Letters of introduction are a controversial topic within the property market. e.property provides a number of solutions designed to reduce the misuse of introductions, as well as enhancing the value of the existing paper system.
A Landlord can specify for each property whether introductions will be accepted, how soon they expire, and a set of terms and conditions that must be complied with.
Whenever a broker submits a letter of introduction via e. property, he/she must acknowledge that all the terms and conditions for submitting a letter of introduction have been read and complied with.
The broker who is not aware of those terms and conditions can read them on e.property, accessed from the same screen that is used to submit the introduction, making it very easy to comply.
e.property protects the confidentiality of a letter of introduction. No Landlord can see any other landlord's introductions and neither can any broker see any other broker's introductions.
A broker who wishes to submit a letter of introduction while keeping the name of the client confidential can do so on e.property. This prevents any leaks into the market that a given company is looking for space.
The way in which this works is that the Landlord can see that an introduction has been submitted, but cannot see the name of the client until such time as an offer is submitted by that broker for that client. At this point, the name is unscrambled and the broker can pursue a commission claim. It is important to emphasise that once an introduction is submitted it cannot be altered by either the Landlord or the broker. When the property becomes let, a complete audit trail is available to allow for adjudication of any disputes.
The situation may arise that one broker introduces a client to a property and that subsequently another broker introduces the same client to the same property. This is a potential cause of conflict, so e.property notifies each of the brokers, as well as the Landlord, that this has occurred. The brokers can now talk to the client to resolve the conflict and the landlord meanwhile is fully informed.
Any system is subject to misuse, but the control and management of the system can limit the effects of such misuse. e. property can help clean up the market by detecting the non-professional operators.
By collecting statistics on all the introductions and which ones lead to an offer to lease and finally to an accepted offer, each broker can be measured according to their performance at each stage of the deal cycle.
Brokers who routinely perform poorly by submitting many introductions but achieving few offers can be warned regarding their behaviour and ultimately can be removed from landlords closed broker groups, thereby locking them out of a large part of the market.