Design your dream Estate Agency.

googler

potter78 wrote: »

If I tell you my budget is a max of £200k, don't only show/send me houses with asking prices of this or below. If you've got a house on the market for the last 12 months at £210-220k, why not show me the details. If I really want to see it, you can always check with the vendor to see if it's worth mine and their time.

I'm sure someone here will also hold the view;

"If I tell you my budget is a max of £200k, don't show me houses at £210-220k. I've told you my budget."

Estate_Agent

Thanks Contessa, like you're last point. We do most if not all of this already, but it will be good for me to check that we do,

Mum_of_3_3

I would like total sq mtr/ft on the details, that way you can compare more easily and also gives me an idea of how much more space the new house would give me. Also a separate sq m/ft for the garden would be fab.

A floor plan is a must as I'm rubbish at picturing layouts in my head.

I know you said that you would donate money and not the sellers, but if I was your client I would still be thinking "They could've cut £x from my fee rather than giving to charity". This is because we already have 3 charity DDs a month that go out and I'm also very picky about which charity I support, so if you gave to a charity I wouldn't normally give to then I would be even more miffed.
I Know it sounds wierd, but I would think more of a local business if they offered to sponsor a local school's football team or helped a local homeless shelter or something (and like Errata said this also gives you scope for a 'free' newspaper ad too), you don't have to do this via sponsorship from friends etc, you could do this out of the money you have saved by not doing automatic donations with every sale.

Finally I think you'll have to learn that you will never please eveyone all of the time.

M_o_3

Estate_Agent

Was thinking of sponsoring a local pregnancy crisis counselling centre. Don't really like football, but if that is what wins out then its worth considering.

RacyRed

Estate_Agent wrote: »

For the charity idea, it was us who would make a donation, not the customer.

From your profits? Which are made by charging your customers, so the money comes from....

Errata

googler wrote: »

You're kidding.

So the description will read, at some point;

"No garage. No driveway. No allocated parking. No garden" ???

and logically, it should also therefore state;

"No en-suite. No utility room. No hot tub. No decking. " .....???

Not kidding I recently saw on the net a house for sale for nearly half a million which quite clearly only had on street parking, and as the seller seemed to be quite coy about the fact it made me wonder what else they were being coy about. As a prospective purchaser, I wouldn't even put it on my 'maybe' list.

Mum_of_3_3

Estate_Agent wrote: »

Was thinking of sponsoring a local pregnancy crisis counselling centre. Don't really like football, but if that is what wins out then its worth considering.

I can't stand football either, the kid's footie team, could easily be a local hockey team, scout/brownie pack, woman's shelter etc.

Just something local to your business, that will benifit some of your customers in a roundabout way, rather than some faceless national charity no matter how 'worthy' they are.

I think it's fab that you want to up your game and by sticking around here and reading some of the threads you will probably pick up quite a lot.

M_o_3

potter78_2

googler wrote: »

I'm sure someone here will also hold the view;

"If I tell you my budget is a max of £200k, don't show me houses at £210-220k. I've told you my budget."

But their budget may well be compatible with an asking price that's 10% higher (for example). If everyone paid asking price we wouldn't really need estate agents.

DaddyBear

My dream estate agency?



With the internet, I'm afraid estate agents are becoming even more useless by the day.

Estate_Agent

Was thinking of £50 to a local charity if we went down that route. As was said earlier, if the commission to us is £1800, I believe £50 to be affordable.

In regards to budget I always ask people if their top price is really their top price. If the dream property comes along will they pay that extra £10000 for it. If the answer is no, I will respect that. If they say 'only show it to me if you will take an offer' I will respect that to. I'm finding most people will give me an honest answer to an honest question.

At the end of the day I want to improve the agency I work for. I also want to be able to go to church with a reasonably clean conscience. I don't want to scam, lie to or generally pull the wool over peoples eyes.

Beyond what has already been said here - and most of which we either already do or I would now look to implement - I am looking to be able to offer a better service to buyers and sellers. The cynicism is good - it lets me know what I've really taken on, but the ideas are here are even better.