Real Estate and Property Awards 2020

44 BUILD Real Estate & Property Awards 2020 Aug20018 etting Cloud is a property portal with a difference. It serves clients and landlords of all sizes – whether it is a one bedroom flat or multi-bed house. The platform works to bring together all faces in the letting industry, landlords, agents and tenants, to make letting as simple as possible. According to CEO and founder Grant MacCusker, they are the first letting-only portal in the UK. They are tailored to rental, whereas other platforms busy themselves with sales. Letting Cloud have given themselves room to specialise. As such, they are able to offer clients various packages that fit their needs and are dedicated to changing the way prospective tenants find new homes. Prior to founding Letting Cloud, Grant had worked in a letting agency. Having to use letting portals on a daily basis, he observed how they hadn’t changed or improved over time. He built up an understanding of what was lacking in the existing letting platforms, and the frustrations that agents could have with them. This gave him a checklist of ideas and solutions to create the perfect platform of his own. Although the idea germinated in 2014, he waited until 2018, when the time was right, to launch the site. The business is bootstrapped – built up from Grant’s own savings and perpetuates on its success. Since then, it has steadily and quickly grown. A lot of tech companies are built on the back of large investments, but Grant was able to build Letting Cloud into the platform it needed to be to succeed, without trying to please investors along the way. This approach, he says, is the fundamental reason that Letting Cloud has seen the success it has. When dealing with property renting, there are three main factions that have to interact: landlords, letting agents, and tenants. Grant’s vision for Letting Cloud was to build a platform designed as the perfect place for these three groups to come together as a community. The community function is vital to Letting Cloud, as it brings an element of trust to their dealings. Tenants are able to leave a review of the landlords on the site. Doing so flags to future renters whether a landlord will be a good match for them. Renters in the industry often feel like they have very little power. By giving them a platform where they are actively encouraged to leave reviews, they feel empowered. It helps to highlight good landlords and sends business to the right people. As a platform with a community ethos, Letting Cloud stepped up when many businesses were struggling during 2020. They Most Innovative Property Letting Portal 2020 – UK L offered all new agents free listings until October and paused payments for existing customers until then as well. Many agents have joined Cloud Letting in Scotland, and the company is in the final stages of securing a multi-national letting agency that will give them a presence throughout the UK. It is the next step in the company’s growth, following an incline in growth of the number of agents joining the portal. The team behind the scenes at Letting Cloud have a strong bond – even while working remotely, they have been able to organise games, drinks, and a pizza nights over Zoom. Grant explains, “I like to treat people in the business the way I would like to be treated as an employee. I would never ask anyone in the team to do anything I would not do myself. We have a great ethos for the company and the staff make sure they do everything to adhere to it.” Lockdown didn’t mean that the team could take it easy either! Throughout the year, the company has re-branded their logo, and the tech team built a new website that was even easier to use and gave a fresh sense to the community. As the company continues to grow and expand, they are set to move into the rest of the UK towards the end of 2020. Grant is hoping that this expansion will allow them to welcome more people into the team, in light of the huge numbers left unemployed during the year. Community minded, hard workers might soon find themselves a new home at Letting Cloud. Company: Letting Cloud Contact: Grant MacCusker Website: www.lettingcloud.co.uk Whether you are a landlord, a letting agent, or a prospective tenant, Letting Cloud is the online letting platform you need to join. Working primarily out of Edinburgh, the platform models itself on a community ethos and makes letting or renting easy.