Landlord Products / Services
Enter their name into Google and watch your intended search get dismantled as your search term gets spell-corrected and your results get filled with information on funguses.
Alas, Google isn’t the only one confused by Mashroom. I am, too.
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 2024 is going to be unrecognisable, because Mashroom has terminated the focal point of that version, which was their market-disrupting FREE tenant-find service for landlords, which included Rightmove & Zoopla listings for 30 glorious days – a product I called “absurdly attractive” at the time.
As of some time in 2023, it’s over! They switched off the lights! They’ve decommissioned the freebie and tossed it into the scrapheap, and have decided to take a new direction.
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? Well, in an extremely unexpected turn of events, they seem to have stopped offering letting services altogether (e.g. tenant-find and marketing services), and shifted their focus on what I can only describe as being a one-stop shop for landlords, flogging anything from landlord insurance to mortgages, and everything in-between (other than letting services).
I honestly don’t know what to say, but I’ll continue to ramble in case I accidently say anything helpful…
Table of contents
- So what services are Mashroom offering landlords in 2024?
- Tenant-find services (OpenRent still continue to reign supreme)
- My conclusion: do I continue to support & recommend Mashroom?
So what services are Mashroom offering landlords in 2024?
This is where it all gets a bit… odd. And disappointing, I guess.
Mashroom seem to have made the strategic decision to transition from offering the best tenant-find product on the market to offering/brokering a wide range of mediocre products, including:
- Landlord Insurance
- Building Insurance
- RGI
- Home Emergency Cover
- Life & Critical Illness Cover
- Mortgages
- EPCs
- Gas Safety Certificates
- Inventories
- Professional Property Photography
However, they seem to primarily focus heavily on flogging various landlord insurance policies.
I know what you’re wondering! “Okay, but are they offering the best landlord insurance products and ancillary products on the market?”
Good question.
And the answer is a resounding no. I’ve looked through all their products and they all seem to be, well, like I said, mediocre. You can find better and worse deals elsewhere.
So, they really went from selling the best value tenant-find service on the market to offering/brokering a wide range of mediocre products?
Exactly. That’s what it seems like.
So what are Mashroom actually offering? I thought about this long and hard for a moment, and I think the answer is “convenience” – they have created a place where it’s relatively easy for landlords to order a bunch of products and services from the same place. I’m sure there’s value in that, I just don’t know how much, especially when it’s not particularly hard to find better deals.
For example, they sell EPCs for £86, my affiliate partner energyperformancecertificates.co.uk sell them from £59.
While I’m having a whinge, I may as well go all out and comment on their truly bizarre website. If you actually visit their homepage, you wouldn’t actually think they’re anything more than a landlord blog/magazine, as opposed to a one-stop shop. Baffling. But I guess that’s neither here nor there.
Tenant-find services (OpenRent still continue to reign supreme)
I ‘spose this is a bittersweet moment, well at least for me it is, because I get to walk away saying “I called it“. When Mashroom launched in 2021 with their alluring free tenant-find service, I was vocal about how I thought it was 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 shining.
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.
Thank you for your service.
Since Mashroom have thrown in the tenant-find towel, they will no longer be able to assist landlords that are in need of standalone tenant-find services, facilitating with Rightmove & Zoopla listings in order to generate enquiries.
Fortunately, I don’t think this is a world-destroying moment for landlords, because we still have OpenRent (whom I’ve always considered to be the better choice anyways) and several other online letting agents that are still in business, offering low and fixed-cost tenant find services.
My conclusion: do I continue to support & recommend Mashroom?
I don’t know, I think so.
I’ve obviously had to rummage through all my blog posts where I featured their “free tenant-find” service and remove them, which was very annoying in itself, and going forward I’m very unlikely to give much exposure to their current line of products, because as said, I don’t see anything unique or special about them.
However, Mashroom does offer a wide range of on-demand services conveniently available in one place, all at what I’d consider fair prices. But again, they’re not the only ones that do that e.g. LettingAproperty.com (and they also offer tenant-find and managed letting packages).
As mentioned, I do value convenience, I just don’t know how much in this case. I guess it’s subjective to the end-user.
If I had to sum up my thoughts, I’d put it like this: I wouldn’t discourage anyone from using Mashroom’s services, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to encourage anyone either.
Ultimately, I think Mashroom set out to disrupt the market with an insanely attractive offer. However, reality soon set in, and they discovered that providing freebies is not profitable or easy, especially when you have to contend with Rightmove & Zoopla marketing fees. Consequently, they swiftly pivoted, opting for a mediocre offering that likely generates higher revenue and is simpler to manage. They’ve essentially transitioned into a brokerage model, earning a commission from each product they sell.
(I know, I’ve killed the word “mediocre” in this post, but I honestly feel like it’s the word that best describes the situation.)
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, and I’ve always appreciated that – so my thoughts aren’t personal or intended to be malicious, but rather unapologetically objective.
I’m done.
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
Disclaimer: I'm just a landlord blogger; I'm 100% not qualified to give legal or financial advice. I'm a doofus. Any information I share is my unqualified opinion, and should never be construed as professional legal or financial advice. You should definitely get advice from a qualified professional for any legal or financial matters. For more information, please read my full disclaimer.
LOL, brilliant!
I'm not due to find new tenants yet but I might give them a try when the time comes. Thanks for the info as always x