Mashroom Online Agent- The Updated Review No One Wanted!

Mashroom.com

Enter their name into Google and watch your intended search get dismantled as you get served a bunch of crap about fleshy, spore-bearing funguses.

Unfortunately, questionable branding decisions might be the least of Mashroom’s problems in 2023.

If you happened to have read (and remember) my previous iteration of this blog post – first published in February 2021 – then today’s updated version in 2023 is going to be unrecognisable, and that’s because Mashroom has terminated their market-disrupting FREE tenant-find service, which included Rightmove & Zoopla listings for 30 glorious days – a product I called “absurdly attractive” at the time, and was the focal point of the entire post.

Alas, as of today, in August 2023, it’s over! The lights are off! It’s over! They’ve decommissioned the freebie and tossed it into the scrapheap.

Mashroom is officially no longer a charity, and once again OpenRent’s insanely popular 5 day free trial tenant-find service reigns supreme (a product that has been going strong for several years now, with no signs of slowing down).

But what now for Mashroom? Now that they no longer offer the very thing that put them on the map, do I think they’re still worth it? Do they have anything else to offer?

To put it mildly, they’ve become an incredibly difficult sell overnight, but there’s probably some sparkle left for someone.

I ‘pose this is a bittersweet moment, well at least for me it is, because I get to walk away saying “I called it”. At the time, I was vocal about how I thought Mashroom’s free tenant-find service being nothing more than a fabulous yet unsustainable loss-leading product, designed to get landlords through the doors. And that’s precisely why I encouraged landlords to take advantage while the sun was shinning.

I saw early signs of my prediction coming to fruition last year, when they removed the “rent collection” feature from their free tenant-find service, which was a sweet option that came included at no extra cost.

Fair play to Mashroom though, they burnt a massive hole in their pocket for 2 years while many of us got to take advantage. But now, we have a new reality to come to terms with, and it certainly ain’t free…

Table of contents:

So what services are Mashroom actually offering landlords?

This is where it all gets a bit… odd. And disappointing.

Mashroom seem to have made the strategic decision to transition from offering the best deal on the market to a mediocre one at best.

But first, I need get the following off my hairy chest before I implode: WTF is Mashroom’s website? Seriously, WHAT IS IT, specifically their homepage? If I didn’t know Mashroom was a “one stop shop” for landlords, offering a range of products and services, I’d assume they’re a snooze-fest digital newspaper, covering the rental market. I genuinely find their approach very strange and toe-curling.

Right, thank you, my chest is officially lighter. Let’s move on…

Mashroom no longer offers a standalone “tenant-find” service, let alone a free one, it’s now only available through one out of their two “Let & Protect” packages, which demand a monthly fee, and comes bundled with a rent collection service, and various insurance products. This suggests that Mashroom are now focusing their efforts on servicing landlords that require a little more hand-holding.

To find out more about their “Let & Protect” packages.

To be fair, I get why they’ve made this pivot from a business perspective; they obviously want their core services to generate regular monthly revenue, as opposed to flogging freebies and sporadic one-off packages. In other words, there’s more money to be made from landlords that require more than just a basic tenant-find service.

While I get it, I also believe they’ve fumbled the ball by removing a standalone tenant-find service altogether because now they’ve alienated a gigantic portion of the self-managing landlord market (but at the same time, I hope they don’t reintroduce it in some form, because I seriously can’t be assed to rewrite this review again. They’ve made their bed for better or for worse, so they should lie in it now!).

Is Mashroom’s “Let & Protect” packages worth it?

It depends.

I can see why their Let & Protect pages would appeal to certain landlords more than others, but at the same time their packages seem very average at best, and entirely nonsensical and overpriced at worst. Bear in mind, I once described Mashroom’s service as “absurdly attractive“, so their shift in direction feels grossly underwhelming.

First and foremost, I find myself shuddering when I see online agents using a percentage based pricing model, because it’s a high-street agent approach, which goes against the beauty of what we expect from modern day online agents – low cost, fixed fees.

Mashroom’s new direction leads me to believe that they’re trying to position themselves in between online agents and high-street agents. Fair enough. But I have to question, is there a genuine appetite for this kind of service from landlords, or is Mashroom just trying to create a new market in order to be different? I really don’t know, I’m genuinely asking. Presumably, they have the data to suggest there is a market, but I do question the size of it.

Objectively, I see the appeal of their service up to a certain point. I do like the features they’ve bundled, they seem useful for landlords keen on self-preservation and convenience. However, the reality is, there’s no USP being offered here; Mashroom have just bundled products together that can ordinarily be purchased separately at fixed costs, and chosen to flog them on a monthly retainer based on rental income (which can prove to be stupid-expensive for some landlords, which we’ll discover next).

Let’s quickly crunch some numbers!

So based on those numbers and additional calculations, Mashroom’s 5% package is only competitive if rent is charged at £850 PCM or less. In this day and age, with skyrocketing rents, I don’t think many will be getting the deal of the century with that offer.

For example, if rent is charged at £2,000 PCM, which isn’t unreasonable in 2023, then Mashroom’s 5% price point makes absolutely no sense in my puny mind.

The obvious problem with using a percentage based pricing model for a service like this is that some people will get shafted if rent exceeds a certain threshold. Not a particularly high one either, to be clear.

A lot of the services being offered in the bundles aren’t particularly sensitive to the rent amount (which is why they’re available separately at fixed costs), so that means as your costs increase in line with the rental income, the value you receive in return doesn’t move in tandem. That’s precisely why I and many others don’t like traditional high-street agents and their fees. For example, it doesn’t require more energy to collect £500 rent per month from a tenant than collecting £5,000, yet there’s a huge discrepancy in cost to the landlord. That’s precisely why so self-managing landlords have gone digital, to avoid these shenanigans.

Would I discourage anyone from using Mashroom’s Let & Protect service?

Nope.

Put it this way, if you want the features that come with any of their packages and the price point makes sense for you, I’m not going to discourage you, but I’d definitely encourage crunching the numbers first.

Costing concerns aside, the crux of my issue is that I can’t think of any standout reason for why I would use their service anymore, other than, “it looks okay, it’s a Tuesday, so why not?” (a sentiment I’ve come across before in my youth, usually during the lead up to a one night stand after a piss-up in my local Spoon’s), and I think that’s a problem.

I don’t believe anyone with a shred of common sense expected Mashroom’s free tenant-find service to last forever, it was clearly unsustainable from the jump. So I don’t believe that’s a problem, but rather, they’ve replaced a market-leading product with mediocracy. So, like, what’s the point of their existence now?

They’ve become a take it or leave it proposition for me.

Tenant-find services (OpenRent still continue to reign supreme)

Since Mashroom have thrown in the tenant-find towel, they won’t be able to assist landlords that are in need of a standalone tenant-find service, which will facilitate with listing their rental property listed on Rightmove & Zoopla in order to generate enquiries.

Fortunately, I don’t think this is a world-destroying moment for landlords, because absolutely nothing has changed. Several other online letting agents, including OpenRent (who I always considered to be the better choice anyways), are still in business, offering low and fixed-cost tenant find services.

My original comments still holds true (In fact, more than ever before):

Are Mashroom the new OpenRent?
Christ no!

OpenRent have been around for a long-ass time and have serviced thousands of landlords, so they’ve got one hell of a system in place. I’d expect a better service from OpenRent today, tomorrow and the next few years at the very least, and that’s not a personal or scathing attack against Mashroom, that’s just the real advantage of time and experience. I still believe OpenRent holds supreme in the space for a pure “tenant-find” service, providing the loudest bang for your buck. Awesome service, very intuitive, and all round pucka!

OpenRent	Rating 4.9 Google Reviews	Duration 5 days / 3 months*	Includes / Notes Ultimate Advertising package *5 days free, and then the option of continuing service for 3 months for £24 (Inc VAT) for new customers, and £29 (Inc VAT) for returning customers!	Price Free Trial *FREE Inc VATNo hidden fees, no credit card details required!	Visit Website

A word on Mashroom’s unique “Tenant Team Up” feature!

Is this the solution to tenant viewings we have all been waiting for?

No.

But it’s interesting, and it’s a feature of their service they wanted me to push (because it’s different).

If you go onto the Mashroom website you might notice a feature called “Team Up“, which facilitates in arranging outgoing tenants to conduct viewings on behalf of the landlord in exchange for one week’s rent.

When I first became aware of the feature I recoiled and thought “Oh blimey!!! Did management fall off the wagon and think of this idea during a piss-up?”

After I let the idea swirl around a little and returned back to my regular position… my mind hadn’t changed.

This doesn’t work! Just like allowing tenants to paint and decorate in return for a rent reduction usually doesn’t.

It’s a feature that could seem like a good idea to someone that isn’t a landlord, but to an actual self-managing landlord with a smidgen of good judgement and experience, the idea of allowing tenants to conduct viewings should be filled with gaping holes the size of elephants:

• Meeting prospective tenants’ in-person is the most telling and useful aspect of referencing; it gives landlords the opportunity to measure character and compatibility.
• I rank the landlord’s gut instinct as the single most important indicator when it comes to tenant selection.
• It’s not in the tenant’s best interest to recommend the most suitable replacement. Why would they give a flying fig? They’re not the ones that will have to deal with them.

  Fuck, I mean, if I was a tenant taking viewings, I might just recommend the worst one for a laugh.

• If I’m going to dig into my pockets for a viewing service I’d rather pay a letting agent, because at least then I’ll benefit from expertise and consumer protection [if it all goes tits-up due to negligence].

  Where’s my protection if my tenant recommends a complete donut?

For those reasons, I have always actively encouraged landlords to take their own viewings even if it’s inconvenient as hell (which it is; always a chore, never a joy), so it’s not exactly a feature I can get behind.

Yes, I very much understand the problems with viewings and I understand how Mashroom ended up where they have, but I actually believe this feature is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist for self-managing landlords on any significant scale. Or at least, I think the real problem has been misdiagnosed.

This isn’t a money issue. I have great relationships with my tenants so I’m confident if I asked them to take viewings they wouldn’t really mind (within reason). And if I didn’t have a great relationship with them and I thought I’d have to pay them, I wouldn’t want them to take the viewings. See the problem here?

The real issue is I don’t want my tenants to conduct viewings for love nor money.

I’m inclined to believe Team-up can easily create more problems than it solves, but above all, it encourages bad practice. So if I were Mashroom I’d strongly consider how well this feature genuinely serves landlords.

In any case, I thought I’d mention it because it is different and I can see where there might be limited appeal and necessity. It’s there if you need it.

Do I continue to support & recommend Mashroom?

Of course! I’m still their affiliate partner (although, judging by the tone and direction of this blog post, you probably never would have guessed).

I’ve obviously had to rummage through all my blog posts where their “free tenant-find” service was featured and remove them all (which was very annoying in itself), and I’m very unlikely to give much exposure to their “Let & Protect” packages in their current form, because as said, I don’t see anything special about it.

However, Mashroom still offers a wide range of ad-hoc services that are very useful and cost-effective, such as professional property photography services, inventory services etc, so I’ll continue to hype them where relevant.

I still have a good relationship with Mashroom (well, that may change if they ever come across this update) – my contact there has always been super nice and responsive – so my thoughts aren’t personal or intended to be malicious, but rather unapologetically objective.

If you decide to give either of Mashroom’s “Let & Protect” packages a toss in the wok (I couldn’t resist, I make no apologies!), then super, pretty please drop a comment and let me know how you get on!

Fly free, my lab-rats!

Other than that, please share your thoughts and feel free to ask any questions about their service! I’d love to hear them…

Mushroom/fungi jokes welcome.

Landlord out xoxo