Design your dream Estate Agency.

Estate_Agent

Thanks Red. Good idea with the HIP, but as yet we've not had a single request for one from someone viewing. People seem to view them as a waste of time.

Claire, we do a lot post offer but would you care to expand on this please? Really feel there is something to what you've said. We already do out of hours viewing - I've been known to accompany a viewing straight after church on a Sunday!

I'm finding RM et al are not without their limitations though. I've just registered a buyer who has a very healthy budget. I'm sending out details for properties other than what she originally called for, purely because I've had a conversation with her and really looked at what she wants. If the extra properties aren't right, it gives me more of an idea of what might be right.

Contessa

googler wrote: »

The other take on this is that the EA is showing what they're selling in the photo - they're not selling the substation.

Yes, but I would be buying the land that the substation is on. Maybe the electricity board would pay me rent?

googler

Contessa wrote: »

Yes, but I would be buying the land that the substation is on.

I doubt it...

Contessa

It appears to be a couple of feet away from the garage and within the garden wall.

clairehi

Estate_Agent wrote: »

Claire, we do a lot post offer but would you care to expand on this please? Really feel there is something to what you've said. We already do out of hours viewing - I've been known to accompany a viewing straight after church on a Sunday!

.

Post offer its all about making sure that both sides are doing what they need to do and don't hold things up. You should have a checklist of all the stages involved in the process and at least once each week review all the sales in your portfolio to see what they are waiting for eg survey to be done, seller to respond to buyers queries, contracts to be drawn up - then you can chase up and update the client accordingly.

It can be better for sellers and buyers not to speak to each other directly as things can get acrimonious - not that any EA would want to use that as a selling point, but I think it can be wise to go through a third party. When we bought our current house the vendors actually refused to speak to us other than through the EA. If EAs know the other EAs in the chain they can communicate what is going on up and down the chain -eg the old lady at the top of our chain went on holiday for a month when we were expecting to exchange, would have been helpful if that had been communicated down the chain.

I dont think its possible to over-estimate the amount of stress and aggro that is caused when sales are dragged out for months or stall because of delays in getting all the paperwork together . Quite often it is stupid things (like people going on holiday) that could have been foreseen if anyone had planned ahead or spoken to each other. Its not rocket science, but people do need to be reminded of things and kept informed. Personally as a buyer or seller I would be delighted to come across an EA who would take the initiative to keep things moving along.

Of course a solicitor could do all of these things but they are not interested as usually they are working on a fee fixed at the outset.

If you can do this kind of thing well I would expect it would be reflected in shorter completion times = getting your fee quicker plus increased client satisfaction = good local reputation. Word of mouth still counts for a lot and where I live everyone knows who the best estate agent in town is.

(I am not an EAbut in my own job we do a lot of progress chasing in negotiating large contracts and its not dissimilar although B2B.)

clairehi

googler wrote: »

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.......

Whatever, but maybe a better way to state my original point is that it is harder for EAs to create a competitive advantage based on how they advertise, as the internet provides a more level playing field for all.

Back in the day, the location of an EAs shop and how much advertising space they took in the local rag made more of a difference to how they could attract buyers than it does these days. Our leading local agent no longer advertises in the paper at all, which speaks volumes.

VIGILANT22

[QUOTE=Estate Agent

Involve the vendors in writing property descriptions.

Then they're "peeved" when you have to change it due to the PMA!...:)

VIGILANT22

potter78 wrote: »

Two things from me...

- Budget - 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.

Why would an agent do this?..They are acting on behalf of the vendor to obtain the best price....by doing as you suggest this is implying you want vendor to drop price....If the vendor is prepared to drop 20k they would have marketed it as this...

Buyers should be quite clear on their budget and cut off point....otherwise you're back to "buyers are liars".........

googler

Contessa wrote: »

It appears to be a couple of feet away from the garage and within the garden wall.

Well, that's different - the way you described it originally, the substation was merely "to the side of the house".......

googler

clairehi wrote: »

Whatever, but maybe a better way to state my original point is that it is harder for EAs to create a competitive advantage based on how they advertise, as the internet provides a more level playing field for all.

Back in the day, the location of an EAs shop and how much advertising space they took in the local rag made more of a difference to how they could attract buyers than it does these days. Our leading local agent no longer advertises in the paper at all, which speaks volumes.

There's websites and there's websites. Any agent who can prove they get more traffic than others has the advantage. Just as any agent who can show JICREG figures to show that the paper they advertise has more readers than the one their competitor advertises in has the advantage.

Yes, but do you KNOW the reason why the EA no longer advertises? Have you asked them? Is it because it didn't generate business for them, or could it merely be because the paper hiked the advertising rates and it became uneconomical? Or maybe the editor and the estate agent fell out over some editorial issues...