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

I know a number of people who have decided to start their own estate and letting agents from the comfort of their own kitchen table in the last few months. They believe they can start a lettings/estate agency business and make it succeed because they are an awesomely good lister, and so that will make them an overnight success. Yes, you might be a ‘Lady of Listings’, the ‘Caesar of the Conversion Rates’,   the ‘Maharajah of Market Appraisals’, the ‘Lord of Listings’, the ‘Prince of Puttn’ng’ dem on da market’.... but are you a good free valuation generation machince. 

Without a doubt, there's an agent in your town who lists more than you, if you are part of a group or chain, there will be an office that has a higher profit or some other target. There will be a negotiator in your office who gets paid more. There will be a fellow manager who gets praised a little too much for the contribution they do. There will a competitor agent with more followers on Twitter or more likes and more of just about anything you'd like to measure.  Estate or lettings agency like a game of Top Trumps, isn’t it? (wiki link for those who need reminding about Top Trumps)

Really? If you are going to have a cause, at least make it a worthwhile one like ridding the world of poverty and disease. Maybe you started your estate agency (and lettings at that) because you thought you could do a better job than your old boss .... you wanted to prove them wrong. Sorry, they dont give a **** about you, so why should you about them? OK, you did it to improve the lifestyle of your family, so they could have the fancy holidays and big houses and cars? Nope .. you started your agency for yourself.  Starting your own business is important(important to you .. and your Mum but she would be proud whatever you did) and if you are doing something important, you are working to make change happen.

Be honest, nobody really knows the right answer, nobody knows exactly what will happen, nobody, not even EasyProp, eMoov or House Simple with their millions can produce the future they want, on demand. Now I know some people are better at speculating than others ... but not by much. The people who are supposed to know rejected James Dyson when he peddled his vacuum cleaner, Hewlett-Packard and Atari both rejected a couple of chaps called Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak   when they presented their home computer to them. Decca rejected the Beatles and just about every record company rejected Ed Sheeran because he was slightly chubby and ginger.   Even Warren Buffet, the billionaire entrepreneur made a $100 billion mistake in the late 1960’s by buying his insurance business through the publically listed Berkshire Hathaway instead of his own investment partnership hedge fund.   Had he bought it the other way, he would be worth $170 billion not the $70 ...

Here is a straightforward and easy marketing strategy for the smaller letting and estate agents, trying to compete in a town, full of big corporate or well established (but lazy) independents 1.        Treat your client like they were the only   client in the world 2.        Care ... and mean it 3.        Be flexible ... rules are meant to bendy 4.        Without fail, show up on time, every time. 5.        Make sure you keep your promises. 6.        Be human by being kind. 7.        Go the extra mile, no hold on .. go the extra two miles 8.        Say yes. 9.        Listen 10.    Smile. Not every client deserves this sort of treatment, not every client will appreciate this ...

Under the Deregulation Bill 2015, the Government slipped in a little piece of legislation that will affect many estate and letting agents up and down the UK. The ramifications will drive a wooden steak through the heart of many agents, leading some commentators to say it was introduced as a vote winner in time for the 2020 general election . From the 1 st of November 2015, under Schedule 4 of the Act, paragraph 56, subsection J, point 32 ... it will be illegal for any estate agent or letting agent to publish either Rightmove Pie Charts or For Sale Board analysis bar charts if ..... and I quote, “ Should an agent insert smug comments about how wonderful they are next to the graphs, (or any other adjective pertaining to that fact) , the aforementioned agent shall be either sent to prison for a minimum of 30 days or perform 300 hours of un-Community-like Service and be forced to drop ‘landlords wanted ’leaflets, but only on wet and cold days in the winter months ”   Ok, I...

I suspect that deep down inside, if given the choice most letting and estate agents would ditch the whole social media thing and just go for the kill because the social media and engaging with potential clients is hard and takes too much time. We live in a society with a mindset of wanting (and nearly getting) everything "right now".  Technology has made gathering or sending information extremely fast and we've begun to think that everything in life should be available on demand. We are always ready for instant gratification and if we don't have to be patient, we as human beings wont be... and that includes us agents. .. but you know as in life and relationships .. anything worth having require time, persistence and bucket loads of patience.