All by myself... don't want to be....
Every so often, a buyer comes to us with a lettings agency they've fallen for. Twelve staff on the org chart. A tidy little office. Two hundred managed properties and a trading name half the town recognises.
And every so often, we find out the business is, functionally, one man in a cardigan.
Meet Graham.
Not his real name, but every agency seems to have one. Graham has been doing this for eighteen years. Graham has every landlord's mobile number memorised, including the ones who changed their number three years ago and never told anyone else. Graham knows which tenant in flat 4B is "a bit funny about the bins" and which landlord needs a phone call, not an email, or the renewal doesn't happen.
Graham is also, technically, the branch manager, the compliance lead, the person who actually knows the CRM login, and the reason four different landlords haven't left in the last two years.
None of this appears anywhere in the sale particulars.
It appears roughly six weeks after completion, when Graham, quite reasonably, decides that new ownership means a new chapter, hands in his notice, and takes eighteen years of relationships with him.
The org chart still says twelve staff. Functionally, the business just lost the only person who knew what half of it actually did.
How to spot your own Graham before you sign.
Ask who the landlords actually call when something goes wrong, not who's supposed to. Ask what happens to renewals, referrals and problem tenants if one specific person is off sick for a month. If the answer is "everything slows down a lot," you haven't found a business. You've found Graham, with a lease and a logo.
This isn't a reason to walk away.
It's a reason to structure the deal properly, tie in the people who matter, and go in with your eyes open about what you're actually buying: a business, or a very good employee who happens to own the building.
That's what we do at Russou.
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