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

The transactional estate agents do …. but the successful ones do something different. Those Estate Agents instead sell the idea of somebody moving to the next chapter of their life in their new home. They sell the ‘stories’ about their new home, and what it will do for new owners life with summer nights on the patio, the local Bistro down the road that you can pop down to on a Saturday morning with the family, pick up the fresh bread from the Deli, the Country pub, the freedom of  having ones front door. You are going to say .. “that’s all Bo**ocks Chris” .. of course it is .. I agree with you .. yet this Bo**ocks works  (and no, I’m talking about having flowery brochure descriptions here either) There are substantially more people interested in the idea of moving home, the decoration, the location, the lifestyle etc etc than there are people who own a house and want to sell it. Yet, if you are an Estate Agent you might say well yes Watkin, sure, so...

Estate Agencies are selfish, self-interested and self-centred beings as t hey are an entity, a singular company, a thing created as a notion and idea about itself. An estate agents marketing just talks about itself and it sells its agency services only talking about itself.  (don’t believe me – look at you website or free val vendor pack .. if its all We and Us – then you do do that) .. and so as estate agents, most of us spend loads of money on our marketing .. spending £2k a month Rightmove Optimiser packages, hundreds of pounds on S.E.O a month, hundreds of pounds on targeted banner ads on Facebook and press releases about ourselves… and yet it’s all about us Meaning Estate Agents aren’t good at telling stories beyond themselves. Yet, ask most estate agents, and they want potential clients (ie vendors and landlords) to seek out and desire THEIR estate agency. To an estate agency, their estate agency service’s is the client’s goal. But let’s be frank with each oth...

Back in the 1990's you just had to open your lettings and estate agency and they would come... because the house seller or landlord had few choices of agent, estate/letting agents didn’t need to give them a reason to use them .. in fact they were the new boys (or girls) in town .. so everyone tried them .. the honeymoon period .. because they were new It's now 2018 and agents up and down the Country are mourning the death of the old ways of estate and letting agency, and only  some are now realising that fact High Street or Online, Indy or Corporate ... it doesnt matter. Back then, they might have only been a handful of agents in your town, now there are 52 ... and your new agency is just the 53rd agent .. and next week the 54th agent will open.. and next month 55th .. and so on and so forth. You need to give people a reason to listen to you and what your agency offers. Its just people ignore advertising and don't like to sold to... but that is what we are doing wit...

Looking at other people’s clothes, cars, watches etc .. their lives must be better than my life - I wish I was them. The human trait of envy .. comparing ourselves to others is really a disheartening waste of time, efforts, mind space, thoughts and positive energy-  and this is where we as agents compare ourselves with our competitor agents Don’t get me wrong, it’s essential to know what your competition is doing in the Estate/Letting Agency game in your town, because that is called market research Yet there is a thin line to be drawn between the awareness of your competition and it turning into some kind of obsession. Awareness makes you communicate and express your agency’s value and bring your thoughts and notions to the people in your distinctive and matchless way, whilst my intuition tells me - go too far into awareness and it turns into obsession, which results in irrational anxiety, insecurity, misgiving and ultimately … paralysis. Most of you r...

Your Town doesn’t need another estate agency Your City unquestionably doesn’t need another letting agency Your Patch most certainly doesn’t need another local property [expert/professional/specialist] Your Manor doesn’t give a f**k about your “a couple years ago, I thought that had to be a different way to sell houses…” sales pitch. Why? Because people are trying to sort their own $h*t out Their world is in various states of turmoil Everyone’s perception is that are being shafted by their family, friends, neighbours, employers, or some or all of them. They don’t get paid enough, they work too many hours, they don’t get the recognition, they are under too much stress, don’t get enough sleep, unappreciated, miserable, victimised, abused and left screwed down by their very reality. So, sorry .. just because you are just one of twenty three estate agency’s in your town, and you have lovely Rightmove Pie Charts saying you are No.1 in sales or you have won this ...

Some Estate + Letting Agents don't even get started on social media because they’re overwhelmed with trying to be on every social media channel .. all at the same time. Let me give you a huge tip .. Start with Facebook - everyone is on that from the age 30 upwards .. which is the demographic of house owners. Next, Linkedin .. as that is business people (demographic of landlords) .. after that .. you can do others - but not at the expense of the first two

Estate Agency in the future will be simpler, quicker and more affordable, powered by data driven tech that eliminates the difficulty and friction of today’s obdurate processes. Those agents that recognise that and see their job as not transactional, as just ‘selling another house to hit the numbers, but sees their role as a guide, a trusted professional who appreciates and supports each and every client, as the homeowner goes from one part of their life to another, working to diminish their stress and squeeze maximum value of the move for all parties (not just themselves) .. those will be the winners