Student lettings specialist House Hunt has selected Alto as its CRM partner as the Birmingham agency moves away from spreadsheets and fragmented operating systems.
Based in Selly Oak near the University of Birmingham, House Hunt has a portfolio of more than 1,000 properties, the majority of which are student HMOs.
Approximately 300 properties are currently under management, creating significant compliance and administrative requirements for the agency’s team.
House Hunt says its previous reliance on spreadsheets, separate systems and knowledge held by individual employees created operational risks as the business expanded.
ONE SOURCE OF INFORMATION
The agency will use Alto to bring emails, contracts, maintenance records, compliance reminders and accounts together within one platform.
Centralising the information should enable employees across different departments to access the same records while reducing reliance on particular members of the team.
Kiran Bhogal (main picture, inset left), Branch Manager at House Hunt, says: “We’ve grown quickly, but a lot of our processes were still built around spreadsheets and individual knowledge.
“That works to a point, but as soon as you scale or people are away, it creates risk for the business.
“All of our information was effectively in different places, or in people’s heads. If two or three people are away, we have a problem. We needed a system where everyone can access everything and work from the same source of truth.”
HMO COMPLIANCE DRIVES DECISION
Compliance automation was an important consideration because of the large proportion of houses in multiple occupation within House Hunt’s portfolio.
The agency selected Alto following a referral from telecoms provider Yo Telecom and an in-office demonstration of the platform.
Bhogal says: “What stood out was that everything we currently manage manually is already built into Alto’s property management software.
“Emails, contracts, maintenance tracking, compliance reminders, accounts – it’s all in one place. That’s exactly what we were looking for.”
PLATFORM SUPPORTS EXPANSION
Onboarding is now underway, with House Hunt planning to implement the system across every department.
The agency expects the platform to support further growth and potential expansion into residential lettings and estate agency sales.
Nick Shaw (main picture, inset right), Chief Revenue Officer at Alto, says: “House Hunt is a great example of a fast-growing agency reaching the point where systems and processes need to catch up with ambition.
“Moving from spreadsheets and fragmented workflows to a single platform is a pivotal step, especially in a compliance-heavy environment like student HMOs.
“We’re delighted to be supporting Kiran and the team as they build a more scalable, resilient business.”
