Lets design a NEW Estate Agency.....

Encantador

Considering the bad press they receive, I am amazed that they have remained virtually unchanged forever..... Why???

A friend went with the man who showed the most interest in her house, she has just taken it off after 3 months without a single phone call. The last time she spoke to anyone at the EA was to tell them to put it on the market 3 months ago.

OK,the perfect estate agency, what would you like to see???

I will start by saying...
`A guaranteed contact each week/fortnight by phone email, even if there is nothing to report.`

Any more......?

dexters_mum_2

My husband and business partner actually did this last year and now have a very successful business, we took all of our bad experiences with estate agents over the years, decided what we'd like to see and combined it with the experience of hubby and his business partner!

virgo149

Honesty! LOL

We signed up with ours on the Thursday to be told on the Friday, 'Oh, by the way 2 of the 3 staff are leaving on Saturday so it's just me at the moment.' And it was, for 6 weeks.

We were also told they would be 'fighting' over our property and they had a large number of potential viewers already waiting on their books. We had a total of 4 viewings in 10 weeks, 3 not even in a position to offer.

Agree totally regarding contact - we only spoke to ours when I picked up the phone.

Why do some EA's think we want to be lied to - I'd have much more respect for someone who was honest, even if I didn't much like the answer. At least them you know what you are up against.

Sorry to any EA's reading this - nothing personal, just bitter experience.

dexters_mum_2

I had awful service from a large corporate chain almost identical in experience to yours Virgo!

Encantador

So, what is it everyone wants, or what is it that we don`t want.

Dexters-mum, care to share the secret/s?

virgo149

dexters_mum wrote:

I had awful service from a large corporate chain almost identical in experience to yours Virgo!

Unfortunately our experience was with a local independent agency - so it's not just the big ones that give us the grief by the looks of it!

dexters_mum am very curious to know what makes your company different - are you going to tell us??

Conrad

Encantador wrote:

Considering the bad press they receive, I am amazed `A guaranteed contact each week/fortnight by phone email, even if there is nothing to report.`

Any more......?

There is a lack of understanding amongst the British public.

Look if an EA has to email / phone all clients every week this will take more time than you think (some people hard to get hold of, in meetings, driving etc) and all this time is unproductive.

You might think this an odd thing to say, but sales people generally cant bare spending minutes on non value added taks, especially when they only get paid for sales (not by the letter / call as Solicitors do).

Many EAs come into being with aim of giving weekly updates etc etc, but soon discover this dead activity eats into the bottom line.

People say 'all they want is honesty' - dont you think if that truly was what drove the market EAs would have cottoned on, afterall you suggest this would mean they had more happy clients and therefore more money?
People THINK they want honesty until honesty hits them full frontal in the face.

An example; If I were an EA I might say to you 'your decor is chintzy thats wht your home hasnt sold'. That comment could honestly be made of many many homes yet most owners would not welcome such a comment as they would feel the EA is negative about the property.

Its a bit like Tax, when surveyed we all say we would happily pay a bit more, but in reality this is completely untrue.

Now I personally dont like EAs much however I do recognise they simply cant win, few middle men ever can.

Mrs_Optimist

I was unlucky with our first choice, very lucky with our second - who has just sold our house after only 2 weeks, one of which was over Christmas! Regular contacts, updated, feedback with second, no contact from the first over Christmas and New year until I called him to day to tell him his services were no longer required, we had found an EA that could actually do the job!

dexters_mum_2

Ok, not wanting to give too much away of our secrets!

This is what I wanted to go into the business and this is the tip of the iceberg of what we do and this is purely what I wanted. We do:

Weekly telephone and letter progress reports with statistics from rightmove (how many people look at the property, then click through for details) and with details of any feedback from that week's viewings if client requests, we can do this by e-mail too.

Monthly meetings with clients either in the office or in their home (up to them), informal if in office, plenty of coffee/tea & biccies and children welcome (we have toys- not like one EA I went to- sign stating 'no children')

Market reporting with a monthly update for all properties, even those under offer awaiting exchange of contract (in case sale falls through, they know where they are in the market)

FEEDBACK after every viewing and normally within 48 hours of a viewing (obviously purchaser depending, if you can get hold of them)

Mobile phone contact numbers for 2 partners and manager for out of hours contact.

Open from 8am-6pm and late night Thursday til 7pm

Local community involvement, parties for School children and competitions.

FTB specialist service, taking a FTB through all the steps in buying their first home, even if they don't buy from us in the end, it's worth making the effort as hopefully they'll remember you when they come to sell.

Text outs when new properties come to the market.

Courtesy phone calls on 4 weekly basis to people who have registered but have not viewed anything with us, to see if they are still looking, did try doing this every 2 weeks but people thought we seemed a bit too keen!

Over 20 years combined estate agency and proerty development experience between the team and with one partner having a BSc & MSc in Built Environment and one member of staff with TechRICS qualification, other staff: one has a law degree.


We do do more honestly but I as I say, this are elements of the business I really wanted.

DM x

Seraphim

I've just found a lot of estate agents lack basic common courtesy - although it seems to depend on the area you live in.

My major gripes when trying to buy a house were:

- Try and sell me a property. I'm ringing you because I'm interested in buying. I may not have seen all your properties; if there's something similar, tell me!
- If I try and make an appointment to see one of your houses, please don't say "the vendor might not want you to see it, we'll see" and then not bother to let me know that you have booked me in to see the house. And then, don't call me up half an hour after the appointment and shout at me because I didn't turn up - I did try to ring and you ignored me every time. It isn't my fault I'm not there.
- If I put an offer in on a house, please call me back to tell me whether the vendor has rejected it or accepted it. I'm not a mind reader.
- If my offer is rejected and I don't want to pay the full asking price because I feel the property is over priced, don't say to me "I'm really sorry you can't afford this property" in a condescending way. I DO have the money, I just disagree with paying that much for that property.

Lastly, remember that I one day may also be selling a property. Impressions last. Slagging off the current owners, not bothering to ask me for feedback on the property I've seen or making horrible comments about the properties will not endear me to your company.

Encantador

Conrad wrote:

There is a lack of understanding amongst the British public.

Look if an EA has to email / phone all clients every week this will take more time than you think (some people hard to get hold of, in meetings, driving etc) and all this time is unproductive.

You might think this an odd thing to say, but sales people generally cant bare spending minutes on non value added taks, especially when they only get paid for sales (not by the letter / call as Solicitors do).

Many EAs come into being with aim of giving weekly updates etc etc, but soon discover this dead activity eats into the bottom line.

People say 'all they want is honesty' - dont you think if that truly was what drove the market EAs would have cottoned on, afterall you suggest this would mean they had more happy clients and therefore more money?
People THINK they want honesty until honesty hits them full frontal in the face.

I don`t think I have come across an EA that I would describe is a sales person.
And any EA that thinks that keeping in touch with their customers is dead time in my opinion should head off to tescos now.

An obvious point is also that when they generally get paid by results, every customer they **ss off, who then dumps them and moves on is much more of a waste of time than making a quick call or sending an email.