Stop Moaning about Purplebricks

Purplebricks /Yopa/EasyProperty and the rest of the ‘National Online/Hybrid’ gang of Agents have by anecdotal evidence around 5% of the UK Estate Agency market.

Not 50% ..

Not even 15% ….

5%

And 12 months ago .. 4%

And 24 months ago .. 3%

Stop panicking

and for Pete’s sake …. stop crying

You must deal with the reality of the situation.

Over thinking, being preoccupied and crying about them doesn’t do diddly squat.

You can moan, you can whine, you can poke fun out of them, you can constantly mention them at your free val, you can have them play on your mind at night and you can cry …. But you are going just going to lose.

This is the kick up the ar$e the estate agency industry needed.

Be passionate, be awesome, up your game, challenge yourself, challenge your team, challenge your boss to be just as awesome.

I believe some sectors of the EA profession are using social media and the other forums into ‘let’s all poke fun at PB and moan about PB forum’

You are giving them the oxygen they need.

You have bigger problems than PB

In 2004, there were 7,500 estate agents and they sold 1.8m houses. In 2015, 18,000 estate agents sold 1.2m houses .. work your bloody sums out!

You need stock .. you need free valuations

… and you need them today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and next decade.

95% of people still use a High Street agent ….You need to be working out how you get a big slice of that 95% pie ..  how to asked how to get more free valuations and more market appraisals ….. not what the cheap as chips ‘purple ones’ are doing with their 5%.

..and before you say I am anti-hybrid – I am not!

I think its totally irrelevant where someone trades from. You one man, two man band agents who opening up from a serviced office  – good for you. I believe you should be able to give as good as service in your town as a High Street agent IF NOT BETTER .. because you are based, physically in a town you work from .. not the passenger seat of your three series Beemer.

And let me leave you with this final thought … Online/Hybrid agencies have been around for couple of years and in that time that secured only 5% of the estate agency marketplace. 5% is not a meaningful number and  I fear it is used as a decoy for estate agent agencies with a pi$$ poor understanding of an ever changing property market. Their poor performance in key performance areas of their businesses is sadly lacking. The homeowner is not having this discussion of PB vs High Street .. so why should we?  (Or at least spend most of worrying time – worrying about it

Sort yourself out first before worrying about someone else

Thank you

Christopher

PS .. I appreciate what appears to be the irony of m talking about Purplebricks .. but I am not an estate agent .. so there is no irony

PPS These are my thoughts on video ..

 

Christopher Watkin

I teach, guide, support, mentor, consult, counsel, partner many hundreds of UK Estate and Letting Agents in their quest to grow their estate and lettings agencies business. Old school techniques of touting, landlords wanted leaflets, ring us for a free valuation, we have sold this in your street leaflets don't work anymore. There are too many competitor agents .. meaning cheap fees are epidemic, overvaluing is almost a norm to get the stock and don’t even mention about the online/hybrid threat. So a few years ago, I set about looking around the UK and spotted that certain agents (not many mind you) in certain towns were still seen as the ‘go to person on property’, the person the newspaper editor rang up every week for a comment and I looked at what they did and they were doing some thing quite remarkable…. Only one thing but they were doing it so well .. and reaping the reward in terms of decent listings and decent fees, happy staff, decent sales pipeline and exchange income, managed lettings portfolios in the many hundreds .. but more importantly, they really enjoyed the job… they enjoyed getting up in the morning and people looked up to them Over 400 agents around the UK are on a mission to change the way our Estate and Lettings agency profession is perceived and looked upon, doing it town by town, city by city. I guide these 400 agents, teach them, mentor them and support them to be seen in a different light, to be seen as the ‘go to person for property’, actually be the ‘local property expert’ and prove it. Christopher Watkin 07950 147 572 christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk

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