I want to be an Estate Agent

nelly_2

Personal Reasons for wanting to be an Estate Agent...
1. I love residential property, viewing houses and flats of all shapes and sizes.
2. I enjoy working with the general public and offering a service that is second to none.
3. I want to be my own boss, and to be able to build up a business that will offer a comfortable lifestyle.

Why not be a plasterer then

Financial_Savvy

Hi all,

Has anybody had any experience in selling their home without using an estate agent?

I fancied trying to sell our home (when the time comes) with a for sale board and a website showing signnificant detail of the property.

The idea of saving £1000 + VAT on fees appeals at the moment.

A member of my family sold their house to the next door neighbour and still had to pay the estate agent fees. Another reason why a DIY sale would be good.

Thanks

digp

try https://www.fsbo-uk.co.uk

Jorgan_2

If you are serious at becoming an Estate Agent then you need to get some hands on experience, at least two to three years. Go and work for one of the large firms of Estate Agents,they can provide you with training in all aspects of the job, for about two years, then go and work for an independant Agency for a year to give you a good grounding.

Another reason for getting three years experience is that you will have experience of working in a post HIPS environment & all the issues this creates should be sorted.

Once you have done this, and you still want to go ahead with your own agency all the best I hope it works out.

As an an agent with 14 years experience I have worked with many people who love property & dealing with members of the public. Many haven't made it past 6 months. They don't like the hours, they are not earning as much money as they thought they would and despite what many people think, it is hard work.

Sleepy_2

Update...

We went to a Franchising Exhibition on Saturday at the G-Mex in Manchester. I spoke to both Your Move and to Bairstow Eves.

I have arranged to have meetings with both YM & BE - and at this stage, I think that I am going down the route of a Franchise, as opposed to being an independent for the support they offer (training, HIPS, etc) and also the potential of additional income via other streams through Commission (Mortgages, Financial Advice, Spanish Homes).

Both YM & BE have advised that they can assist with obtaining the financing, locating premises and even helping to recruit experienced EA to assist.

I've had my ears bashed by both Franchisors as to the benefits of choosing Franchising, and why choosing their particular Franchise is the better option - but would anyone like to balance the scales and give me an ear-bashing as to why an Independent would be the right move ?

AndrewSmith

Independant means that you do not have all the restrictions placed on you by the corperate parent company, such as minimum fee targeting, using only their financial services company or representatives.

However being part of a large nationally recognised brand such as you move, you instantly have presence and recognition, also nobody need know that you have only just set up in estate agency, more like a national brand opening a new office.

I would say, as per my previous post, get in with a large corperate first, learn the basics of the trade and get a good knowledge of proceedures etc. After I had a good understanding of how it all works then I would consider franchising.

Going employed initially is the best option as you have no investment to lose.

I would only consider becoming an independant agent after I had built a good personal reputation in the chosen town as a good honest agent. Over a cycle of say 4 years, you will be surprised at how many 'repeat customers' you will have. Also you will then have an excellent knowledge of the local property market. Once you then set up on your own you will already be known in the area as a good agent before you open your doors for the first time.

Hope this helps

Andy

Jorgan_2

One thing to bear in mind when choosing a franchise is does the name have a presence in the area you will be working in? Being part of a network of 240 offices won't mean anything to potential clients if 239 of those offices are in the south of England & you have chosen to open in Scotland. Try & choose a franchise where there may be a local network of offices that can refer business to you. Don't just look at the big names, there are a number of 'regional' EA who are getting into Franchising as a way of expanding.

What tie ins are involved with the franchise. I know of a guy who bought a franchise with no EA experience, planned to staff it with experienced EA's & reap the rewards. Agency shut after 18 months, unable to sell on as they had got themselves a bad reputation, franchisee is tied into the deal for the next 5 years, stilll has to pay his annual fee to the parent company, the only get out clause is if he can sell it on to someone else.

If you are serious about setting up then invest some time in yourself first & go & work for an estate agency that will train you in all aspects of the job. This will help you decide if it is really for you.

lush_walrus

HHhm all I can say is be very very careful! Personally, I am not at all convinced that you are at the right stage to go into EAs (franchise or not) at the moment, you desperately need to do the job before committing any money, time or effort into setting up anything. Without being offensive, it is absolutely ludicrus to jump in with both feet to any business idea with only an outside knowledge. Imagine if someone came to you for advice in setting up a business in your field of work (with a huge set up cost) and then told you they had zero on the job experience! Dont do anything now, you have to spend time understanding all aspects of firstly the job, and secondly the business side of the job.

I know that everyone thinks that it is an easy life and a route to easy money, but its not. Dealing with people day in day out who are making a huge life desision means that you need to be ready for all things to be thrown at you, and that comes with time and experience. It could be that you have already had extensive dealings with people and have already worked out how to nutralise yourself enough to be able to a) appeal to as many people as possible and b) Remain calm when faced with someone crying, screaming, shouting, hurling abuse etc etc. Which is the reality of EAs regardless of how well you actually are equiped for the job and however honest you are. If a buyer pulls out, 20% of venders will blaime the EA as that is the only person they can get to. If a potential buyer does not have their offer accepted, again some will blame you. Of course on the up side is you will meet fantastic people, and you will get lots of rewards from seeing people get what they want, but the good sides are there, you need to be fully aware of the downsides, which without trying it you can not possibly be. As others have suggested, work for at least one agent and if your plan really is for 2 years to be set up then you will have to get in there full time, part time will not give you enough experience, as unless you are very lucky as a part time member of staff you will not learn to value, or negotiate, put forward offers etc, but will find yourself office bound dealing with basic calls.

The other thing which will take time is to find your area, if you are good then regardless of how many EAs are in an area you will still succeed, as the bottom of the pile or the one with the highest overheads etc will get pushed out. But, as a start up you will be bottom of the pile for at least a year (again if you are good) and if not it could prevail for much longer. In the meantime on a new EA coming into the game, the surrounding EAs will cut their fees and collectively snap up all new potential properties in a bid to push you out. If you don't have the funds or the skills to steam through that period, then you will be gone in a year, as pointed out earlier the overheads of EAs are huge. Baring in mind that the minimum sale is generally 6 weeks, out of all the properties you will value, some will just be getting you in to know how much their house is worth with no intention of selling, some will go with another EA and some you will win. You then need to have the potential buyers, which dont come in huge clumps but as a gradual drip feed as many spend up to a year looking. So before you are anywhere near getting a sale, all of the above will need to be in place and ready, so as a new EA to an area you will probably be looking at a few months before you even have the start of a sale, again if you are in a good area.

You will have to have a very hard hitting marketing campaign in place and running before you open your shop Probably out of 10 houses you will successfully get on your books, 1 will not sell as they are hum dingers, 1 you will loose to another EA and perhaps 1 will be a complete messer that actually has no intention of moving, so 3 out of the 10 on your books will be no sales.

Anyway I could go on and on, and at the end of the day all you actually need to do is try the job!

I, 5 years ago set up my first EAs and I can tell you, just in setting it up and getting running it cost me over £120,000 in initial set up costs before I had even opened the doors. Of course it will vary according to the part of the country you are in, but you need to allow for changing the shop (which unless you are lucky you will need to also change its use, apply for advertising consent if you want it to be illuminated, planning and along with the cost of the applications are the costs of getting the drawings done, luckily for me I did them myself as I am by profession an architect), Advertising, Staff, furniture, computers, software, etc etc.

You need to also know what the market it doing and time your set up accordingly. IF the market is dead, an established EA can and will in most cases weather the storm, a new one cant. So you need to have a good idea of how the markets are, what the interest rates are doing, what the plans are for the area you are setting up in is it expanding or staying the same.

All I can say, is start learning!

AndrewSmith

Yo Lush,

Haven't seen you here for a while.

:beer:

lush_walrus

AndrewSmith wrote:

Yo Lush,

Haven't seen you here for a while.

:beer:

Good to see you Andy...Ive been a bit pushed under for a bit with work and holidays!!!! But I couldnt resist coming out for that one, just reading it scared the hell out of me! You well?