Thank you for your interest in the Property Academy. We provide information, insight, ideas and inspiration for individuals in the property industry. We passionately believe that every individual and company, no matter how experienced, should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and be the best that they can be. Our aim is to encourage, challenge, motivate and inspire those who strive to achieve this. In this document you will find 10 key findings from the largest independent Landlord and Tenant Surveys to help you make the best decisions in your business. We have also included 10 top ideas that Property Academy Mastermind Members have shared with us and hope that these offer food for thought.
LANDLORD & TENANT SURVEYS 2016 10 KEY FINDINGS In May 2016, our Landlord and Tenant surveys had a record response with 7,752 respondents sharing their expectations and experiences when using a letting agent. Here are 10 key findings:
1
tenant sUrvey Would you prefer the property to be managed by:
A landlord
36%
An agent
25%
A 3rd party (contractor/company)
4%
I don't mind
35%
0
10
20
30
The Property Academy Tenant Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
2
tenant sUrvey Would you rent through an online letting agent with no local office?
45%
55%
Yes No The Property Academy Tenant Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
Page 1
40
tenant sUrvey What would be the primary reason for using an online agent without a local office?
Cheaper/no fees
59%
Easier to deal with
17%
Recommended
9%
More innovative
5%
Other
10%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
The Property Academy Tenant Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
tenant sUrvey What would be the primary reason for using an agent with a local office over an online agent?
I value the agent's local presence
18%
Ability to meet face to face
65%
Their local knowledge is important
6%
It's more convenient for me
7%
Other
4%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
The Property Academy Tenant Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
3
tenant sUrvey On a scale of 0-10 how likely are you to recommend your letting agent to a friend or colleague? (0 not likely, 10 very likely)
0
14%
1
3%
2
3%
3
3%
4
4%
5
9%
6
6%
7
10%
8
16%
9
9%
10
23%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
The Property Academy Tenant Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
Page 2
landlord sUrvey On a scale of 0-10 how likely are you to recommend your letting agent to a friend or colleague? (0 not likely, 10 very likely)
0
6%
1
2%
2
2%
3
2%
4
2%
5
7%
6
4%
7
11%
8
20%
9
13%
10
31%
0
10
20
30
40
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
4
landlord sUrvey Have you previously left one letting agent for another?
33% 67% Yes No The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
landlord sUrvey What was the key reason for leaving the original agent?
Poor service
59%
Bad tenant experience
11%
Increased fees
5%
Couldn't find me a suitable tenant
20%
Staff changeover
5%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
Page 3
5
landlord sUrvey Did you choose the agent based solely on them offering the cheapest fee?
9%
91% Yes No The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
6
landlord sUrvey How many properties do you own?
1
46%
2
25%
3-5
20%
6-10
5%
10-15
2%
16+
2%
0
10
20
30
40
50
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
7
landlord sUrvey In the next 1-2 years, do you see your lettings portfolio:
Increasing
24%
Decreasing
7%
Staying the same
69%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
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landlord sUrvey Why will your lettings portfolio increase in the next 1-2 years?
It will be my pension
33%
It is the safest place to invest
32%
To build an investment business
35%
31
32
33
34
35
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
landlord sUrvey Why will your lettings portfolio decrease in the next 1-2 years?
I want to release equity
35%
Change of personal circumstances
50%
Increase in landlord legislation
15%
0
10
20
30
40
50
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
8
landlord sUrvey Has the stamp duty increase of 3% on any additional property/properties affected your decision to increase your portfolio?
30% 70% Yes No The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
Page 5
9
landlord sUrvey How did you research agents before inviting them to provide a rental valuation? (Select all that apply)
I visited their website
37%
I visited property portal websites
14%
I visited their office
41%
I called them
36%
I read agent reviews
12%
I visited their social media account/s
2%
I contacted my personal network (friends and family) for their feedback and experiences
25%
No research
10%
0
10
20
30
40
50
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
10
landlord sUrvey Would you use an online letting agent who does not have a local office?
Yes
15%
No
59%
Not sure
26%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
landlord sUrvey What would be the primary reason for using an online agent without a local office? (Tick one)
Cheaper fees
63%
Easier to deal with
12%
Recommended
16%
More innovative
9%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
Page 6
landlord sUrvey What would be the primary reason for using an agent with a local office over an online agent? (Tick one)
Value the local presence
19%
Ability to meet face to face
38%
Their local knowledge is important
31%
It's more convenient for tenantsÂ
12%
0
10
20
30
40
The Property Academy Landlord Survey 2016 • www.propertyacademy.co.uk
We will continue to reveal additional findings and what this means for you at our live events and also within our free four-i newsletter.
2016 SEMINAR PROGRAMME LISTING MASTERCLASS WITH JOSH PHEGAN
LISTING MASTERCLASS
8th JULY
Josh will be sharing the key secrets to success for before, during and after the valuation (sales and lettings) that will enable you to increase your valuation to instruction ratio. Josh will role play on the day with attendees so everyone can learn how to improve their technique and immediately increase their confidence and instruction rate. this event will be exclusively available to membership and mastermind members of the property academy.
STEP UP WITH JOSH PHEGAN 30th SEPTEMBER
designed for those looking to increase their performance and up their game in all aspects of estate agency. relevant for both sales and lettings, valuers & managers, Josh will be addressing what is needed to step up to the current demands of the consumer. covering prospecting, increasing fees, up selling and how to sell/let more, quicker, this event is not to be missed for those wanting to step up their results. this event will be exclusively available to membership and mastermind members of the property academy. Page 7
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LIVE 7th OCTOBER
property management is so important – perhaps the most important part of your business. this seminar will be looking at best practice in the industry including sessions with leading property managers from agents across the UK. the property academy will also be presenting the key property management findings from the landlord and tenant surveys. this seminar is relevant for property managers, lettings managers and business owners.
NEW HOMES LIVE 14th OCTOBER
new Homes lIve will be returning to showcase brand new ideas from the new Homes Industry in the UK and overseas. the property academy will also be presenting insights from the Home moving trends survey, specifically around the buying and selling of new Homes vs second hand and what this means for you and your business.
EA LIVE
2nd DECEMBER
01
the most important event in the estate agency calendar, preceding the estate agency of the year awards in association with the sunday times and the times. the best industry ideas will be shared along with valuable insights from the biggest independent Home moving trends survey and what this might mean for you.
four-i is the perfect start to my week! It always arrives at 7am every monday morning, packed with great ideas, wisdom and insight. KEVIN ELLIS - THOMAS MAE
Are you missing out on four-i? free weekly and monthly emails aiming to provide Information, Insight, Ideas and Inspiration to those in the property Industry. Get your copy: propertyacademy.co.uk/four-i-newsletter
Find out more and register your interest in our events at: propertyacademy.co.uk/events
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MEMBER TIPS Every month our four-i newsletter includes a Mastermind Member tip of the month, here are a selection from previous months:
How I increased company performance and staff engagement
The formula we have devised is relatively simple; it’s a excel workbook incorporating 12 tabs covering areas of the move as follows: 1. Headline breakdown of costs for key areas. This tab details costs under the headings for; Refurbishment & Fit Out, Insurance & Legal Costs, Telecoms, Alarm Systems, Removal, Furniture, Flooring, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Cooling), H&S, I.T Equipment, Signage, Ongoing building Running Costs
Karl Tatler - karl tatler estate agents We wanted to explore different ways of motivating our staff to improve their own personal performances. We were already having performance reviews and had targets in place for them to achieve, however sometimes the more we ‘pushed’ the more disengaged they became!
2. Breakdown of Approx. Cost; this tab includes a detailed breakdown of the budget or estimated cost for the items under the headings listed above (dependant on the office environment this may list up to 100 items, this is as detailed as up to how many teaspoons you will need for the kitchen)
We then thought what if we came from a different angle! Everyone loves to receive praise for a job well done, sadly, in the workplace this doesn’t happen anywhere near as much as it should. Sincere frequent and informal praise is recognised as one of the most significant management styles that increases staff engagement and improves productivity! Sometimes an act of brilliance happens right before your eyes and sometimes, especially when you can’t see your staff all the time, you have to go and find it!
3. B reakdown of Actual Cost; this tab includes a detailed breakdown of actual cost for the items under the headings listed above (dependant on the office environment this may list up to 100 items)
One of the ways we look for great performances is by knowing what each employees personal bests are for key touch points within the business. Then, when someone produces activity, such as market appraisals or viewing numbers that exceeds a previous personal best you know they’ve excelled and they are thrilled that you’ve noticed it and praised them publicly for it.
4. To & From Tab; this tab details each staff member as well as their equipment, where they are located & where they are moving to; Site Name, Move Date, Staff Name, Location From, Location To, Desk Number, New/Existing Telephone Number, Desk Pedestal, Office Chair, Managers / Meeting Room Chair, P.C Base Unit, Laptop, Keyboard, Monitor, Mouse, Phone 5. Car Parking; this tab holds details of staff members parking at both current & new location including vehicle details 6. Floorplan; this also includes desk layout & IT infrastructure detail
Publishing everyone’s personal best gives individuals personal goals to beat, rather than a random expectation which they may feel is unrealistic and therefore disengages them! In addition to individual PB’s all our offices have their own offices PB’s so the branch knows when it’s had a great week too; then it’s coffee and bacon butties on me!
7. Notes & Guidance; this tab lists all workflows for I.T and the project manager to update & work from
We focus on this every Monday when we review the previous week’s performance. We have seen clear indications that staff and offices keep beating their previous PB’s; they now see them as a challenge and more importantly they know what they are!! Although these may only encourage small incremental improvements for each person, collectively across each office and the company the increase is significant. Our company performance has increased as a direct result of this initiative, so too has our level of staff engagement.
9. Furniture requirements; this tab is a detailed breakdown of staff members & the office furniture requirements.
8. Move Label template; this template is used by staff during packing for the physical move to label their equipment & move crates. This will ensure that nothing is lost and that their equipment is moved from location A to location B without a hitch
How to perfectly co-ordinate an office move
10. Activity log sheet; this tab details the project plan in a Gantt chart format Rather than move all 70 staff in one day we took the decision to move each department on a Friday across 6 weeks. We decided to move the Directors last, this allowed for the building to be ‘litmus tested’ as we like to call it before senior management are moved in. This supports project managers to iron out any key issues before their occupancy which naturally, you want to be seamless! Undertaking moves on a Friday is also key, this enables I.T & project managers to conclude any move issues over the weekend allowing staff a business as usual start on the Monday morning.
Tanem Mehmet - greene & co It was a busy start to the year for us with the opening of our new Kentish Town branch & the Greene & Co Head office. The Kentish Town office was a full build and refit project, and was completed in 4 months. The Goldney Road Head office was an existing space which required a small refit. However, the IT set up required moving our main server and the occupancy of the office involved the relocation of 8 departments from 5 different locations (70 staff): 1. Accounts 2. Property Management 3. HR and Marketing 4. New Homes & Investments 5. Greene Financial Services 6. Directors An innovative and proactive approach was required. We used our ‘office moves template’, which has been developed over years and is an essential tool enabling us to successfully deliver previous projects on time and to budget.
The Goldney office I.T move was a tricky one as the main servers were located at the decant site. The move of these servers could not be undertaken until all staff members had moved across. To allow for BAU during the interim period the I.T staff copied over files, this meant staff could continue to work until such time as the main server was to be moved. In some businesses the main server may be located within a data centre in which case the office move would be much simpler from an I.T perspective. The project planning of an office move is a fundamental part of ensuring its success; this however is not the most challenging aspect. The key areas to ensure success are in communication & buy-in of staff. Change management is integral to that. At Greene & Co we are fortunate to have an in house HR team who we worked closely with to support the change management with staff who would be involved in the move, staff buy in is essential to ensure the success of your move. The sign off of desk location layout becomes a key aspect of the project early on; this is essentially the first item we insist on signing off with department leads. This is because it tends to be a longer process than one would anticipate. It’s important to have a lead from each department to work with on desk layout, in turn giving them the responsibility of obtaining sign off from their team.
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Contractor management requires close attention; at Greene & Co we use the same contractor for all our office fit outs. Our contractor is therefore familiar with our corporate identity, where materials may be sourced from etc., this eliminates any unexpected delays from suppliers as they are familiar with our spec requirements and we are familiar with their lead times. With any contractor, we would strongly advise weekly meetings to assess time lines to enable the project to be completed on time. Always give yourself a 2 week window from when the contractor says they will be completed to the move date announced internally. A 2 week window allows any unexpected delays to be managed. At Greene & Co we also had an exceptionally strong Marketing team, they are a key function in supporting the roll out of our corporate identity and signage throughout all our office openings. To over communicate during any office move is essential, from my experience staff tend not to engage until at least a week before they are due to physically move. Lastly, on the first day of the office occupation, we at Greene & Co ensure the kitchen is stocked with a selection of teas, coffee, milk & biscuits. That staff have a welcome note on their desks as well as a selection of chocolates and a heart shaped potted green cactus plant!
NEW OFFICE LAUNCH – ZERO TO HERO We decided to implement our previously successful “Pay what you want” initiative to coincide with our new Highbury office launch in early September 2015. This time with a twist, we didn’t set a minimum fee of 1% like we had done previously, instead we promised targeted clients a true “pay zero unless we’re your hero” service. It simply meant our clients could pay us 0% or anything up to 2% depending on the service levels they received. We called this campaign “ZERO OR HERO” and as far as we know this has never been used by another agency. It has proved very successful, filling our inventory with 20 new properties (worth over £18m) being signed up to the initiative within the first 30 days of trading. We conservatively estimate an average fee being achieved of 0.75%. This will generate a minimum of £135,000 extra sales income – a huge financial advantage over the flat 0% offer used by other agents.
On refection I would say the office move contributed to:
With lower stock levels, agents discounting their fees heavily and the rise in popularity of online agents, maintaining fees are crucial to the ongoing success of the high street estate agent. I believe our service related fee’s have really given us an extra tool in our armoury to deal with all of the above.
• C ollaborative working: Improved internal communications allowing for reduction in emails & lengthy meetings, it’s amazing what may be achieved from a 15min catch up in the open plan foyer!
New Year Tips
• I mproved client journey, providing visitors with an opportunity to meet in an office space with full A/V & meeting facilities.
Richard Palfreeman - Northfields
• B rand PR opportunity: prospective employees quickly gain an understanding of what it means to work at Greene & Co from our head office environment; the culture & business focus oozes from our head office.
Firstly I want to wish everyone a very prosperous New Year and I hope that you all find my top 3 New Year Tips helpful for getting your business off to a great start.
• T he Greene Community: company meetings are all held at head office proving staff the opportunity to enjoy the space, evening drinks on the terrace, birthday lunches at the communal table in the foyer & much more!
Pay What You Want - Service Related Fee’s
1. Plan out the Year It is important to start the year knowing where you want to be at the end - so start with the finish in mind! I like to decide what my focus is for each month, for instance, in January it’s all about the ‘clear out’, the ‘resolutions’ and the inspiration to get a move-on. My team’s focus will be getting our customers ready for marketing, that could be a clear out, a through clean, odd-jobs or a splash of paint to make sure that the initial marketing is as effective as possible. In February I would suggest that it is the month to ‘give back’ so I like to say ‘thank you’ to valued staff, long standing clients and the customers who recommend Northfields to their friends and family. Don’t forget it is a leap year and that is as frequent as the average house move, so make the most of it.
Charlie Perdios - Anthony Pepe The aim was to encourage new valuations and win instructions on merit, not price. In 2014 with stock levels at their lowest for a decade, we took a bold and, at the time, unprecedented, move. Unlike the knee-jerk reaction of most agents who discounted their fees, we decided to ask our vendors to pay us what they felt we were worth. We offered our services at between 1-2% telling vendors that although we thought we were worth 2% we were willing to allow them to pay us the same as other agents in the area which was typically 1%. It was a risk we were prepared to take, given our reputation as the leading agent in the area. But it was still a risk. The first vendor we offered this to insisted he only wanted to pay 1% because in his own words “the property would easily sell in the current market”. He eventually decided to pay 1.25% and told us:
“I chose Anthony Pepe because I felt that it if I didn’t get the service I wanted, I wouldn’t end up paying too much for it. In fact, I had no intention really of paying any more than 1%. As a developer, every penny counts. However, I received such exceptional service that I just wanted to say thank you by paying an extra 0.25% as a bonus for all their hard work.” We were emboldened by this initial success and started spreading the word. Before long, other vendors followed suit, with an increasingly smaller percentage paying our minimum 1%, and more and more choosing to pay as high as 2%. At the end of 2014 our average fee was 1.67% and to this day the average fee is still around the 1.7% mark. Admittedly one of our offices are so confident in our fees they hardly feel the need to use this initiative anymore. This is purely a result of a changing mindset within the office. Previous results have given everyone confidence and belief that they are now worth the higher fee.
Easter falls at the end of March in 2016, just before the hike in stamp duty, so it should be a hectic time for buyers & sellers. I think it will be a month of long days so I will make sure that my team are ready to go the extra mile and be on hand to work evenings and weekends to get everybody moved before the end of the month. I am sure you get the gist and can think of different examples for your company, but always ensure that your marketing plan reflects the focus of the month, that the team buy in to the message and that you use the right terminology to pass the positive messages onto your clients. 2. Inspire Your Team This year we are celebrating our 30th anniversary at Northfields so it is of major importance for me to get our team to buy in to our agency milestones and to know how valued they all are. This year I shall be introducing the 2016 Northfields Anniversary Journey with one milestone every month and, whilst I don’t wish to give the game away, some of these will be very exciting for the team. As a family run business my team are of great importance and many of them have been with me for a long part of the journey so I plan to offer a monthly incentive to coincide with the marketing focus. For instance, spa break or personal training sessions in January to focus the staff on getting the December stock sold or rented, romantic meal and theatre outing in February for best testimonial, Thorpe Park outing with fast-track tickets for Easter to the office who outperforms the other teams, beating their usual monthly targets by 20% minimum.
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Again, I expect you get the idea, this theme will run for the entire year and I know how delighted the winners are going to be because the prizes just get better and better. 3. Embrace Online Marketing Last but not least, we intend to continue to embrace new technology and explore new trends coming to the market this year. In 2015 we built a new website using a wordpress responsive platform with live chat, Feefo review integration, in-house content management and video blog facility. We looked at websites from within our industry but also from other genres and loved how some sites were so simple to use and really embodied video, particularly to focus the customer on the team and our company message. Mid-year Northfields employed a video company to work on a weekly basis to showcase all of the individual staff stories, to bring market updates to the customers and really give an insight into the hardworking yet enjoyable environment of the company. The videos have been so well received by the staff and the clients, we shall be utilising this medium even further during 2016, in particular to highlight the wonderful aspects of our location and to market our properties to our overseas clients. Social media has been our forte for the past few years and video has enhanced our offering, bringing us more engagement from clients past and present. We know that our online presence has to be exceptional to compete in such a crowded marketplace, so my final tip is to get on board with your online marketing, if you haven’t already…
disposal; this may help you become the recommended agent, and if they can help you get an involvement then give them a share of fees – you might not have got the site without them. Commercial agents are now much more in sync with residential now due to the volume of office buildings being converted to apartments. Become the local expert Believe it or not, the reason agents miss out on New Homes instructions is simply that they don’t understand the drivers of a housebuilder and furthermore don’t know how to differentiate value from one housebuilder to another. Know your market, share best advice and deliver a clear and consistent approach to pricing – don’t just quote asking prices, tell them the net achievable figures and also include rental values and yields. Pitching to Housebuilders This is the area I feel most strongly about as most agents just don’t understand how to pitch to a housebuilder – they don’t want to hear the same old blurb and the top 10 reasons and that your office is bigger than anyone else’s. The clear fundamentals for a winning pitch are broken down into the following sections: • Overview – demonstrate your understanding of the scheme, showcase your knowledge of the area and demonstrate that you understanding the brief • Marketing – reference your branches, but focus on personalities, strategies, and outline your service offering and service standards • Operations – include key staff, feature previous clients and testimonials
All the very best for 2016.
• Conclusion – why they should engage your services; highlight your numbers and the size of your investor database.
Kevin Ellis
If you want my advice, don’t include fees – leave this for discussion as you can’t possibly quote a fee unless you know what is expected of you.
Thomas Mae I hope that the New Year has got off to a great start for you and your business and that instruction levels are good. Can you imagine how it would feel to have a stream of instructions that you had a greater visibility of and guaranteed for this year and the years to come? Just imagine the plans you could make for the growth of your business, let alone all those investor sales on apartments which could be sitting in your managed stock and adding value to your business! Well, if you are already operating in the Land and New Homes market, you are probably already enjoying this situation as unlike a typical estate agency sales business, you will be benefitting from knowing that the site you sold to a house builder is going to be built this year or next and that its guaranteed income – better still, hopefully you secured fees at a full 2%.
Other ways • If a housebuilder is selling directly, you can still get involved and your default position for every New Homes site should be to produce a good quality piece of literature from your Lettings business, endorsing what the rental values and the yields might be. This is a quick and easy way to pick up new homes stock from investors • Provide swift service on part exchanges • Understand housebuilders year ends – a great way to get involved – they might have declined your services previously but that soon changes if they are heading towards year end and have stock or are behind on sales. If you’d like to learn more, then please get in touch.
There’s no doubt that a Land and New Homes operation is now an essential part of modern estate agency. It provides sustainable growth and can often generate multiple ‘wins’ from the same site.
It’s All About New Stock
So here are my Top Tips
Bob Hay - Streets Ahead Estate Agents.
Know what’s going on... Having presented at various conferences, I get a lot of engagement from agents who are blissfully unaware of the extent to which new homes are emerging in their area. So set yourself a task to track every planning application from the last three years – these could be consented sites that haven’t been built yet or are under construction, then all of the sites currently in planning awaiting a decision. Share them out amongst your negotiators and do some drive-by’s to see if work has started. If the site is sitting there with no work started, the chances are that the vendor could be tempted to sell the site on, therefore creating a land fee. Pull all of this information into a central database.
Every agent is currently dissatisfied with their current volume of new instructions on both sales and lettings. However over the past 12 months or so, 30% of many agent’s new buyer enquiries were BTL investor’s, potential landlords or many already landlords adding to their portfolio. At Streets Ahead Estate Agents, our lettings managers telephone 20 new investor applicants registered with sales for buying per day and offer their expertise “Free Investment and Letting Advice”.
Top 15 Housebuilders relevant to you
“Hi you are registered with xyz, I am just calling to see if I can help or advise or to see if I can offer you any advice whether you buy through Streets Ahead or not. By the way, is this your first BTL purchase or do you already have property or properties that you let?”
By compiling the list you will quickly establish the main developers active in your area and if they are controlling sites that are agent free, then you need to focus on developing a relationship with those builders. If you have any land opportunities – concentrate on selling them to people who can give you something in return.
20 calls per day, 100 calls per week reaps fantastic conversations, many that lead to new lettings business. Those other calls enhance that applicant’s impression that Streets Ahead really does offer a more professional service, hopefully this could lead to further business in the future.
Commercial Agents
Too many agents do not realise all your new business is there already in your database!
If you know the local commercial agents, try and build deeper relationships so they get you involved early on in the process of a
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Matthew Bennett Orchid Properties My tip has come from one of our group meetings and it has generated £20,000 commission for us - it is an exercise in reconnecting with previous clients in a personal way, and reminding them that you are there to assist and did a great job the first time round! Set up a campaign to contact all of your buyers from the last five or six years, sending them a letter which: 1. encloses the original property particulars 2. re-introduces you and your company 3. states that you hope they are enjoying the property and have no doubt done some work on it 4. s uggests that if they are curious as to what the house is worth, you are happy to carry out a free, no-obligation market appraisal with no pushy sales tactics etc. This exercise should generate immediate market appraisals and hopefully win you several instructions too.
Simply “stopping” has enabled us to learn so more about our own business, our strengths, and more importantly, our weaknesses. We re-learned things we forgot, we identified new avenues for income, and increased our focus on ancillary business. This has seen us more than compensate for the lower fees generated in the marketplace. A good agent should be aware of the competition but not be frightened by the competition. Look Locally, Nationally and Internationally for ideas and inspiration. Learn from them and increase your own offering to be the best you can be.
Greg Barnes Breckon & Breckon Should you be chasing the dream…? So many of us spend huge amounts of time, energy and of course money on our marketing to attract the next client, dropping forests worth of letters and leaflets trying to find that landlord who is happy to hand over their huge portfolio! In reality, these clients are few and far between and many are very loyal to their current agent, so is this the best strategy?
Nathan Emerson Pygott & Crone There seems to be a big industry focus on “online agents” at present, yet for many agent, when this is studied in depth, the actual immediate impact on their marketplaces is somewhat minor. The movement of saleable stock within a marketplace is always a shifting sand and it is often a local competitor who can actually have a greater effect on your business than an external force. I speak to many agents who employ considerable effort analysing the impact of online agents, but how many actually direct the same energy reviewing their traditional domestic competitors? Misdirection of focus can be more damaging to your business than simply doing nothing. My tip for this month would therefore be to simply “STOP” and force yourself to take account of your business and that of your competitors in an impartial and structured manner. Do you actually know who your competition really is????
At Breckon & Breckon, our view is very much based on look after what you have and look after it well; there is no point chasing and securing new business without maintaining the clients you have who then walk. Building and maintaining relationships with clients and contractors, communication and feedback are without question the elements required to maintain a successful portfolio and once built you can rely on them being ambassadors of your brand, giving you the opportunity to prospect, a ‘system’ pioneered by Josh Phegan as many of you are aware, and one that works. The bar amongst the top performers in our industry is extremely high and staying ahead of the pack takes constant innovation, enthusiasm, cohesive engagement with staff but most importantly an ear to your clients so you can look after them, explore every opportunity with them and enjoy the journey…
Nicky Stevenson property academy As part of my own personal development I went to a leadership event last week, and one of the questions asked was ‘how many hours a week do you work?’ everyone answered somewhere between 40 and 80. Quite a range!
When was the last time you actually stopped and really looked at: What fees and packages your competitors are offering? What incentives are they using to gain more stock? Who are their key staff members? What are they actually saying to clients and customers about themselves and about you? Who are the new contacts, builders, developers they are working with? What is the public perception of them? What are their true weaknesses which you can exploit (opening hours, staffing, marketing, experience, performance, reputation)?
The follow up question was ‘How many hours a week do you spend on productive activities? The room was silent as everyone considered this. We then discussed and no one was anywhere above 80%, in fact most were closer to the 20% mark... Interestingly, those that were working 40 hours a week, were the ones spending more of their time on the productive activities. So the question is, are we busy with activity or productivity?
But more importantly: How are your staff corresponding and presenting to clients in the field? Are they all consistently delivering the message you think they are? Are they truly fighting for every scrap of business? What can they / you do better? What is the public perception / experience of your business and can you improve it? What are your weaknesses which other agents can exploit? How can you improve your staff? What other services could you offer (Conveyancing, EPC, Survey, Auctions, Insurance, Mortgage, Wealth Management, Pensions, Removals, Lettings and Maintenance just for example)?
Only you can be the judge of that. It is certainly something that I have been pondering since and have taken actions to prioritise my day better by diarising my chosen productive actions. This in turn, will give me more structure to my day and ensure that I am not busy with activity thrown at me, but the productive actions I know are important. What can you do this week to ensure productivity over activity, for you and amongst your team?
We have worked hard to ensure that all of our teams throughout the company recognise the key differences other agencies offer not only “online” but more importantly in our own domestic territories.
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