If you are an agent, planning to open an new office, you
have a number of ways of launching, but let me tell you one thing .. don’t try
and outfox the masters of a new office opening .. Foxton’s. You can’t copy what
Foxton’s do .. you haven’t got their budget, you haven’t got their fabled
database, you haven’t got their brand name, their ability to sustain 0% for
months and months, their self centred (said in a good way) belief that they are
the best .. and they truly believe they
are.
No, if you want to open an office, don’t try and play the Foxton’s game .. play YOUR game. Instead of renting out an expensive £30k a year retail unit, spending £40k on a refit, then staffing it up at a cost of £10k a month, portal costs at £2k a month and then offering 0% fees for 6 months .. try this ... (cont'd below)
Spend no more than a few hundred pounds per month for six months doing this ....
Never ever try to out-Foxton
Foxton’s.
When someone, like Foxtons, stakes out the boundaries to
opening a new office, showing the absolute limits, you Mr and Mrs Letting and
Estate Agent are foolish to attempt a pale imitation.
No, if you want to open an office, don’t try and play the Foxton’s game .. play YOUR game. Instead of renting out an expensive £30k a year retail unit, spending £40k on a refit, then staffing it up at a cost of £10k a month, portal costs at £2k a month and then offering 0% fees for 6 months .. try this ... (cont'd below)
Spend no more than a few hundred pounds per month for six months doing this ....
If homeowners are only interested in THEIR property or any
property in the immediate vicinity of THEIR property ie THEIR street or the next few streets (because anything in their
immediate area that sells/rents/comes on the market has a direct relationship
to the value of THEIR property), instead of doing “LOOK WHAT WE HAVE SOLD”
leaflets or offering 0% fee deals, why not write a newsletter, a monthly
newsletter on the housing market in just those five to ten streets.
A different
newsletter every month popped through the letter box of every property in just
those five to ten streets, talking about those five to ten street’s property
market, how prices in those five to ten streets are comparing with the rest of
the suburb or town, how rents have changed over the years, how three beds have
increased by 34% in the last four years but two beds by 29% .. trust me you
will never run out of things to say... because there is nothing more
interesting and relevant to a homeowner, than if you talk about something THEY
are interested in.
Does it work? The
early pilot has been rather embarrassing .. I said the agent wouldn’t get
anything for six months ..... she went and got four properties within a month
.. in a specific area ( no more than 6 streets with a total of 629
properties)...But I suppose it’s good to be proved wrong sometimes .. but I
will stand by my prediction, drip feed this leaflet every month then open up in
six months time .. hit the ground running so hard, you will have a flood of
free valuations .. and all at the full agency rate.
Want to see what the leaflet looks like? Want to know why
it’s so powerful? Why we believe it will get you, within six months, called out
to nearly every free valuation in that area, then give me a call.
Who knows, you might just be able to outfox the fox?