I want to be an Estate Agent

AndrewSmith

Very well,

The year has begun in a very busy way, nearly 50 website enquiries in the first 3 weeks of January,

Eased off a bit now to a more manageable level, should keep me busy for the next couple of months.

You? Hows Biz?

financial_filly

Not a lot to add really except to say that i think Lush has offered some very good advise as have others with regard to the first thing you should do is get some experience inEA before you begin to set up on your own.

I worked for an independent ea for a couple of years before leaving to start a family. It is hard work, certainly not a way of earning a lot of money quickly and you do have to be able to deal with buyers/sellers that shout abuse,cry and are quite nasty even though you know its not your fault they are really not bothered about that. You may think you are prepared but it can take you by surprise no matter how much experience you have.
My boss started the business after gaining a lot of experience and building a fantastic reputation for herself before she ventured solo. She had trained with a nationwide EA's and learnt everything before she made the (very brave) decision and set up her very successful EA.
The list you gave of what you want your EA to be are very good ones and a lot of EA's do already try to achieve this and its not always their fault when things go wrong. But i think working for an EA's would give you not only the experience that i think you need but also a huge insight into what are practical services to offer and what could put you out of business.
Sorry for the long post and sorry for wandering into an area i dont normally post in as i dont feel i can offer too much advise after being out of ea work for a few years now.

lush_walrus

Sorry me again, just wanted to make a couple of other points regarding your approach to changing EAs.

Honesty, well thats fine, most good agents do attempt this in regards to sales etc. But honestly across the board is far more complex. For example, you value a property, its a complete dump but the vendors think its the bees knees..What do you do, tell them the truth, ie they have absolutely not a chance in hell of selling it because of x, y and z, or say nothing comitting yourself to either direction. I guarantee you within a few months of dealing with the public, you will say nothing and let them think what they think already. If you don't and say exactly the truth with no bends in it at all, pretty soon you will find yourself with nothing to sell. People do not like to hear the truth, despite what they say, its the same as the typical question 'does my bum look big in this'...If it looks huge who in their right mind is going to say yes!.

Advising people of what to do with their house to make it saleable: Simular to above, the cold reality is that some people think that their smoke stained walls are fine, you tell them that they need them to be magnolia and off they will go to the next EA. People are all different, like different things and live to different standards. The key is to value the property in accordance with what it is worth, everything sells for the right price, telling people in a house doctor style what to do to make their house sell, will leave you open to all sorts of hassles, the obvious being, 'you advised me to paint my house, I have and it still doesnt sell' can you see my point? All good on the TV but in real life it really isnt going to work.

Working outside hours: Most EAs do, most work 6 if not 7 days a week. My EAs are open from 8 in the morning till 9 in the evening in the week, Sat 10 till 5, Sun 10 till 3. If in your area they arent open long hours, there will be a reason why, such as there is just no call for it.

Rightmove is a must, not an option, as is a good website.

Accompanied viewings: You will see why this isnt a reality the moment you work in an EA. All day phones will be going, adverts to be placed, viewings to arrange with venders, valuations to be done, letters and details to be typed, there is plenty to be done in the basic running of an EA. You will simply not have the time, nor the money to employ someone to run around all day with viewings. Some days we have 80-100 viewings booked and ours are small independants, if you go to a large EA this will escalate. Now each appointment from office to back will not be shorter than 30 mins, so work that out, on a busy day that can be in the region of 40 man hours, in one day, so imagine you all are working 10 hour days, thats 4 workers out of the office all day, doesnt work. What if all the appointments are for certain times of the day? Certain times are more popular than others, then what will you do, tell the applicant that the appointment can not be made, even though the vendor and applicatant can make the same time, only you cant? No you have to let the appointment go ahead without you.

Quality at a competitive price: Believe me you will see how competitive it really is out there when you work in it. All EAs have their eye on their competitors offers and fees, its a very competitive industry to be in. Wait till you do your figures for monthly outgoings, you will soon see how much money any EA needs just to tread water!

Good luck, if you go for it then do it properly and learn the industry first.

matttwine

digp wrote:

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

that site didn't seem to work, guess its an old link

https://www.squaremove.co.uk is good if you want to beat the fees though

Visa_king

I'd say get experiance working part time first, paying all that money out is a risk plus more and more people are selling privately now so you are also competing against companies offering free property listings! This is why Your Move has francised all its stores, they're getting itchy feet with traditional estate agency and investing their growth into the media industry. I would play safe and watch the market. Have a look a both companies years turnover, go visit library for this information and read financial times, there was an article about them a few weeks ago.