'The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.' Albert Einstein
Let’s face it, the estate and letting agency business has changed. Now people can search for property without having to step foot into agencies anymore (with the advent of the tinterweb and the portals). Hardly anyone puts themselves on mailing lists now (paper ones) .. and thus, agents haven’t got people they can get listings off. The work of estate and letting agents has changed. People used go into agents offices for brochures .. info on the property .. but now they don’t need to. The number of face-to-face interactions with our potential customers (house sellers and landlords) has declined.
As a result, to be
more successful, you agents will need to step outside your usual agency circles
to be more visible to those who matter. Raising your visibility and developing
a reputation in your town will be vital if you want to grow your business ....
i.e. getting more people to ask you to market their property for let or sell.
This can bring estate and letting agents outside their
natural comfort zone, and therein lies the challenge. Agents and the work we do
has to change rapidly with a changing world, but are we, letting and estate
agents willing to adapt to those changes as well and quickly enough to remain
relevant?
So how can we become part of the community, to make
ourselves the agent of choice, the agent everyone thinks of when it comes to
buying, selling and renting property? The
answer is to become involved in the
community and become your town’s guru of property. .. and here is the best bit
.. the British love property! I am not asking you to be the guru of accountancy
in your town (that’s boring), and I am not asking you to be the guru of
shopping trolley design (dullsville) ... I am asking you to become the guru of
your local property market.
.. but being a guru isn’t talking about what you have sold,
being a guru isn’t talking home staging or that you need scatter cushions on a
viewing, being a guru isn’t talking about how long it take to sell or let a
property, being a guru isn’t talking about changes in property law (s8 vs s21-
awesome ..not!), being a guru isn’t telling people how many awards you have
won, being a guru isn’t gimmicky market with high heel shoes next to for sale
boards, a guru isn’t saying look at our new for sale board or business cards,
and guru’s don’t ask for the business by saying ‘Need help with the successful
Letting & Management of your property?’
Being a property guru is
all about giving. It’s also about how giving will come back to you many times
over. Trust me on this, there is nothing
loopyloo or funnyfarm about this snizzle. This giving lark is based on universal
laws and principles that have stood the test of time. Everyone has heard of the
saying, “Give and you shall receive.” Many have seen this
principle operating in their lives .. so why not in lettings and estate agency?
The give and receive stuff is simply one manifestation of the law of cause and
effect.
Sometimes this rule shows itself almost straight away; other
times, it takes months and years. Sometimes the result comes directly from the
cause, and other times indirectly. Some people seem to experience the results
of this law more tangibly and in ways easier to understand than do others. But
we all know intuitively that this law works.
Why does this law work? Why do we receive so abundantly when
we give? You see when you sell your lettings or agency
service, although you would go out of
business if your service cost you more than you took in financially, you can
actually provide a service that adds more value to those landlords or house
sellers lives than the fees they paid for it, while making a profit at
the same time.
.. but the principle works even better when someone isn’t a
client. All of you want more properties to sell or manage... an awful lot of
you read this blog. It costs you nothing to visit the blog bar a few pennies in electricity and an internet
connection, but, if the ideas in this blog enable to list a few more properties,
you will gain thousands of pounds in fees and you personally will earn more
commission. Many of you read this blog and don’t use my services ... I can see
some doing it very well, some not so well... but either way, I give advice for
free - why?.. because many of you have contacted me and asked me to work for
you or train you in the techniques.
...and that is how you should do it. You should set up a
blog about the local property market. I can tell you how to get hundreds of
visitors to your blog on a daily basis and I can tell you how to convert those
visitors into landlords and vendors ringing you to ask for opinion, advice and
free valuations.
Now a lot of you are doing it .. good for you I say. Some of
you are brilliant at doing it ... really brilliant and some of you .. well
let’s say no more. Like I always say, pick up the phone and talk to me... here
is my number 07950 147 572 if you want me to give you my honest opinion. I will
tell you if you are any good... in fact there is on guy in Oxfordshire and
another in Buckinghamshire who now give me ideas .. I use their ideas for my
clients – a true example of the “give to receive” principle -and we are all in this business together.
That aside, if you
want me to do this for you, make you the property Guru of your town, make
landlords ring you up, make homeowners want you to sell their house, then we
really need to speak. .. the number is above.