Clan Gordon Letting Agents Staff Spotlight – Carrie Morrison, New Business Co-ordinator  

Carrie started as the New Business Co-ordinator at Clan Gordon in February 2025, moving across from a role in lettings administration, where she started at Clan Gordon in October 2022. 

She said: “I knew somebody who worked at Clan Gordon previously and had recommended it. I had always had customer-facing roles before so it was a bit different moving into the admin side but it’s good, there’s a supportive team here and you’re always learning. 

“I had no property experience before coming here, although my dad was a chartered surveyor so I was familiar with that world.” 

Carrie works closely with Business Development Manager Hannah Doig and is one of the first people new landlords come into contact with when they work with Clan Gordon. 

She has a varied role which involves helping landlords go through the necessary checks, reviewing their ID, booking maintenance jobs on the Fixflo system, attending first inspections on properties, organising marketing photos, sending agency agreements out and generally keeping everything flowing in the right direction for new landlords. 

Carrie said: “Hannah is usually the first person from Clan Gordon that new landlords meet. And then once they are ready to come on board with us, that’s when everything moves over to me to start the process of getting them onboarded. 

“We work well as a team during that process to get them through to their first inspection, we start marketing the property online and then pass it over to lettings once it’s ready for viewing.” 

Getting a property on the market is usually a quick process for Clan Gordon, depending on the needs of the landlord. 

Carrie said: “It can be all sorted in as little as a couple of weeks, it just depends how quickly landlords want to move. 

“If they’re switching from another agency that can sometimes slow things down, depending on what contracts they’ve got or if they’ve got tenants in situ. It may be that the property needs a bit of work and the landlord needs time to raise funds but generally it’s a quick process. 

“That said, sometimes landlords touch base a year in advance, just thinking out loud about their plans and getting an idea of our costs and our services.” 

It’s not uncommon for landlords to be nervous when they’re getting an agency involved, especially if it’s the first time they’ve done it. Luckily Carrie and our team are on hand to make it a smooth process. 

Carrie said: “It’s all about making people feel confident that they’ve made the right decision so we hold their hands in the early days. 

“Landlords who have switched from a different letting agent can find their property is no longer meeting Repairing Standard or they don’t have the right certifications. It’s a difficult message to give them that maybe getting their property on the market might be a bit more costly than they first assumed. 

“But we also give them a positive message – OK, it might be a bit more expensive than you thought but we’re going to get you some fantastic tenants lined up. 

“There aren’t huge issues initially very often. When we first meet new landlords, we usually have a first inspection where we look at the fuseboard and the major areas to make sure the property’s not too far away from being fit for tenants. 

“Sometimes people won’t have grasped the rules around things like lead water pipes for example so that can come as a shock. But I think as a team we do quite well to make sure it’s very clear. We always tell them what to expect around safety standards in our first emails.” 

With so many properties and new landlords coming to Clan Gordon every year, Carrie has her work cut out keeping on top of the admin. But she does have some tricks up her sleeve. 

She said: “We have a tick list for every property so everything runs as seamlessly as possible. Everything goes by the same process to keep it simple for us. 

“Once I’ve handed over to lettings, I’m still happy to speak with a landlord and give a wee bit of information or help so it’s good to build up a rapport and not just treat them as another landlord coming through the system.” 

Carrie views Clan Gordon’s continued success as the result of a team effort. 

She said: “I think there’s 18 of us now and we’ve just recently moved office as well, which is quite nice because we were separated previously in different rooms. It’s been lovely to come in and speak to each other a bit more. 

“Now there is more time spent together. It’s nice to be able to have a chat and a laugh and know more about what’s going on with each other. We’re all quite small teams which make up the larger team so you get to know everyone individually, which is good. 

“Everyone gets on really well, we’re all at different stages in life, some are single with no children, some people are new mums and dads, some people are a bit older with grown-up kids, but everyone’s able to chat and have a laugh. 

“I think when we go into work we’re all wanting to do our best and we all enjoy the job we do. There’s a very human approach to it rather than processes and ‘computer says no’, which is really nice.” 

For Carrie, her highlight so far at Clan Gordon has been the move to a new role which has given her fresh insights on the business and more variety in her work. 

She said: “I was ready for a new challenge and it’s been nice to see another side of the work we do. I was dealing with landlords previously but it was in a tenant-facing role, dealing more with tenant referencing. 

“It’s good to see another area of the business that I hadn’t quite seen behind the scenes and get to understand how that all works – timescales and what’s involved in getting properties ready. 

“Getting out and about, seeing properties and doing the marketing, I really enjoy that.” 

What one thing would Carrie change about the industry if she had the chance? 

“I’d look at some of the legislation,” she says. “There’s some rules which seem quite clear cut but they can maybe be a wee bit more grey than they seem. 

“That’s why we have our best practice to make sure anything that seems like it could be coming up, we’re nipping in the bud and getting it dealt with before it could potentially become an issue. 

“There’s always lots of rumours about what might be happening for landlords in terms of rent freezes and other things and it’s easy to be blindsided by them, especially for a new landlord. 

“They’ve got a property and it’s an investment for them, they want someone to take care of it and they want a tenant they can work really nicely hand-in-hand with. But it seems to me that at some points landlords don’t always get the nicest deal out of it with some of the legislation that comes over the hill. 

“It’s great to protect tenants because loads of people rent in Edinburgh but I think it’s important that landlords are treated fairly as well. Sometimes they seem to have a little bit less control of the properties than maybe they used to. 

“It’s somebody’s home and they’re presenting it to someone else to live in so you want that hand-in-hand relationship between landlord and tenant but sometimes I think it is frustrating for landlords when, for example, they weren’t able to increase rents after the pandemic even if their own mortgages were going up.” 

If somebody was looking to move into the lettings industry, what advice would Carrie give them? 

She said: “It’s always important in this job to remember that there’s two points of view in each landlord/tenant mechanism and finding a happy medium between them is really important. 

“Also, you cannot get away from difficult conversations – but sometimes it’s about how you have that conversation, whether it’s with a landlord or a tenant or a contractor. 

“It’s so important to stay positive, keep patient and make sure each party within that discussion is going to feel supported. Don’t get your back up and be open to improvements yourself where you can take feedback on.” 

Carrie was born and raised in Helensburgh on Scotland’s west coast. What does she make of Edinburgh? 

“I came here for university and never left! I think Edinburgh is still a bit of a magic city for people. You still meet people who just love the city, always fancied living here and had no specific reason to move here. 

“We’ve got the Water of Leith, there’s so many green spaces and then you’ve got really nice architecture that looks very European. The history is incredible and you can never find your way on the map because you’re on top of another street at times. 

“So it’s very quirky. And being from close to Glasgow, it’s got a very different vibe from Glasgow, which I also love. 

“Rents have always climbed here, I think they’ve stabilised a little bit but I don’t see them coming down any time soon. There has been a lot of changes with Airbnbs which has put more properties on the market. 

“So actually, you’re seeing that tenants have a lot more choice than even this time last year so they’re looking at all their options. There’s lots of choice and it is still really, really busy.” 

And finally, where does Carrie see herself in 2030? 

“I think still working in lettings and property and still meeting landlords and tenants and enjoying my job, really, getting out and about. This area is still really fresh for me. I think I’ll still be getting my teeth into it and seeing how that can grow. 

“It’s all about growing. We all really know Edinburgh and we know our tenants and landlords quite well. We’re growing but we still remember everyone’s names.”