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

Every estate/letting agent has got troubles and problems.. but nobody cares your troubles and problems.. because all they care about is their own troubles and problems.. since every agent (in fact every human) in the UK (and the world) has got troubles and problems ... So stop complaining about low fees, stop groaning about how hard it is to grow market share, stop whittling about Purplebricks, stop whining about over-valuing … These are the same issues you had 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago … the players might be different .. but the stage and theatre we play on is the same….. Just get the FV, get the listing and sell or let the bl**dy house What I have learnt is this .. if you are happy with your lot in life, in estate and lettings agency – good show – contentment is something we all wish we had But if it isn’t enough … then the issue rests on your shoulders .. just get out there and put the hours in… work harder, work smarter, be more amb...

There are estate agents who cut corners better than you, work more hours than you and certainly work cheaper than you. But what would happen if you became the agent who was wiser, better at figuring out problems and cared the most?

All the good Valuers and Listers I have ever met have taken their work with sincerity, seriousness and focus . Listing matters, as it has a direct and real consequences on the estate agency business. On the other side of the coin, you can't take it personally.  When homeowner or landlord rejects your agency for another, take it on the chin, learn a lesson from why you didn’t get it. Take a look at your strategy and tactics, pre-Free Val, at the Free Val and post Free Val. If it was cheaper fees – did you really honestly prove your worth  If it was over valuing – again – did you prove your story – or did you get the homeowners story wrong? Adopt new methods on your free val, Adapt the current methods to the ever changing property market and Improve yourself    .. but remember this – you losing that new instruction it's not a reflection on your worth as a human being.  Photo Credit minina-art.blogspot

2016 was a tough year for estate agents .. too many competitors chasing too few new instructions, the scourge of over valuing to securing listings, the competition selling themselves to the lowest bidder as fees remain low. Don’t even mention the colour purple and their mates Yops .. but it made me think .. My intuition tells me the same issues were happening in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 .. ‘Hold on’  .. I thought Then I remembered my first year of estate agency, 1993 .. and whilst the players were marginally different and the landscape slightly different .. the issues of keeping and growing market share in estate agency, combating overvaluing and battling cheap fee agents was exactly the same. It reminded me of Bill Murray who played the lead role in movie called “Groundhog Day”. In the movie, Bill Murray's character is TV newsman who travels to a small town in deepest USA where they bring out a small groundhog. If the gro...

Ambition and Hardwork - that is all you need to be successful in estate and lettings agency isn't it?  Maybe? I see so many ambitious new start Estate/Letting Agents, believing they will take over their town's market in a matter of months .. but arent prepared to put in the hardwork They are wanting to be anointed, be the winner, be fastest growing agent, be the biggest agent in their town  before they have actually done  it  ..  That is an issue with everyone today  ...  Everyone wants it now. It's society .. we now have instant information (internet), instant shopping (amazon), instant dating (tinder), instant TV (Netflix) .. and you 25 to 35 year olds .. you millennials, with shed loads of ambition, who want to start your own agency,  want it all now , as you have come to expect it in all other aspects of your life .. including the setting up and succeding up your new lettings and estate ag...

Some house sellers will always want the cheapest estate agent, regardless of what it actually ends up costing them.  Accept that.  It's economics.  It's the real world. It happens in every market, cars holidays to basically everything that people buy and sell .. and now it's come to estate agency with PB and Yopa. So what do you do?  Either join them and have a cheap estate agency model, or up your game. Charge more because you are worth it.  Yet do you think Waitrose and M'n'S are worried about Lidl or Aldi - no because they have up'd their game .. gone boutique .. gone high class .. and people will pay .. and people will pay top dollar for your agency .. if you can prove it

Estate/Letting Agents - Everyone wants to be anointed, be the winner, be fastest growing agent, be the biggest agent in their town before they have actually done it .. there are only two variables to success in lettings and estate agency .. hard work and patience

Social proof is important in marketing .. and I can see why the likes of Purplebricks and Yopa are using Trust Pilot and other such review websites to market themselves – social proof ( ie people saying things and giving marks out of five ). In fact, it appears to me both hybrid estate agents have dropped their reliance on TV advertising (which they used for their brand awareness), and it seems their marketing appears to be a lot more focused on the ‘social proof marketing strategy’ instead. I think that is very clever .. but I want to add a note a caution to them both on the use of such social proof website (and any other firm be they estate agent or not) .. for two reasons. Who starts a review but doesn’t post it? My good lady wife loves looking on TripAdvisor for a hotel room when we need to travel around the UK on business. Looking at the one and two star reviews is her passion. One 1star review has a stronger weighting than a hundred 5star reviews. So recently, we ...

One way to get new instructions and stock is to pick up second hand stock from agents out of sole agency. In fact, on Page 1 of ‘The Dummies Guide To Get Yourself More Stock for Your Estate Agency”, it tells you to hit these low hanging fruit. Leaflets, Letters .. old school biz gen at its best! But have you ever stopped to wonder why people who are out of sole agency agreements don’t swap agents anywhere near as much as they did 10 years ago? 10 years ago – pop a leaflet through a door and you’d get it (the new instruction) before you got back to the office .. but nowhere near as much today? Why? Ask yourself this question – Are your leaflets and marketing material campaigns house-seller serving or self serving to you as an agent? Honestly? Go and get that leaflet or series of touting letters you send out and ask yourself this second question – Look at them .. its all about you .. isn’t it? Are you telling yourself its Ok to send these le...