offices that will spend $$$ on marketing, mail outs etc but haven’t ask their current database – DO YOU HAVE ANY MORE BUSINESS OR KNOW ANYONE WHO WE CAN TALK TOO? 

Tip #2 – follow up, follow up, follow up – remember Business developement is about knocking on that door even when they close it.  I found that by giving MISSED apprasials a monthly newsletter for the 3 months after they went to another office and then follow up with a FRIENDLY LOVE CALL after 3 months – just making sure everything was going well for them, I would pick up quite a few properties due to the other agent not doing what they said they would.

Good luck, love that part of the job and have fun with it….

amanda

Clint, considering you are looking down the path of direct mail, it sounds like our rentalreturn.com.au website is a tool that your office could use to build the prospect database and start developing rapport for conversions. We have multiple campaign methods which would work in your favour. With the comments above I would agree that targetting an area, as opposed to individual investors would be the way to go.

Have a bit of a look at what we have to offer, the agent information page can be found at:

rentalreturn.com.au/agents

For others in the same boat, as Sarah mentioned there are many Principals that have restrictions of future trade in employment agreeements but there are certainly ways of getting around it. It’s also worth considering what the damages would be worth as opposed to the legal fees for the prosecutor/complainant. Just a thought, play nice.