Void and utility management – Ittria’s integration with MRI puts agencies ahead of the game

We’re all working within an ever-changing business landscape, and it’s more important than ever to stay ahead of the game, create efficiencies, and deliver a service that stands out and provides real impact. For estate agents, the market in recent years has been volatile to say the least, so resilience, adaptability, and excellent customer service are the watchwords for surviving and thriving. Adopting new solutions to help elevate your offering is often a smart move. 

However, having spent 3 years working in central London as an estate agent and latterly another 10 years in the utility space I know all too well how many cross-sell opportunities there are in property transactions and the amount of sales calls estate agents get. 

There isn’t always much difference between the solutions on the surface, ‘save time here, make money there’ – the difference quite often comes down to the people you deal with on a day-to-day basis along with the commercial benefits and efficiency savings. It takes a lot of and effort to unstitch one solution, and stitch in another that’s relatively similar, so why bother? What difference can providers be offering to make the process worthwhile?  

The key, for us at Ittria, is the automation and integration of data, which is why we’ve partnered with MRI as part of their MRI Agency solutions.  

Working within the void and utility notification space, taking the hassle out of between-tenancy management for agents is what we do, and with the relationships that we forge with software providers like MRI, we can offer a service that easily enhances daily operations. Integrations are all about creating an established and trusted exchange of information between systems and parties, minimising administrative tasks, increasing speed, and reducing costs, thereby allowing you and your staff to focus on what matters to you – moving people into properties. 

Automation of services 

Through the integration with MRI Sales & Lettings via MRI Agency Home, Ittria’s services can benefit your business with minimal input from your team. The pathway set up between the two systems allows for the automation of our services, meaning it’s as simple as entering the data into your system as normal, and your “between-tenancy” management happens automatically.  

Here’s how it works: 

When a tenancy is due to end, we receive a notification from your system, prompting our systems to send notifications to the current water, council tax, and energy suppliers, informing them of the upcoming change of payment responsibility. When the property is vacated and the void period begins, we switch the property’s utilities to our preferred void suppliers, generating income for your business through commission payments. When the new tenants move in you know who the current utilities providers are, and the notifications for the new tenancy are all sent out on your behalf. 

All this happens without any extra work on your part, since the integration with MRI allows Ittria to access your tenancy information, automating the void period and handling the details. No more time spent on the phone to utility supplier call centres being told you can’t make changes because you’re not the landlord – instead you have a single point of contact with Ittria and everything else is sorted for you. It takes the hassle, away, allowing your team to focus on your core business model.  

Cutting through the noise 

With so many solutions, systems, and software available for estate and lettings agents, each touting efficiencies and benefits for your business, your technology stack can easily become too much to handle. So many agents find themselves with various installations and implementations of different products, but in reality, find themselves only using a select few on a day-to-day basis. With so many different solutions, duplication of data entry is often inevitable, and though modules and software might seem relatively low in cost, it all adds up and your business can be forking out substantial monthly payments for solutions that don’t work for your particular business.  

With a fully integrated technology stack, made up only of the solutions that provide measurable benefits and are genuinely useful to your team, you can create a pared down, streamlined system that facilitates a seamless data flow between products.  

Having an integrated tech stack also means improved data accuracy – only inputting data once means every system is working with the same information and reduces the risk of mistakes due to data entry errors and typos.  

Ittria’s integration with MRI Agency Solutions means that for MRI Sales & Lettings users, Ittria can slot neatly and seamlessly into your stack, providing operational benefits as well as income generation. 

ittria.co.uk