The introduction of a ‘Facebook Rental Surgery’ is just one of the ways upad is embracing social networking as it rolls out its rental service nationwide.
upad launched in London in October 2008, offering landlords a way of advertising their properties for a one-off cost of £59.
The company claims this service is now available to the 1.5 million landlords in the UK which they say is equivalent to the entire populations of Birmingham and Glasgow combined.
Visitors to the www.upad.co.uk site can link to upad's Facebook group, the 'Rental Surgery', where a team of experts including a solicitor and IFA can answer questions online on issues ranging from capital gains tax to tenancy agreements.
Renters and landlords can also share their views and experiences via mini news alerts, discussion boards and RSS blog feeds.
A new Wikipedia (www.upad.co.uk/wiki) application provides free information relating to the property rental sector. As well as searching for material (by words and phrases) individuals and companies will be encouraged to build the upad community by contributing relevant articles and content.
James Davis, upad's CEO, explained: “upad makes life easier for landlords, and the take-up of the service following its launch in London demonstrated that people are crying out for what we can offer.
“As we go national, we continue to match people and properties. We also know that both landlords and tenants need information and advice. And that's where options like the Facebook Rental Surgery and the upad Wiki come in - everything people need, all in one place.
“Despite the importance of social networks in many other walks of life, no online communities existed for landlords and tenants, so we set about changing that.”
To mark its national launch, upad is giving away £100,000 in free online advertising. Between 10th and 19th June 2009, upad will allow almost 1,700 ads to be posted at no cost, enabling landlords and estate agents to advertise as many vacant properties as they want free of charge.
