Estate and Letting Agents up and down the Country are
burying their head in the. Ignoring the fact there are too many competitor
agents .. meaning cheap fees are epidemic,
overvaluing is almost a norm to get the stock and don’t even mention about the
online/hybrid threat
When your bank balance goes overdrawn, how many of you would consciously
avoid looking at your bank statement? How many of many of you don’t tackle an
issue in your life because the trouble and strife it will cause .. meaning you
let it be .. you don’t prod the hornets nest.. you ignore it ..you let sleeping
dogs lie
Let me be frank with you .. I am guilty of
putting my head in the sand …. I do it with my weight. I also know I am overweight but I am ostrich like on that subject. It is obvious I am overweight, I am know I am over weight .. but I seem to put the issue aside. I come up with excuses.. I know should weigh myself everyday and write down what I eat and drink .. but I don’t… I know I don’t exercise enough and I know I eat and drink too much … and I also know its been proved time and time again, if you write down your exercise and intake of calories … exercise goes up and intake goes down. I know.. I have done it before and it worked .. so why don’t I now as I just put my head in the sand over my weight issue? We all have issues in out lives that we just put our head in the sand over… just like an ostrich.
putting my head in the sand …. I do it with my weight. I also know I am overweight but I am ostrich like on that subject. It is obvious I am overweight, I am know I am over weight .. but I seem to put the issue aside. I come up with excuses.. I know should weigh myself everyday and write down what I eat and drink .. but I don’t… I know I don’t exercise enough and I know I eat and drink too much … and I also know its been proved time and time again, if you write down your exercise and intake of calories … exercise goes up and intake goes down. I know.. I have done it before and it worked .. so why don’t I now as I just put my head in the sand over my weight issue? We all have issues in out lives that we just put our head in the sand over… just like an ostrich.
We are all Ostriches
You are no different, you might be over drawn and ignore the bank
statement, you might be in a crap relationship but don’t do anything about it
.. you might have a friend who treats you like dirt but you don’t do anything
about it …. all of us have issues in our personal life that we choose to ignore
… why, because we bury our heads in the sand because we feel guilty when
confronted with reality. The ostrich issue - ignoring information that can help
us - arises because of the need to avoid negative feelings.
The ostrich issue is the idea that there are times when people would
rather not know how they are doing.
You see by sidestepping the important act of scrutinising and measuring
ourselves, this allows us to escape from the negative feelings associated with
an accurate assessment and evaluation of our own progress. I would call it … ‘motivated
absentmindedness’. I know I have an issue, but choose to ignore it - I blank it out .. and many people, just like
you do just the same ..including estate and letting agency bosses.
Old and Lazy Bosses
I recent saw a cartoon of a unhappy and miserable
looking board whose CEO/Chairman is saying to the board, “instead of risking
anything new, let’s play it safe by continuing our slow decline into
obsolescence”.
I see it it all the time, from one man band agents to
big national and regional players .. their unsafe mindset, which if I am being
honest is liable to develop with age, comfort and success… but many estate and
letting agent bosses … independent and corporate (yes corporate) fall into this
category .. they are being ostrich like and putting their heads in the sand.
Perceived wisdom suggests people in their 20’s and
30’s have the drive, oomph and motivation to take risks, innovate and grow an
estate and letting agency business while maturity brings caution and the predisposition
to slow down and look for security. Some would go further and say these ‘mature’
estate and letting agents are dinosaur like, waiting to be made extinct .. and
the worst part .. some of them they deserve to be made extinct!
Is Estate and Lettings Agency a Youngman’s game?
So should all the oldie estate and letting agents just
retire, and make the profession and young mans (and ladies) game?
Not so fast, I am 45 and have a fine head of salt and
pepper hair (half normal/half grey hair) .. so I could be called a dinosaur by
you younger agents. Those of us in our 40’s, 50’s and 60’s may be called
dinosaurs as we struggle with the internet, social media and tablets and PC’s
and refuse to accept new ideas. Or at least that’s the theory because in reality
age isn’t chronological … it’s a mental state.
I would say 80% of estate
and letting agents bosses have their head in the sand and they are run by 20
something’s all the way up to 70 something’s … age has no bearing on this ..
it’s all to to with attitude. They have become successful in the past and now
are riding a wave .. .. the wave of complacency. They aren’t paddling to catch the next wave
like a surfer .. no .. they think this wave will go on forever .. its just that
even the biggest waves out at sea have to hit the shoreline sometime .. and we
all know what happens to waves when they reach land.
Complacency is UK estate and letting agency is the
No.1 threat to the industry
The danger of complacency is ever present in the world
of estate and letting agency .. I see it all the time. It can creep up on us...in
fact, more so in in lettings (than estate agency) if I’m being honest. I have
seen loads of letting agents with 200, 300, 400 managed properties on their
books who are living off the past glories of the early 2000’s, when there were
no letting agents around and any Tom, Dick or Harry could open a lettings
agency and landlords would queue outside the offices, begging you to let their
house. However, whilst the number of agents has tripled and even quadrupled in
some towns, landlords don’t tend to swap agents just like people don’t swap banks
.. these agents have become complacent. You are living off past glories … and I
don’t blame you. In fact the old adage ‘if it’s not broke don’t try to fix it’,
has meant the need to innovate and change.
.. and don’t think you estate agents are being let off
the hook. Many (not all) of the top agents in a town (those that list the most)
are only there because boards breed boards. Because the smaller agents are so
awful at marketing, the perpetual hamster wheel just keeps turning, producing
free val after free val. Not because you are awesome, have cutting edge
innovate customer service that people swoon to your doors and rave about and
tell their friends …. No its because your competitors are so rubbish at
marketing themselves, and people like sheep .. they zombie like, sheep like
come to your agency.
But the problem is, things have changed, now, instead
we are in one of the most oversupplied and competitive service industries in
the UK… the number of agents in 10 years has gone from 8,000 to 19,000 in 10
years .. but the number of properties sold each year has dropped from 1.8m to
1.2m …
and lettings doesn’t fair any better … whilst the market has doubled in
size in 20 years, the number of letting agents has quadrupled.
Real Life examples of Complacency
Many Letting and Estate Agents have become complacent
and take landlords (especially landlords) and homeowners for granted. There are
simply too many agents chasing the same landlord or homeowner to use our agency.
… let me give you some real life examples ..
Kodak was once the world
leader in film and cameras. In the mid 1970’s it sold nine out of every ten
rolls of film for cameras. Although it pioneered most developments in digital
photography in its research labs in the 1970s and further developed them in the
80’s, 90’s and 00’s, the company did not implement those innovations or exploit
those patents because it did not want to harm its film based business. At its
peak, Kodak was worth £40 billion .. it went into bankruptcy a couple of years
ago, came out the other side, only worth £400 million. .. all because they were
complacent
Nokia, was worth £110 billion
in 2007 as rode the wave of its awesome phones in early to mid 2000’s. However,
that wave crashed to the shore last year as it sold to Microsoft was £4
billion. You see whilst everyone was riding the wave, the surfboard had cracks
in it which were covered in tape. The tape covered over the cracks on its
increasing dependence on old school handsets and its own operating system.
Nokia had become complacent, lethargic and slow to react to market
developments, ignoring Android and Apple …
Not all Estate and Letting Agents
are Complacent
However, I do see the other
20% of estate and letting agents not be complacent. And again, its nothing to
do with age. Its in the mind. I have seen many agents in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s
and yes, even 70’s who have evolved, innovated, embraced technology
and kept the spirit of fun, excitement and energy that would describe a much
younger estate and lettings business.
As an industry, we have to innovate, provide outstanding quality and service, and try every trick in the book just to attract and retain landlords and homeowners. So to survive we have to be more than competitive. We have to innovate, provide outstanding quality and service, and try every trick in the book just to keep landlords and homeowners coming through the door. We have to be though leaders, return back to the time when we were seen in the same light as Solicitors and Accountants.
Over the last 20 years we have sat back,
but we can never sit back and relax or give in to caution. We must constantly
innovate, strive to do better and keep fighting…. and creating an online model to beat the the online model is not the
innovate .. it’s a retrograde step. ( see Option 1 down the page for a reason
why)
I have walked in your shoes as both an estate and
letting agent. I started as a Neg back in 1993, then Valuer and rose through
the ranks to running a huge City Centre Estate and Letting Agency operation.
Then I was lucky enough to be the National Sales Manager for 300+ branch
operation in my final years of employment and all the while, I always thought
to myself .. there has to be a better way to do this estate and letting agency
thing. There has to be a way to make the make the profession something we can
be proud of, so we are looked up to in our own respective towns... not seen as
scum of the earth glorified sales people
The embryo of an idea to save estate and letting
agency
So I set out a few years ago with a mission to change
the way estate agents and letting agents are seen as by the British
public. We are perceived in the same category
as MP’s, car salesmen and Double Glazing salesmen... being an estate and
letting agent isn’t a profession that is looked up to.
However, I used to work for independent Chartered
Surveyors in 2001, and there were a couple of Partners in their the 90’s .. yes, in their 90’s. I was having a chat
one day with them and they talked about the heyday of estate agency, they rolled
the clock back 40 or 50 years, and said
we (estate agents) were up there, in the same league as Architects, GP’s,
Solicitors and Accountants ... stopped in the street, people used to shake
their hand, people wanted to talk to them… and I thought .. why has the
profession slumped?
So I set about looking around the UK and spotted that
certain agents (not many mind you) in certain towns were still seen as the ‘go
to person on property’, the person the newspaper editor rang up every week for
a comment and I looked at what they did and they were doing some thing quite
remarkable…. Only one thing but they were doing it so well .. and reaping the
reward in terms of decent listings and decent fees, happy staff, decent sales
pipeline and exchange income, managed lettings portfolios in the many hundreds
.. but more importantly, they really enjoyed the job… they enjoyed getting up
in the morning.
UK Estate and Letting Agency’s Three Options for the
Future
What is that one thing? Well I keep preaching about it
all the time – you should know by now what it is …. but before I give you the
answer .. as an industry, I believe we
are at a crossroads and every agent has a options.
Option 1 … We
can join the ‘purplemenaces’ and commoditise our beautiful profession, we can
try and beat them by playing their own game and offering our own alternative
online offering, turning ourselves into listing agents, not estate agents,
turning ourselves from professional property managers to glorified rent
collectors. Many of you, think you should fight fire with fire,
and set up your own online-proposition, like Countrywide are doing.… but here
is the problem, what if it works, what if your own online offering takes off
and really works .. because by your online model becoming successful, you will
end up killing the very thing ( ie your High St operation) you set up your own
online proposition to protect..
Option 2 … Be a dinosaur, and ostrich like, put our heads in
the sand and hope the Yopas, EasyProps and Purplebricks will run out of money,
go bust and we can get back to our own little worlds … (but that wont happen –
PB have enough money for nearly 3 years before they go bust by which time they
will be making money and taking market share) .. the only outcome is extinction
for you .. a slow death by a thousand cuts
Option 3 … Or, be brave, recognise the world has changed, recognise
people will pay top dollar for an out of this world service and be attracted to
companies that are the best. Let’s make the profession something to be proud of
again. How many of you don’t say you are an estate agent at a dinner party or
pub, because it it isn’t worth the insults and digs?
How do you do that? Some people will
always want the cheapest thing, regardless of what it actually ends up costing
them.
But in market after market, around the
world, around the UK, the list goes on of firms that disprove the fact
people want the cheapest.
You got the Audi when Skoda make the
same car in the same factory – everyone knows it’s the same car .. but still
would you have the Audi A6 or Skoda Superb, You shop at Waitrose and Marks and
Spencer when you could shop at Asda and Morrisons … again, people know they can
getit cheaper – but they dont, You bought your furniture from John Lewis when
you could have gone to Argos – but you didnt, you bought that new £600 iphone
when the £50 Android does the same thing – but you still bought the iphone.
These firms proudly charge a few pounds more. Not merely a few pounds more
because they want to. A few more pounds .. because people believe they are worth
it... are you worth it?
So what is the
answer?
You might not like what I say. Sorry, what I say is
what I believe. If you don’t believe what I believe .. that’s your choice, you
might be right (but you could also be wrong) – it’s a free country.
But if you believe what I believe, and want to join me
and many hundreds of agents around the UK on the mission to change the way our
profession is perceived and looked upon, town by town, city by city .. then
join us and together, you and I (and the 400 other estate and letting agents)
can help you, guide you, mentor you, support you to be seen in a different
light, to be seen as the ‘goto person for property’, actually be the ‘local
property expert’ and prove it.
Yes, I did say 400 other agents .. because we are part
of an estate and letting agents cooperative. A cooperative that meats up every
six months to swap ideas, share ideas, share successes and learnings. We guide
each other, we support each other and mentor each other to be successful
The technique will make your job more enjoyable, it
will bring you in more landlords and vendors to let and sell their house. It is
hardwork mind you and takes persistence and patience (hence why the corporate’s
will never do it because they cant see past next months targets)
What is the First Step? Watch some videos of other
agents (and myself) talking about changing the way the profession is seen and
perceived and what it has dome to their lives and business .. https://goo.gl/Zzw4LN
What is the second step? Read up on what I
believe .. Over 250 articles and posts
on what I believe estate and letting agents should do to get more clients and
enjoy their job more. https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/0_0rJj6gSvqclL15sfJaQvq1
.. then, if you want a chat .. pick up
the phone .. again its your choice.
Kindest
Christopher
07950 147572
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