Design your dream Estate Agency.

mqandy

I was trying to think ahead a little - I wouldn't be surprised if you and other EAs have to in a few years if more and more people sell online!

Also, make sure you get yourself a really good CRM system (ACT!, SalesForce, Daylite) - our current letting agents admin is shocking, and so many other posters have mentioned EAs not calling when they say they will, etc.

googler

mqandy wrote: »

I was trying to think ahead a little - I wouldn't be surprised if you and other EAs have to in a few years if more and more people sell online!

Someone posted in another thread recently to the effect that he/she wouldn't be in a position to handle an online sale. They were already working 50+ hours per week, and just wouldn't be in a position to [a] take phone calls from buyers at all times of the day and spare the time to actually do any viewings - they would be looking to their agent to do that for them. So, taking this example;

How many readers of this thread have enough free time to merely put up an online listing, and thereafter handle everything themselves? How would you juggle this with your own work committments?

How would night-shift or variable-shift workers cope, since they'll probably be asleep when prospects want to phone and find out about/arrange viewing for the property.....?

Estate_Agent

This is where we are at the moment:

Service.

Listen to what people want
Don't lie.
Timekeeping is important - both for appointments and returning calls.
Don't treat people like idiots.
Build a good working relationship.
Give good honest feedback.
Check we can give access to a property.
Allow enough time for a viewing.
Involve the vendors in writing property descriptions.
Keep an open mind to a buyers position.
maintain a to-do list which is accessible by other staff.

Extras.

Floorplans.
Garden dimensions.
Photo's of all rooms.

If I've missed anything [lease don't take it personally. The service side of the business is good common sense. I would like to say we are reasonably good at it, but no-one is ever perfect. It would probably be good for me to come up with a quality checklist to make sure we are maintaining or bettering our service.#

Two other thoughts I've had are to look at linking with Google streetview and provide customer feedback questionaires after a sale has completed. I'm loath to implement the last one as I feel that people either won't fill it in or will be nice for the sake of nice. I would love to get negative feedback as it is a fantastic indicator for the health of the business. I'm just not sure whether it would work.

What else can I do clever people?

adg1

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."

Indeed, but what if the agent knows the vendor is negotiable on price but doesn't want any tom, !!!!!! or harry knowing this by plastering it on rightmove?

Mum_of_3_3

Estate_Agent wrote: »

This is where we are at the moment:

Service.

Listen to what people want
Don't lie.
Timekeeping is important - both for appointments and returning calls.
Don't treat people like idiots.
Build a good working relationship.
Give good honest feedback.
Check we can give access to a property.
Allow enough time for a viewing.
Involve the vendors in writing property descriptions.
Keep an open mind to a buyers position.
maintain a to-do list which is accessible by other staff.

Extras.

Floorplans.
Garden dimensions.
Photo's of all rooms.

If I've missed anything [lease don't take it personally. The service side of the business is good common sense. I would like to say we are reasonably good at it, but no-one is ever perfect. It would probably be good for me to come up with a quality checklist to make sure we are maintaining or bettering our service.#

Two other thoughts I've had are to look at linking with Google streetview and provide customer feedback questionaires after a sale has completed. I'm loath to implement the last one as I feel that people either won't fill it in or will be nice for the sake of nice. I would love to get negative feedback as it is a fantastic indicator for the health of the business. I'm just not sure whether it would work.

What else can I do clever people?

Square meterage/feet of the property would be great in my opinion as then you can see exactly how much bigger/smaller one property is than an other. This is done on in most continental countries, but for the life of me I can't see why it's not done here.

M_o_3

Estate_Agent

Thanks mum, had missed this point. One point though, would anyone be able to visualise 196sqft if that is what I listed a room as? Is it not easier to say 14x14'?

clairehi

Now that we have the internet, I think the role of the estate agent in advertising properties to buyers or steering buyers to specific properties is marginal. Yes floorplans are really helpful though.

Viewings- offering out of working hours viewings is really important to buyers and therefore sellers. As a buyer I dont care who shows me round as long as they turn up on time and dont act like a used car salesman.

I dont think that many EAs do a good job of negotiating the best price for their client (the vendor) and there is a lot of room for improvement there.

The EA could also add a lot more value in the post-offer period until completion to ensure that the deal does not fall apart through unnecessary delays and lack of communication.

They should be regularly chasing both sides and solicitors for info. and keeping their client informed of all developments. It would also help if EAs operated a decent CRM system to share information within their own team so that anyone answering the phone to the client can tell them what the status is.

The ideal EA IMO needs to have good working relationships with other local agents and solicitors, and to have very good organisational, negotiation and persuasion skills. I have not met one yet that meets my spec!

Mum_of_3_3

Estate_Agent wrote: »

Thanks mum, had missed this point. One point though, would anyone be able to visualise 196sqft if that is what I listed a room as? Is it not easier to say 14x14'?

Yeah doing it that way it would.

However I mean to do it a bit like this http://www.sothebyshomes.com/nyc/sales/0016387#floorplans

So that you get the floor area for all of the house, then you get a floor plan containing ft x ft or mtr x mtr measurements as well as bog-standard written details where you specify the room, size (again ft x ft or mtr x mtr) & what's in it.

M_o_3

RacyRed

Another thought.

HIPS - make sure they are prepared asap and make it part of your policy that they are made availabe on demand to buyers who request them.

Ensure out of date HIPS are renewed (after maybe 6 months?) If the property has been on your books that length of time it may endear your firm to sellers if you offer to pay for replacements? This might be especially useful when the market is slow of course.

googler

clairehi wrote: »

Now that we have the internet, I think the role of the estate agent in advertising properties to buyers or steering buyers to specific properties is marginal.

Evidently, every person in the country uses a PC, then? Not true.

Typical example is my neighbour - mid 40s, works in software development, at first sight I would think, a fairly tech-savvy individual, bound to spend time on the net......

Nope. Doesn't even possess a PC, he tells me. Can't be bothered with it at home, after he's spent his working day at a screen.

Add in other people like him, those who don't want, can't be bothered with, a PC or internet access, plus any older folks who haven't joined the 'silver surfer' category, and I'd suggest that pure internet exposure will miss a sizeable section of the general public.......