Over the last 10 to 15 years the city of Manchester has undergone a striking transformation as developers have recognised it as a thriving commercial hub and no longer an industrial centre. Many, in fact, now consider Manchester to be England’s second city after London, displacing Birmingham.

The redevelopment in and around Manchester city centre has been most obvious, due not only to the rise of the city in terms of commercial importance but also to the explosion of an IRA bomb in 1996, which damaged a large area of property around Corporation Street.

Manchester took the opportunity to turn a negative into a positive, rebuilding and redeveloping the Arndale Centre, which was damaged by the blast, and a lot of the surrounding city centre areas. Property developers saw an opportunity too, and began a steady redevelopment of old warehouses, as well as creating new build residential developments.

These new residential properties, both in the centre in areas such as the Northern Quarter and in outlying areas like Ancoats and Hulme gave the city a much needed facelift, removing the old, dingy look and creating a modern, impressive city and suburbs.

For estate agents, Manchester in the late Nineties and early in the new century represented a boom time. Demand for high quality city centre living was high and the new developments were being bought and sold for large amounts. Some of the most sort after developments included Bridgewater Bank, Bridgewater Street and Castlefield Basin.

One of the more recent developments is the Beetham Tower, or Hilton Tower as it is sometimes called, as it houses a Hilton hotel and facilities. It features 16 penthouses, the uppermost of which covers the top two floors and was bought by the building’s designer for £3 million, demonstrating the property prices in the city centre.

It’s not just the buying property market that has benefited from Manchester’s redevelopment. The letting sector has too, with many property investors purchasing apartments to let to renters, including those who cannot afford to buy.

However, with such a boom in property in the city there is evidence of over supply. Many properties contain apartments that sit empty, with the owners or developers unable to find buyers. This is due in part to the high prices being demanded but also because of the sheer volume of available residential property in the city.

The situation is good for people looking to rent, as eventually rental values will fall and the same could happen for those looking to buy. Either way, Manchester represents a great place to live, whether renting or buying, and those looking to do so should contact Manchester letting agents and Manchester estate agents to check out prices and locations.

A recent article by RISMedia brings an alarming statistic to our attention – 75 percent of leads generated online are lost. According to PCMS Consulting and One Cavo, these leads are lost because real estate sales professionals and others in the industry are not responding to them or are simply responding too late.

One Cavo found that of those real estate sales professionals who responded to leads, they responded an average of eight hours after the initial inquiry by the prospect was made. These days, prospective clients don’t just want fast response times, they expect them. According to Jose Perez of PCMS Consulting, “…over 70 percent of consumers choose the first company that gets back to them.” What does a fast response time mean? Well, to many consumers out there, a fast response time means within 15 to 20 minutes after initial contact.

If you’re not responding to internet leads, responding too late, or simply forgetting about these leads all together, you’re doing a lot of harm to your business. Not only are you loosing potential customers and referral sources, but you could be causing negative word of mouth about yourself.

Think about the money you could be losing by letting just one lead fall through the cracks. These leads can be easily turned into clients and we can’t underestimate this simple fact. Let me paint a picture about the worth of a client. The National Association of REALTORS states that on average, homeowners know at least three to five people who move each year. Let’s say you have 50 “A-list” contacts in your database and that on average, each contact will move once every ten years. Let’s also say that you represent the client on both ends. Each A-list contact knows at least one person who will move every year, but you won’t get them all, so assume you get three referrals over the ten years from everyone on your list. If your average commission is $5,000, that’s a $1,250,000 commission income over a ten year period!

But that’s not all. For every 100 people in your database that you maintain a relationship with, you can expect a 13% return. That’s 13 transactions for every 100 people. The more leads you add to your database and the more relationships you build, the more successful you’ll be as a REALTOR.

In order to prevent online leads from slipping through the cracks, you need an automatic website lead capture form on your website. A good real estate CRM system allows you to take advantage of this. Any lead that fills out the form will be automatically transferred to your database and you’ll receive an instant email alert when a new lead comes through. This lets you respond immediately by giving the prospect a call to qualify further and/or assign the prospect to an appropriate nurture plan based on level of qualification and urgency.

You want to show prospective clients that you’re available and open to answering any questions they have. So you’ll want to prominently display your contact details on your website where they’re easy to find. That’s also why it’s extremely essential to have an automatic website lead capture form built into your site. It allows prospects to contact you without going to their inbox or picking up the phone. And it allows you to capture a potentially valuable lead and have that lead automatically entered into your database where you can track it over time.