How To Get More People To Use Your Lettings and Estate Agency Blog

definition of a lemming ..  ..    a person who unthinkingly joins a mass movement, especially a headlong rush to destruction. If you are an agent, why do follow the set path that every other agent does to try and drum up business? All of you go on two of the three main portals, all of you have a website that if you changed the background colours and name of your agency at the top, they would be identical, all of you have boards, all of you are the same. In the crowded marketplace, where there are 20, 30, 40, 50+ agents in your town, fitting in is a failure, because not standing out is the same as being invisible. That’s the difficulty you have with having so many competitors, is that it takes away the requirement to set your own path, to invent your own method, to find a new way. If you are an agent, be it lettings, be it estate agency, don’t be lemming like, don’t unthinkingly join a mass movement, especially a headlong rush to jumping off the...

Setting up your own business, be it an estate agency, be it a lettings agency or my case, a company that helps letting and estate agents get more landlords and vendors to use their agency (ie a freelance business generation), is hard work.   When you were an employee, you had to listen to a ogre (your boss) tell you things that you thought were wrong, incorrect etc etc ... let me tell you, being your own boss is just the same, you still have to listen to that ogre’s voice, it’s just that the ogre is the voice in your head! I have been self employed now for just over a year and half and at the start it was hard work, really hard work. Now the business is starting to do well, the issues of wondering if there will be enough business walking through the proverbial door has been replaced with another problem/issue. A problem/issue which I believe many letting agents and in some respect, estate agents suffer from .... self discipline or as I like to call it, self-control. W...

Let me tell you a story, a story that happens every day up and down our fair land, in estate and lettings agency offices from John o’Groats to Lands End... Ring ring ... ring ring (goes the phone   .. lovin’ the sound effects) .. to which the caller asks, “How much do you charge?”. Now at this point, most people will give the standard reply, “Well Sir/Madam, that depends on a number of factors including valuation, marketing package and other factors”. However, if the caller then says, “Don’t you want my business, just tell me your fees ”, most agents will buckle and tell them. “1.2% + VAT to sell and 10% + VAT fully managed”,   “Thank you. I have your fees now and I will be getting back to you soon.” Does that sound familiar? Can you honestly say your negs don’t EVER mention fees? 100% of the time? Just because the prospective landlord or vendor is asking for your fees, doesn’t mean you have to say them. You see, estate and letting agents, misguidedly me...

  If you want some fun, go to Goggle and type in either “I hate estate agents” or “I hate letting agents” and you will given pages and pages of vile swipes at our industry .. some deserved, others not. But why do you think us agents get lumped in the other hated British professions; such as Double Glazing salesmen, Solicitors, Parking Wardens and Bankers?  I believe it comes down to professionalism ( ie   a lack of it) However, you ask every agent if they are professional, and 100% of them will say yes.   In fact, under the Estate Agents Act 1979, Part 6, Paragraph G, subsection 45b, it is set in statute that when an estate agent produces an A5 flyer for their business, as well as emblazoning the flyer the with the mandatory messages; such as No Sale, No Fee and Free Advertising, Low fees and Best Price achieved; not many agents realise it is the law, punishable by 20 years in prison, if you also don’t put on the your leaflet “Professional Service” ...