In 2004, there were 7,570 estate agent offices in the UK, in
2014 that number had risen to 19,304
.. problem is, in 2004, those 7,570 offices sold between them
1.78m properties whilst in 2014, 1.219m properties were sold
…. meaning in 2004, the average number of sales per estate
agency branch was 235.13 .. However, roll the clock forward to today, and with the
number of agents increasing by over 155% and lower number of property sales
(1.78m to 1.219m), the average number of sales per estate agency branch now
stands at 63.14 properties a year .. a drop of 73.2% .. and it will only get
worse
But I say this, now has never been a better time to start an
estate agency.
You don’t need huge pots of money to spend on advertising, you don’t
need an expensive high street location, fitted out to the tune of thirty to
fifty grand, you don’t need to have expensive full page adverts in the
newspaper,
If I had a £1 for every agent who comes to me who says, “I launched my agency six months ago, I had
twenty half page adverts in the newspaper, delivered 25,000 leaflets every
month, I am on Rightmove ‘all bells and whistles package’ Package that costs
two of your English grands a month, on Zoopla ‘Lasers and Glitter ball’ package
that is knocking on the door of a grand … its been costing me £6,000 a month in
marketing and now I have run out of money and don’t know what to do” … I, my blog reading friends, would be a rich
man. In fact, how many established
agents would also say this?
Trust me, it can be done for less than £1,000 to £1,500 a month in
an average sized town and you will be a major player in the town in a few years
(and if you were prepared to do some
hard work yourself .. that could could be as low £500 to £600 per month.. no
bull ..(and if you want to know how, pick up the phone if you dare and I will tell you)
Just because new agents see
other mature agents doing these things, they think they need to do these
things.
You see, recognising that there
are patterns in the estate agency (and lettings) profession is a priceless
skill that comes with practice, with the experience of observing. Observing
what works, observing what you have seen before, but just as important, observing
which of those things might not work now, today.
You see, recognition of
these patterns is so valuable, some people have mistakenly concluded that the
way to thrive and flourish in estate agency is to slavishly follow what has
been done before.
Matching what other agents
do is for amateurs and it rarely leads to the creation of much that can stand
the test of time. The real art is to look at the old patterns, adopt the good
parts but then adapt and improve them to do something new, something that resonates
with home owners and landlords alike.
So what should you do next?
Take advice from people who
can spot patterns and help you …
Iain White and Stephen Brown
at Agency Mentors http://www.agencymentors.com
Sam Ashdown http://samashdown.co.uk
Richard Rawlings http://www.estateagencyinsight.co.uk
And if you wanted to know my
thoughts on the topic, a good place to start might be my podcasts https://soundcloud.com/christopher-watkin or my YouTube channel … https://goo.gl/n5zDlN
Good luck!